Randeep Hooda: Complex Mixture Of A Boy

A wintry night and good alcohol are natural allies. Put Randeep Hooda in the mix and you have a goddamn winner. Like Srividya Menon did.

- Srividya Menon

Let’s begin the argument on a very personal level. It started by wondering whether his latest movie, Main Aur Charles was glorifying the criminal or not. Two steps and two yards away from the movie hall, the conversation turned to Charles himself. Charles was a charming son-of-a-gun, agreed. And we are aware that the generous use of sensuous French had more intentions than to mark Charles’ mother-tongue. The dialogues, sparsely scattered with explicit sexual innuendos, managed to hit the right spot seamlessly. So when Richa Chadha’s character in the film remarked, ‘Whenever I meet him, I feel like having sex,’ it isn’t tough to picture a few dozen girls’ imaginations nodding in agreement.

I found one such girl in Starbucks in a Mumbai suburb the weekend the movie released. Quite specific with her imagination (involving Randeep Hooda), she had effectively merged Charles’ charm on to Hooda’s image off-screen. It has happened before. Cases in point, Rang Rasiya and Jism 2. Agreed, both these movies tried to promote themselves via their sexy female leads, but many eyeballs roamed over the brooding guy seducing them as well. With or without clothes on, this man is aiding pheromones to their climax (pun unintended). Not that his tribe is unaware. A member of the industry had a very valid comment ‘Saala, bande ke awaaz mei bhi sensuality hai!’ after a screening of the movie.

That same awaaz greeted me at his humble den where he sat behind his laptop, as his curious dog, Candy, inspected me. The handsome Hooda wore a black tee, denims, and surprisingly, a smile. Surprise because he was supposedly ‘artistically blue’, thanks to his prep for the title role in his next movie,