AAA se OSO tak... rise of new AB: Part One
Admittedly… the Indian film industry (especially Bollywood) is lean in terms of talent.
Whenever I look at movies made in the US, I am overwhelmed at the number of talented actors, actresses, directors, music directors, screenplay writers, they have… and the fact that sometimes… only being nominated for the Academy Awards is a hallmark of greatness.
Compare it to India… the best movies often are casting the same set of actors and actresses. And they may be counted on fingers. Same set of doyens in film direction, music and screenplay writing. And same set of awardees and nominees year after year for our version of Academy Awards. No wonder, our movies do entice people… for their uniqueness of genre, but hardly win critical acclaim. (And when I say critical acclaim- I don’t say that you have to make a parallel cinema to attain critical acclaim- films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Godfather, When Harry met Sally, Gladiator were hardly realistic and largely fictional or romantic in approach and yet they won a lot of critical acclaim because of great performances and execution)
Thus… willy-nilly, we live in a world where we have stars… whose mere presence assures a film- huge collections. In yesteryears it was Dileep Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and then Rajesh Khanna… till came a tall, gawky man from the dusty town of Allahabad and changed rules of the game. His name was Amitabh Bachchan (AB). He became, arguably, the first superstar of Indian cinema. Somebody who couldn’t be competed with, somebody whose fan following pygmies everybody else's.
There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that AB was talented… so talented that he pulverized the ruling heart-throb Rajesh Khanna in films like "Anand" and "Namak Haram", despite a lack of author backed role and footage. His angst, his emotiveness and his catharsis were reflected film after films in "Zanzeer", "Deewar", "Trishul", "Muqaddar ka Sikander", "Agneepath"… his dialogue delivery, his mannerism, his bat of an eyelid, his hand gestures, his anger… everything was unique.
I remember him… Challenging Pran in his own backyard in "Zanzeer"- Refusing to enter a temple in "Deewar"- Making a deal of 30 million when he didn’t have a single penny in his pocket in "Trishul"- Displaying the angst of a spurned lover in "MKS"- or Portraying the vengeful heart with a bat of his eyelids in "Agneepath"… these scenes are imprinted in my mind. He was the superstar and will remain the sole superstar, or so I thought. You don’t get bigger than this.
This was not all… one of the most magical things that this man did was creating a new genre of movies.
AB shared excellent working relationships with two great directors (sic) Prakash Mehra… and Manmohan Desai. Between three of them they created a genre of Masala movies… wafer thin plot with a lot of melodrama, a heavy dose of comic situation- utilizing AB's superstar charisma to the hilt.
The trio created films like Namak Halal, Lawaris, Sharabi (Prakash Mehra's) and Parvarish, Suhag, Naseeb, Desh Premi, Coolie, Mard (Man Mohan Desai's)… Manmohan Desai, however, made one more movie… that will go in the annals of film-making as one of the most entertaining yet logic less movies of Indian film-making. It was the epitome of Masala film making. It was Amar Akbar Anthony (AAA).
Puritans will snigger… but if one has to teach film making or film appreciation… one cannot afford to leave AAA out of the pedagogy. It represented the most perfect balance of melodrama, music, comedy, dialogue delivery, villainy and chivalry… the Indian film making has ever seen. "Sholay" (the most celebrated Indian movie ever made) comes close, but not quite… Sholay was not even one tenth as mindless as AAA was… in Sholay, characterization was almost perfect… not like AAA; where there was no characterization… everybody was left on its own to perform fuzzily. The direction was minimal… as if director was exhorting the individuals to perform an actor in his or her own way, regardless of any characterization. This to me was the strength of AAA. It was the best Masala movie ever made, till a few days ago.
Post-AB… there was a rise of few good actors- Mithun Chakraborty, Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Salman Khan… but none could reach the heights of AB. They didn’t have the wherewithal to create a genre of their own and needed a good director, scripting to click (Govinda came close, but not quite… unlike AB, he was not able to perform beyond a particular genre)… till SRK happened.
Shahrukh Khan comes very close… he is a great actor (One just needs to see Chak De India and Swades to realize his effortless performance)… giving hits after hits (was Koyla his last flop???)… He started a new genre of soft romantic musicals (helped by Yash Chopra and Karan Johar)… but all his movies in this genre were first and foremost good movies… with good script and direction. He can’t gather all the accolades for the success. He needed to do something drastically more and different to transcend the boundaries of being an star (to make matters clear, even Salman Khan was doing well in this genre on and off… and SRK needed to de-couple himself from Salman to establish himself as the next superstar)
To make matters worse… AB was on the rise again… he had delivered almost breath-taking and effortless performances in a lot of movies… "Sarkar", "Bunty aur Bubli", "Khakee" et al. Also, SRK had tried and faltered in taking on the shoes of AB in the most famous game show on Indian television- Kaun Banega Crorepati.
And then Farah Khan happened to him.
She was to SRK- what Manmohan Desai was to AB. She revived the genre of Masala film making… around the star power of SRK… and if SRK had to succeed in establishing himself as Superstar… he had to set the box office on fire with these mindless, logic-less entertainers that Farah Khan dared to make with him.
The first was Main Hoon Naa. A saga of an Indian commando, who fights a deadly terrorist for the sake of nation… albeit the circumstances in which he does so… are typically out of some crazy imagination. It clicked… but Main Hoon Naa… wasn’t devoid of a good story line… some credit went to this story line, some to taut editing, but largely to SRK… and then it could had been a fluke.
