Edgy, my dear holmes?

Edgy, my dear Holmes?

WARNING: Hard core fans of Conan Doyles hero, I ask that you not to be indulgent but open minded, and non judgmental. Give yourself to rediscover Holmes and non-fans, discover him.

Downey Jr, small but fit, blood smeared and sweaty faces a thug, double his size. A little voice in his head methodically, logically, precisely calculates how to defeat his opponent. Which he then does. One of my favourite scenes in the film. But Sherlock Holmes just happens to be in a boxing ring.

You cannot deny, this is a fun film, in fact it’s a CRACKER of a film, but it isn’t Holmes, at least not like we’ve always known him! Now don’t get me wrong, I liked that Ritchie gives his Holmes brains and brawn, and all those bits of smart deductive reasoning were actually my favourite parts of the film and I wish he’d stayed with them more. But Ritchie takes HOLMES into a whole, new terrain giving us a thumping, racing, action packed, fantasy adventure complete with classic good versus evil and age old magic! While stuff gets melodramatic especially in the second half, the accents are sometimes garbled/difficult to understand, the plot is crowded, and lacks that simple elegance and layered wit of the originals, and the films sets things up ALL too easily for a sequel, Ritchie does it all with sweeping confidence, fabulous costumes, fantastic cinematography, a moody atmosphere, and a an irresistible leading pair.

Eccentric, gruff and often very funny, Downey Jr, is at is wide eyed, intelligent best and makes for a tiny, power-packed, not always ‘stable’ but incredibly bright modern day Holmes, and the chemistry between LAW & him like an old school screwball comedy is lively, palpable, and engaging and holds this one together. (Again, the better parts of the film are all those bits of repartee, comraderie, domestic issues, fisticuffs and the relationship between not just detective and sidekick but also friends, brothers, roommates. Any underlying homoerotic tendencies are open to debate… as we know both Holmes addiction issues and homosexuality have always been open ended questions… hmmm)

The start of what is obviously going to be a franchise, GUY RITCHIE’s HOLMES offers little in terms of plot but sails through on the strength of its characters, concept and two central actors. lets hope the next one stays with them more and keeps things a little simpler and frill-less. Nonetheless, LAW & DOWNEY JR. are the cooolest duo around at the movies for now! and this one is a contemporary, stylish, beautiful to watch version of Conan Doyle’s famous detective hero stamped with Ritchie’s trademarks- darkly comic, often violent, always clever and very entertaining on a scale even the director hasnt ventured into before this!

It was such fun to have my old friend Farah Khan and her ‘discovery’ Deepika Padukon on my show. Farah and her brother Sajid have been friendly with us since we were kids. Our fathers Kamran and Salim Khan were both actors during the same period, in Bombay. I remember vividly that I had taken Farah along for my dance audition to Sooraj Barjatya for ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’. She ran away because of my awkward movements! Recently Farah choreographed a song for my brother Sohail’s film, ‘Mein aur Mrs Khanna’. She struggled for a long time in the industry but it was her hard work and devotion that has paid rich dividends, in the end. Deepika had it easy because Farah groomed and presented her well in ‘Om shanti Om’.Farah has always been tom-boyish and we always treated her like our other male friends. She has terrific sense of humour and can exchange male jokes without batting an eyelid.

Deepika has been here for a short while but sounds like a veteran already. She is pursuing her career as one would play chess, a few moves ahead always, although I believe she played badminton up to state level and was poised for the national scene. It was great fun shooting this episode as all three of us danced, sang and cracked jokes. Enjoy the episode, folks.

I was extremely happy to have Irfan Pathan as my guest on the show along with my old pal Shilpa Shetty. What struck me most is that time has not made a dent on the evergreen Shilpa. She is remarkably well maintained and as effervescent as always. Irfan Pathan is casual and unassuming and it was a pleasure to interact with him. He did not wear any protective guards while answering personal questions such as his love interest and intention of marrying her soon. I believe that there is some resistance in his orthodox family because of religion. My father acted in a film called ‘Shershah Suri’. He told me that when Rani Karmavati of Chittorgarh was surrounded by enemies she asked her rakhi-brother, the Mughal emperor Humayun to defend her and he did so at the loss of his own kingdom. We have such a great heritage of love and brother-hood; I do not know how our times have been so polluted with inter-religion hatred.


Irfan displayed honesty and is so typical of our modern youth that they are casual yet straight-forward. Shilpa Shetty does not belong to this generation, yet she’s a very honest and down to earth girl too. I have known Shilpa and family for long. Her struggle has been long and now she has attained stardom due to her show being such a hit in London. Her good friend has gifted her a share in the Rajasthan Royals IPL team for which Irfan’s brother Yusuf plays. The Pathan brothers are amazing players.

My father Salim Khan and brother Arbaaz love cricket and are really passionate about it. They are friendly with a lot of international cricketers. As a matter of fact, my father played a lot of cricket in his college days and at one time even dreamed of making a career in cricket.
Dad played in Indore and the Holkar cricket team played gloriously for decades. India’s first captain Col. C.K. Naidu belonged to the Holkar team and Captain Mushtaq Ali played in the one-day game fashion long before this format was invented. My father is fortunate that he had the opportunity to watch Col. Naidu and Captain Mushtaq Ali in action. Once he caught a massive hit by Col. Naidu. But while watching Mushtaq Ali play, he realized that he could never play like that so he opted for another career. Arbaaz is familiar also with several county cricket players. He had flown to London to watch the T20 finals recently held in England.

Kangna has played roles of abnormal girls, obsessed girl, bar girl, drug addicted fashion model etc. Her performances have been so convincing that people tend to believe that she is like the role that she has played. But she is simple fun loving person and can carry normal roles. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she is trained Kathak Dancer. She is bursting from seams to play a formula role.Kangna Played “DUS KA DUM” very well. I observed that she would try to analyze every question and applied logic to reach conclusion. No wonder she made it on her own in our industry. I am glad that she is doing “Kites” with Hrithik Roshan. Even small roles in big films help because of wide exposure.Kangna has come from a small northern town, a girl from the hills not in the sense they are presented in films. There is vast difference between girls born and brought up in metropolitan big towns and girls coming from small towns. This difference has been narrowed considerably by computers & technology. Technology is shrinking the world. Areas of communication have increased many fold, yet number of things remain unexpressed. The more vocal we have become the more remains unsaid. Human beings never reveal themselves completely.