Garam to Naram: How fans cope with Dharmendra as vulnerable grandfather in KJo's latest Bollywood drama

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Dharmendra was one of the most desirable men in our cinema, but the personality revealed in these short videos was that of a son of the soil (in the most authentic sense of that cliched term) returning to his roots after decades in the glamour world. And still very much an entertainer.

Dharmendra in a boisterous mood (and with the right director, as in Sholay and Chupke Chupke — or in the right scene, e.g. the climactic fight-cum-song in the otherwise unremarkable Teesri Aankh) is one of my favourite things in Hindi film.

It was with some ambivalence, therefore, that I watched him play the almost-catatonic grandfather Kanwal in Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani. On the whole, I enjoyed Karan Johar's Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani a lot, even the over-cooked final bits with redemptive arcs for too many characters.

There was plenty to relish, including the nudge-wink at the nepotism debate — this being a story about two young people who come into each other's orbits only because their grandparents had done so decades earlier; and who now play out an updated version of what the oldies did in their time, often to the same classic Hindi-movie songs. (It becomes even more meta when you consider that in real life just a few weeks ago Dharmendra's grandson married Bimal Roy's great-granddaughter.)Dharam's Kanwal briefly comes alive in an early scene, almost guaranteed to draw applause (along with snatches of awkward laughter, maybe, from younger viewers), but for most of the film, the actor has little to do.

Watching him was a reminder of the last time I met an affable granduncle at a big fat Punjabi wedding. I had taken many long walks with this man as a child, listening to him talk about everything from history to science — and