And then came- Om Shanti Om… OSO, lovingly called.
SRK was never to be same again….
Whenever I look at movies made in the US, I am overwhelmed at the number of talented actors, actresses, directors, music directors, screenplay writers, they have… and the fact that sometimes… only being nominated for the Academy Awards is a hallmark of greatness.
Compare it to India… the best movies often are casting the same set of actors and actresses. And they may be counted on fingers. Same set of doyens in film direction, music and screenplay writing. And same set of awardees and nominees year after year for our version of Academy Awards. No wonder, our movies do entice people… for their uniqueness of genre, but hardly win critical acclaim. (And when I say critical acclaim- I don’t say that you have to make a parallel cinema to attain critical acclaim- films like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Godfather, When Harry met Sally, Gladiator were hardly realistic and largely fictional or romantic in approach and yet they won a lot of critical acclaim because of great performances and execution)
Thus… willy-nilly, we live in a world where we have stars… whose mere presence assures a film- huge collections. In yesteryears it was Dileep Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and then Rajesh Khanna… till came a tall, gawky man from the dusty town of Allahabad and changed rules of the game. His name was Amitabh Bachchan (AB). He became, arguably, the first superstar of Indian cinema. Somebody who couldn’t be competed with, somebody whose fan following pygmies everybody else's.
There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that AB was talented… so talented that he pulverized the ruling heart-throb Rajesh Khanna in films like "Anand" and "Namak Haram", despite a lack of author backed role and footage. His angst, his emotiveness and his catharsis were reflected film after films in "Zanzeer", "Deewar", "Trishul", "Muqaddar ka Sikander", "Agneepath"… his dialogue delivery, his mannerism, his bat of an eyelid, his hand gestures, his anger… everything was unique.
I remember him… Challenging Pran in his own backyard in "Zanzeer"- Refusing to enter a temple in "Deewar"- Making a deal of 30 million when he didn’t have a single penny in his pocket in "Trishul"- Displaying the angst of a spurned lover in "MKS"- or Portraying the vengeful heart with a bat of his eyelids in "Agneepath"… these scenes are imprinted in my mind. He was the superstar and will remain the sole superstar, or so I thought. You don’t get bigger than this.
This was not all… one of the most magical things that this man did was creating a new genre of movies.
AB shared excellent working relationships with two great directors (sic) Prakash Mehra… and Manmohan Desai. Between three of them they created a genre of Masala movies… wafer thin plot with a lot of melodrama, a heavy dose of comic situation- utilizing AB's superstar charisma to the hilt.
The trio created films like Namak Halal, Lawaris, Sharabi (Prakash Mehra's) and Parvarish, Suhag, Naseeb, Desh Premi, Coolie, Mard (Man Mohan Desai's)… Manmohan Desai, however, made one more movie… that will go in the annals of film-making as one of the most entertaining yet logic less movies of Indian film-making. It was the epitome of Masala film making. It was Amar Akbar Anthony (AAA).
Puritans will snigger… but if one has to teach film making or film appreciation… one cannot afford to leave AAA out of the pedagogy. It represented the most perfect balance of melodrama, music, comedy, dialogue delivery, villainy and chivalry… the Indian film making has ever seen. "Sholay" (the most celebrated Indian movie ever made) comes close, but not quite… Sholay was not even one tenth as mindless as AAA was… in Sholay, characterization was almost perfect… not like AAA; where there was no characterization… everybody was left on its own to perform fuzzily. The direction was minimal… as if director was exhorting the individuals to perform an actor in his or her own way, regardless of any characterization. This to me was the strength of AAA. It was the best Masala movie ever made, till a few days ago.
Post-AB… there was a rise of few good actors- Mithun Chakraborty, Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Salman Khan… but none could reach the heights of AB. They didn’t have the wherewithal to create a genre of their own and needed a good director, scripting to click (Govinda came close, but not quite… unlike AB, he was not able to perform beyond a particular genre)… till SRK happened.
Shahrukh Khan comes very close… he is a great actor (One just needs to see Chak De India and Swades to realize his effortless performance)… giving hits after hits (was Koyla his last flop???)… He started a new genre of soft romantic musicals (helped by Yash Chopra and Karan Johar)… but all his movies in this genre were first and foremost good movies… with good script and direction. He can’t gather all the accolades for the success. He needed to do something drastically more and different to transcend the boundaries of being an star (to make matters clear, even Salman Khan was doing well in this genre on and off… and SRK needed to de-couple himself from Salman to establish himself as the next superstar)
To make matters worse… AB was on the rise again… he had delivered almost breath-taking and effortless performances in a lot of movies… "Sarkar", "Bunty aur Bubli", "Khakee" et al. Also, SRK had tried and faltered in taking on the shoes of AB in the most famous game show on Indian television- Kaun Banega Crorepati.
And then Farah Khan happened to him.
She was to SRK- what Manmohan Desai was to AB. She revived the genre of Masala film making… around the star power of SRK… and if SRK had to succeed in establishing himself as Superstar… he had to set the box office on fire with these mindless, logic-less entertainers that Farah Khan dared to make with him.
The first was Main Hoon Naa. A saga of an Indian commando, who fights a deadly terrorist for the sake of nation… albeit the circumstances in which he does so… are typically out of some crazy imagination. It clicked… but Main Hoon Naa… wasn’t devoid of a good story line… some credit went to this story line, some to taut editing, but largely to SRK… and then it could had been a fluke.
And then came- Om Shanti Om… OSO, lovingly called.
SRK was never to be same again….
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