What happens when actors take a leave from the usual stereotype roles to opt, once in a while, for the arty and meaty roles? Some click, some don't. And yet, it means treading off the beaten path. Sunday MiD Day takes a look
What happens when actors take a leave from the usual stereotype roles to opt, once in a while, for the arty and meaty roles? Some click, some don't. And yet, it means treading off the beaten path. Sunday MiD Day takes a lookWHAT are Akshay Kumar and Nagesh Kukunoor doing together? The chalk-cheese actor-director combo of the just-released 8x10 Tasveer, make for a head-scratchingly odd couple.
They inhabit two parallel universes. Today, commercial kingpins Priyadarshan and Anees Bazmee are veritably the Manmohan Desai-Prakash Mehra or the Aditya Chopra-Karan Johar of Akshay's career, whipping up a fountain of froth with the star in Garam Masala and Bhool Bhulaiya or Welcome and Singh is Kinng.
On the other hand, Nagesh Kukunoor makes probing, off beat films, the entire budgets of which are probably not equal to the nine-digit paycheques Akshay Kumar is reputed to get for most of his recent films.
But the motivation behind this merger in a film, which does not rest on the sturdy stools of comedy and lip-sync songs, is clear. Akshay told me a few years ago: "I am willing to play even a character roleu00a0... provided I have a strong part." Understandable. After all, what does an actor want most when he (almost) has it all?
Artistic cred is the next high.
After two decades as a journalist, I have lost count of the number of times I have sighed inwardly and nodded numbly upon hearing 'I want to do something different' from airy starlets in strappy dresses as well as clueless stars seeking to crack the carapace of their images. Most eventually end up sticking to the pre-chewed, easily digestible stereotypes or branch out only when their career hits a speed breaker, leaving them little choice but to look for desperate solutions.
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(From top)Aradhana, Alaap, Umrao Jaan and 8x10 Tasveer |
Many like Juhi Chawla were just too scared to dip their big toe in unfamiliar waters. In the mid-'90s when she was the sweetheart of the masses, Juhi was offered an offbeat film but the star backed off because: "I thought I was doing so many commercial films. The story was very interesting about an aggressive girl who stands up for her rights but it didn't make me go 'That's me. I am playing it'. I thought to myself, 'Never mind, I don't have the time for it right now'." It was only after marriage and motherhood that Juhi found time for a 3 Deewarein.
But there have also been actors like Akshay, who have flouted conventional wisdom and enjoyed the adrenaline high of pulling a stunt with their careers and doing a "different" film, not when his career is hanging precariously off the edge of a cliff but when he is still pumped with success.
Consider Rajesh Khanna he was the superstar of the nation in the early 1970s and his teaming with Sharmila was being sighed upon as the last word in romance after soft-focus hits such as Aradhana and Amar Prem when he signed on for off-beat filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya's Aavishkaar (1973). In this hard-hitting examination of marriage, they played an everycouple Amar and Manasi whose love story slams up against a wall of disillusionment after encountering the mundaneness of marriage.
I can still recall being startled out of my seat in one telling scene, in which the married couple lets loose a stream of caustic invective at each other: "Meri toh zubaan gandi hai; tumhari toh har cheez gandi hai.
Tumhare toh dil se bhi badbu aa rahi hai,' he tells her. To convey her resentment; Sharmila keeps knocking off the cigarette Khanna lights till he turns around and repeatedly and savagely slaps her!u00a0... 'Mere sapnon ki rani kab aayegi tu' it most definitely was not!
But Aavishkar could not pull in the crowds like an Aradhana and with his career fumbling anyway, Khanna circumscribed his choices to "Yeh toh public hai, yeh sab jaanti hai' fare. His contemporary Jeetendra, surprisingly, toiled longer. Famous for his white shoes, tight trousers and blithe callisthenics, Jeetendra decided to go decidedly different; probably propelled by critics calling him, 'teak', 'wood' and, many such epithets. One year after his definitive hit Caravan (1971), he came up with a toned-and-sobered-down image in Gulzar's Parichay (1972), which he even produced. He took this change one step further in Gulzar's Khushboo and Kinara. In the former, he appeared as a bespectacled doctor, conceivably as the alter ego of the director, Gulzar.
Spectacles are a ubiquitous prop for A-list heroes seeking to do an unconventional film. In the midst of his massive seventies commercial blockbusters like Sholay (1975) and Dharam Veer (1977), Dharmendra took on Basu Chatterjee's modestly-sized film Dillagi (1978), in which he was not bashing up 10 baddies but was instead a bespectacled Sanskrit professor in love with a Chemistry professor (don't think Sushmita Sen in Main Hoon Na) played with understated glamour by Hema Malini.
