Kehta hai Joker, saara zamana...

Something tells me the first time the penny mustrsquove dropped for director Todd Phillips to feature Lady Gaga in a musical was watching rushes or final cut of Bradley Cooperrsquos A Star Is Born 2018Wherein Lady Gaga makes a lsquoTiger Woodsianrsquo debut as a naturalborn film star adding so much to her onscreen persona with that popstar voice Nobody knew until then Gaga could act The world went gaga afterA Star Is Born being among the most suitable scripts for Bollywood unsurprisingly remade at least twice in Hindi Abhimaan Aashiqui 2Phillips coproduced the CooperGaga superstarrer for Warner Bros exactly a year before he released The Joker 2019 for the same studioDuring promotional interviews of the latter if I recall right writerdirectorproducer Phillips was clear there would be no sequel to Joker That is Joker Folie agrave Deux 2024 in theatres starring Joaquin Phoenix with Gaga as a musicalCentred altogether still on the attentionseeking abused eponymous protagonist aka Arthur Fleck Phoenixmdashpleading split personality in a court of law for murders committed in full public view in the filmrsquos first partYou walk in for Phoenix and step out having experienced nothing else A great performance captured with the camera making love to the actorrsquos every twitchmove is still a good reason to goWhat kinda musical or ldquonot exactly a musicalrdquo Gaga is Joker Folie agrave Deux In that first moment when heroheroine in prison step into a dream world breaking into an item song I figuredmdashthis is for lack of a better definition a traditional Bollywooddesi musicalWhich isnrsquot to suggest the lsquodream sequencersquo as a liminal space is an Indian invention So then Well the fact that songs unlike with western musicals mostly exist for songsrsquo sake aloneAs interludes Rather than taking storycharacter forward The leads and none else singmdashthreatening running time because They feel like it Only the outcomes attempted are vastly different if not the oppositeIn a Bollywood picturemusical so to say songs would free the spirited leads in love from unnecessary rigours of realismmdashheightening emotions enlivening audiencersquos moodThatrsquos something Gaga does in her eighth studio album Harlequin to coincide with Joker 2rsquos release that Irsquove listened on loop sinceAs Harley Quinn in the film she intentionally sings subpar for a global stage sensation As does Phoenix for that matter who could so convincingly croon in a deep baritone in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line 2005Together they make uninspiring music to deliberately render the movie dreary instead You feel pulled away from the big screenWhatrsquos the point then Naah never gotta meet Phillips to ask him this Well I have met him once off Bangkok on sets of Hangover 3 2013 The 2009 hilarious Hangover was the highest grossing Rrated comedy everThird part it appeared to me was made to boost Thai tourism with my friends then booking lsquoHangover suitersquo in Bangkok for their bachelorsrsquo party when there was none such in the actual movieWhat struck me about Joker first is how Phillipsmdashfrom Hangover Old School Starsky amp Hutch etcmdasharrived at the dark dystopian Phoenix masterpiece that had engaged and disturbed commentators enough to anticipate copycat crimes among its potential viewersHints for homageinspiration were as much there in the movie itself Martin Scorsesersquos muse Robert De Niro in a threefourscene role as in Phillipsrsquos own unknown films from his early career The filmic family tree as I saw it goes thusPhillipsrsquos disturbing documentaries Hated GG Allin and the Murder Junkies 1993 YouTube gt Frathouse 1998 YouTube gt Joker 2009 lt Scorsesersquos The King Of Comedy 1983 lt Taxi Driver 1976Try burning through this movie syllabus backtoback as I did then without wanting to slit your wrist afterCollecting over 1 billion Venicersquos Golden Lion winner Joker likewise remains one of the highest grossing Rrated movies in history What about its sequelFolie agrave Deux in French literally means madness of two In the sense of how insanity like humour is contagious Except you barely get to Gaga the second of the twoDoes society itself respond to a deranged manrsquos delusion with extreme adulation or mass hysteria because they canrsquot tell better Yes And thatrsquos the external life of JokerHow does Phillips arrive at Folie agrave DeuxBy subverting every audience expectation from Jokerrsquos sequelmdashwith a musical thatrsquos not a musical a romance thatrsquos not romance a film from comic book universe chiefly set between two indoor locations jail courthouse Gotham City thatrsquos just New York City and even Joker whorsquos actually not JokerHow does Warner that spent 200 million much of it surely on Phoenix and Gaga respond to the sequelBy throwing open ticketwindows a month in advance bringing forward its India releasedate to a Wednesday national holiday Oct 2 plastering hoardings across London I noticed for its Oct 5 bumperopenerhellip Priming up global mainstream audiences for blockbuster maxWhat separates flamboyant Joker and the understated Folie agrave Deux is primarily the pandemic Wersquove collectively travelled through darknessSitting in a half empty hall on its first weekend something tells me Phoenix might rise from the ashes on the OTT if at allMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper