'Roadside Romeo': A Dog’s Life… And times!

‘Roadside Romeo’ can start a new trend in Bollywood, whereby animation films will receive a new benchmark in quality.

By Rajeev Nair

It is a wonder indeed that the forever copycats in Bollywood never thought of using actors – their voices, that is - for animation movies, for so long.

Was it because the Indian film industry was yet to make formidable partnerships with the Hollywood industry?

Or was it because, no matter what we say about our creative highs, our animation standards are so abysmal that we indeed need overseas support to create a good product?

‘Roadside Romeo’ is the answer to both: It is made with Walt Disney collaboration, which, in itself, lends certain credibility to the film’s animation quality. And the trailers do not disappoint. They look classy, very much Hollywood in standards.

But perhaps the best thing about ‘Roadside Romeo’ could be that it has reigning Bollywood stars lending their voice to, ahem, dogs!

It could have been blasphemous in the past era of Bollywood, where stars were one step lower than the Gods themselves.

In a country, where die-hard fans build temples for actresses, and actors who portray mythological characters can earn enough clout to be elected to the higher office, indeed, to have the superstars voice-over for cartoon characters need not necessarily go down well.

Hollywood, however, has a rich history of the best of actors lending their voice to cartoon characters. What they bring to the animations is more than star power – it is a remarkable personality, the sort that Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman most recently brought in to ‘Kung Fu Panda.’

And it works big-time in ‘Roadside Romeo’ – an inference drawn from our limited exposure to the trailers of the film. There could have been no better Romeo than Saif Ali Khan, and you could almost see his carefree personality exuding from the dog-hero of the film.

But will it be the beginning of a new trend, where more actors will step forward to lend their voice and a bit of their individuality to cartoon characters?

It doesn’t look very likely: Rajnikanth does an animation film, but even the cartoon hero is a super-hero every inch in ‘Sultan.’ Shah Rukh Khan wants to do a ‘Ravan,’ and sure enough, it will not be narrated as a cat or dog tale.

But for Bollywood, ‘Roadside Romeo’ can start a new trend, whereby animation films will receive a new benchmark in quality. The audiences are already sick and tired of pedestrian graphics – and they see through the gimmick, when applied to such disastrous effects as in ‘Drona’ or ‘Love Story 2050.’

If the entire length of the film will live up to the standards promised, actor-turned-director Jugal Hansraj will have a winner in his hands. And Yash Raj Films could breathe a little easy after a series of flops.

Talk about dogs coming to the rescue – but then, these are no ordinary dogs, mind you. They are protagonists of the canine world with whom we can make a closer association thanks to Bollywood stars.