Kajol as the villainous bitch in VIP 2 Lalkar is cinema's female boss stereotype
VIP 2 Lalkar, the Hindi dubbed version of Tamil film, Velai Illa Pattathari, is a cakewalk for Kajol. Literally.
Every time there is significant scene of "victory" for her, we see a Mercedes rolling in, along with a fleet of other swanky cars. The car door opens. A pair of high-heeled feet touch the ground. But of course, our films have always built up that anticipation with the hero’s boots and their sound effects or a child’s feet running and transforming into grown up legs to encompass the time-frame. Then, there is the hero sprawling his booted legs atop a table, the feet crossing and uncrossing to provide more drama or rather, heroism. For some reason, cinema has its own idea of power. In VIP 2, it’s in Kajol’s swagger in those stilettos.
We see those sexy high heels step out of the Mercedes, a toss of the red-tinted hair and a slow-motion walk. That alone inspires a few appreciative hoots and whistles.
Kajol has clearly mastered the swagger.
And that’s quite an achievement because the music that accompanies most of her scenes, might make anyone else freeze on the spot. The best unintentional comic part comes with a hilarious music track when Dhanush sits across her in her office and is about to say something. First, a soundtrack starts playing, something that sounds more like a clap echo replay. Then Dhanush gets up, clearly aping the master — Rajnikanth (the father-in-law), stands leaning on the chair and delivers the lamest of lines: “Madam, main sher ki dum se zyaada billi ka sar banna pasand karoonga.” Full marks to Kajol for not bursting out laughing.
Instead, she always has a fit when confronted with Dhanush, where she helplessly ends up screeching - ”what the f***?” - without even completing the word.
The two play rivals in business, where she is the killer shark in designer pants and he is a small Bombil fry in lungi. She is Vasudha, the chairman of a big construction company and he is an engineer who refuses her job offer. They are well-cast in this face-off story.
She looks the part of someone dynamic with arrogance that runs in the blood. He looks like any harmless engineer happy enough, driving a moped slower than a bullock cart.
Both Kajol and Dhanush perform with full self-awareness of their star appeal and fan following. They are, indeed, the biggest draw in this VIP sequel, which, otherwise, does not go beyond dialogues that play to the gallery and songs and dance numbers.
Thankfully, there is no love angle in their story. And that’s the real USP here. He is the hero and she is the villain who have the best moment when one rainy night, there is a nice twist in the tale. It comes too easy and too pat. Yet, Kajol makes the most of those 5-10 minutes and makes it as good as her haughty swagger.
The director, Soundarya Rajnikanth, has made the smartest move by tapping the villain in Kajol. Although it does seem like a wasted opportunity when compared to Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. Meryl was brilliantly terrifying in her icy cool stares, drop dead softly delivered lines and equally authoritative tilt of her famous white-gray haired head.
Kajol’s Vasundhara is reduced to a caricature, which apparently reflects the way women of power, are perceived, as opposed to men of equal status. A male boss usually has the prerogative to be rude and is shrugged off as — "He’s the boss".
On the other hand, a female boss is invariably the bitch. Hence, Vasundhara here is unscrupulous in her ways, wins every award in the business besides mega bucks and will not think twice before squashing her rivals under her lovely stilettoes.
Even if Vasundhara is stereotyped here, all it needed was to take a leaf from Ekta Kapoor’s famous temper tantrums. One particular incident comes to mind, involving her chasing someone out of her office building with her shoe in her hand. Kajol, with her squarish jawline like Ekta’s would have been a perfect carbon copy, in an off shoulder top and straight hair, mouthing words that went beyond the alphabet F.
Unfortunately and inevitably, this shrew in VIP2, needs to be tamed by the holier-than-thou hero who worships his mother and her ghost too. And there lies, the ultimate folly of perception of man and woman, thanks to Shakespeare.
Well, Kajol is more delightful as the shrew than the virginal Simran who was too scared to defy her father. It is another matter that she does not get to go beyond the swagger.