Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Emraan Hashmi or Jackky Bhagnani: Who is an inspiring leader?

The general elections are just around the corner. Young India is in search of dynamic leaders who can pull the country out of the relentless social and economic gloom with their awe-inspiring leadership skills. Cinematically speaking, many B-town heroes have given us hope with their incredible endeavours. Take a look at these stalwarts from reel life and tell us who can become a role model in real life too when it comes to inspiring young minds and bring about a much-needed change

With election being the buzz word, our B-town movie makers are eager to cash in on anything that can bring about a social change, for the better. From the baap of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan using his supernatural prowess in his forthcoming movie Bhoothnath Returns to contest an election to bring some order in the politically and morally corrupt society, young lad Jackky Bhagnani is eager to introduce a movement of sorts to place India on the global map and give the country its rightful due. And then there are two rookies- charged with tremendous confidence and incredible passion-who are all set to do a pardaahfash and to set the country in order with their might as journalists. Yes, Atul Agnihotri’s forthcoming movie O Teri will see duo Bilal Amrohi and Pulkit Samrat unearthing some shocking scams.

Take a look at these onscreen leaders who gave us a cinematic hope with their heroism and tell us who inspired you the most?

Amitabh Bachchan in Bhoothnath Returns: With his towering personality, megastar Amitabh Bachchan will unleash his funny as well as intimidating streak in the sequel to 2008 horror-comedy Bhoothnath. As the friendly neighbourhood ghost, Big B’s Bhoothnath will be seen fighting the elections. His helpful presence will be seen only by children while adults remain blind to his magnanimous personality. Mr Bachchan will employ his rich baritone, his tall frame and the generosity of his ‘spirit’ to best effect to deliver justice.

Jackky Bhagnani in Youngistaan: The young dude brings the energy and perspective of the youth with his personality for positive changes India has been craving for long now. A young and dynamic leader with a vision to build India is what the country needs and Jackky is playing a strong character in his forthcoming release Youngistaan. The lad wants to put India on the map with his zest and meticulous planning.

Amitabh Bachchan in Satyagraha: The veteran played a Gandhian in Prakash Jha’’s political drama Satyagraha. Big B might have played a traditionalist who walks the path of truth and honesty, but he is equally modern with his approach when it comes to fighting against the system to clean up the mess. He uses the power of social media to spur a political movement that snowballs into a corruption hatao aandolan. But the path to a clean and corruption-free state is straddled with many challenges, dirty politics and blood-bath. And yet the veteran actor chooses to fight till he takes the battle to its logical conclusion.

Salman Khan in Jai Ho: The Being Human actor upholds some really inspiring qualities in real life. We all know that Salman is kind, generous and compassionate. The 48-year-old took a leaf out of the book on his own life, so to say, to portray an ex-army officer in Jai Ho who is on a mission to create a chain of goodness for the betterment of humanity.

Emraan Hashmi in Shanghai: Dibaker Banerjee’s Shanghai traced corruption in India at its regressive best, masquerading in the garb of economic progress. Emraan Hashmi played the pot-bellied, 30-year-old Rajput struggling to make a life, resorting to the easy way out as a porn videographer. But the sudden transformation in his grey character-when Hashmi decides to take on the system with all his worth was jaw-dropping. It simply showed the might of a commoner who can turn things around if something within him gets stirred.

Movie Review: Bewakoofiyaan: Fun But Inspiring

Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor

Director: Nupur Asthana

Rating: Three and a Half Stars

Sometimes, love just ain't enough. So there we have two people in love. The pampered but not spoilt bureaucrat's daughter Mayera and her lover beau Mohit whose upward mobility is frozen by an employment meltdown in his airline organization (spicy allusion to the Kingfisher crisis, yes?)

It's Delhi's noveau riche Gurgaon world bathed in cosmetic conceit. Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana blend into this gleaming kingdom's excesses effortlessly. The two of them are so good as a couple, imagining them apart for even a portion of the bitterness that bites into the narrative during the second-half becomes unbearable.

Debutant director Nupur Asthana's film is a bright scrambled world of wealth, luxury and the yuppy club's unstated desperation to move up the corporate ladder. It is also, by its very definition, a ridiculously self-important delusional world.

Miraculously this film with its gleaming polished surfaces neither gasps nor laughs at the ignobility of upward mobility. There is an interestingly crafted fight scene between the film's lead pair where Mayera reminds Mohit that she has not bought a new pair of shoes during the last two months because of his job loss. That she doesn’t realize how ridiculous she sounds to Mohit is a measure of the underlining irony that the narrative scrapes out of these characters while portraying the exacerbated materialism of the go-getting generation.

Habib Faisal's writing is smart and amiable, crowded with quaint colloquialisms culled from the capital youngster's language. The writing also surprises itself by becoming inwardly-drawn and introspective at the most unexpected moments. That the screenplay has got Ayushmann to play the cool guy whose perfectly laid-out plans fall apart, is a stroke of luck for this likeable film.

Ayushmann looks like the guy next-door who wouldn’t mind pulling a few strings to float higher than the level allotted to him by fate. He brings a suave arrogance to his role and creates a cohesive graph for his character. He is an actor to watch.

Of course it helps Ayushmann that he has Rishi Kapoor to play his girlfriend's hawk-like father. Rishi’s character of the IAS officer on the verge of retirement (with a companion from his work place who typically, offers his "humble" advice on every matter) is brilliantly written.

Rishi's Sehgal is a pompous name-thrower with an inflated sense of self-worth, over-possessive about his only daughter's life and preferences. V.K. Sehgal is a striking image of a man on the verge of erupting into a self-deprecatory laughter, if he only he knew how funny his quirks look from the outside.

Rishi brings to the characters a cornocupia of "cool". Seldom in his any other recent film except Do Dooni Chaar has this brilliant actor expressed such pleasure in putting forward his character’s point of view. It’s no coincidence that film too was written by Faisal.

So many of Rishi Kapoor’s scenes with Ayushmann stand tall because of the way the two characters meet as adversaries who fortunately love the same girl in different ways. Sonam as the girl torn between an autocratic dad and unreasonable lover is so in-character you wonder whether the role and its fetish for designer labels were written specially for her.

Bewakoofiyan has nothing new to say. And that is its greatest virtue. It is Meet The Parents where the father and the prospective son-in-law's roles are better played than the original. Yes, Rishi and Ayushmann are better than Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller were in the Hollywood film about the father of the bride.

The narrative sparkles with a mischievous elegance. The winking homage to the go-getting glam-set of Delhi works mainly because the three protagonists are so immersed in the goings-on they make us forget that we've seen most of these conflicts over and over again in the past. In terms of the fluency with which the cliche about the love birds and the girl's disapproving dad is tackled, Bewakoofiyaan is a marked improvement on Yashraj Productions' last two pretentious hammy films Shuddh Desi Romance and Gunday.

Ayushmann's performance is oh not so hammy. A pure delight to behold after Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor's over-energized bravado in Gunday.