After he became a star in the mid-1960s, Dharmendra ploughed his hard-won money into producing Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Satyakam (1969), an uncompromising film about an uncompromising man's insistence on speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This highly acclaimed film, had Dharmendra reprising a character like Howard Roark (of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead) but it was rejected by the masses. Yet, it remains a film I am partial to and so is Dharmendra. He dubs it as "my favourite film".
In the fifties and the early sixties the distinction between commercial and off-beat cinema was not clearly etched; and many big-budget ventures were risky artistic endeavours. But even then, some heroes pushed the envelope further. At the giddy height of his popularity, Dilip Kumar agreed to act in the directorial debut of Hrishikesh Mukherjee (whom he had known as Bimal Roy's editor). Musafir was a portmanteau affair which blended together three tales failed to make inroads at the box-office. Dilip waited for years before acting in another avante-garde film Tapan Sinha's Sagina.
I think Raj Kapoor full comprehended the worth of writers. In the colourful sixties, Kapoor agreed to lead the cast of noted lyricist Shailendra's black-and-white road fable, Teesri Kasam, which was directed by Basu Bhattacharya. Earlier, he had sportingly played the hero in his Awaara scriptwriter K A Abbas' Anhonee (opposite Nargis) and Char Dil Char Rahein (opposite Meena Kumari). Abbas was a leading light at IPTA and had made one of India 's earliest art films Dharti Ke Lal. Kapoor also produced and acted in the Sombhu Mitra directed Jagte Raho, in which he had no romantic lead and played a bedraggled man looking for water and succour in a heartless society. Kapoor's reward was a trophy at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
It's intriguing how major heroes have shown themselves willing to bankroll their non-conformist ventures it signifies the depth of their desire to be seen as "true artistes". In 1965, alongside starring in hits such as Waqt and Khaandaan, Sunil Dutt also produced and acted in Yaadein which only had one actor throughout the film himself! Shashi Kapoor worked like a taxi in numerous commercial films (12 films with him as the hero were released in 1978) to fund a string of art films after his own heart Shyam Benegal's Junoon (1979) and Kalyug (1981), Govind Nihalani's Vijeta (1983) and Girish Karnad's Utsav (1985).
By the commercial high-noon of the seventies and the eighties, the art film movement had become an altogether separate stream of cinema. Major commercial stars did try their luck with the off beat but quickly beat a retreat. Amitabh scalded his fingers with Alaap (1977) I plead guilty to not seeing this one and it took him a decade before he tried another atypical film in Main Azaad Hoon (1999). Hema Malini did dabble in Ratnadeep (1979), opposite Girish Karnad, but then waited till she was past her prime to do Rihaee.
I have always admired Rekha's penchant for taking chances though I suspect she persevered with her different moves because she met with moreu00a0 success than most. In the same year as Silsila and Ek Hi Bhool she acted in the arty Umrao Jaan (winning a National Award) and Kalyug. Two years later, she even agreed to play hero Kunal Kapoor's mother in Govind Nihalani's Vijeta though she was not even 30.
Actors have gradually become receptive to doing films with irregular themes Anil Kapoor as the simpleton Eeshwar and Madhuri Dixit as the fiery rebel in Mrityudaata were still among the rare cases in the nineties. But look around today there has been a sea change.
Post stardom, Shah Rukh Khan stayed in touch with his off-beat roots via Ketan Mehta's densely satirical O Darling Yeh Hai India. Thereafter, SRK has made the occasional foray into the uncommon, especially with his own productions such as Santosh Sivan's quasi historical Asoka and Amol Palekar's arcane Paheli. Ajay Devgan has balanced his bonecrunchers with Govind Nihalani's Thakshak and Rituparno Ghosh's Raincoat. Aamir Khan's presence makes the unique Taare Zameen Par into an event film. And even biker boy John Abraham has told me that it's the unorthodox Water, No Smoking and Aashayeinu00a0 which makes his heart go vroom.
A few years back, when Robert Redford received his Lifetime Achievement Oscar, he had emphatically stressed on the need to embrace risks along with the sure things. Happily, Bollywood looks like it's in the mood to heed his advice.
So now when I hear a breathless star say, 'I want to do something different', I won't let out a silent groan. Instead, I will wait for him to get an art attack.
