A self-confessed fanboy. I have no qualm in saying that Amitabh Bachchan is my pinned up poster-boy adorning the wall and have a huge collection of posters, postcards, magazine covers, books that propel me looping to the bookshop or buy magazines or newspapers whenever he graces the cover. Of course, this file that has neatly preserved his posters and newspaper cutting is quite something that I have done and accumulated in the past. I still go for Bachchan on the magazine cover and next one will be the Filmfare Platinum Power issue.
While many of his contemporaries have hanged their boots, Bachchan is creating and making history at 75 to make it the new and cool 18 in town where he is all over the place, be it movies or entering our house with KBC or TV ads. Is there anything that this man cannot do or touch into gold? He puts relatively young people like me to shame with his terrific energy be it in his films, blogging everyday and social media or being physically all over the place. To imagine that he functions with 25 percent liver. Isn’t it admirable?
There are so much about him, be it immortalizing the screen name Vijay that it’s almost hard to fathom anyone else playing the character by this name even one or two decades later. The brooding and angry Vijay carved a place in our hearts so much that it clashed with the grey Vijay who fell in love with a girl old enough to be his daughter in Nishabd which was not a bad film in itself. I think there is a certain clash in the way the audience love and adorn their heroes giving them almost God-like status that goes against creative cinema. Of course, I loved the Viju of Buddha Hoga Tera Bappa and in the same way as the Vijay of Nishabad. Of course, my favorite Vijay remains the ones in Aakhri Raasta, Shakti, Don, Deewar, Shahenshah, and Agneepath.
Call me crazy but October 11 is a day that I religiously follow, bearing AB’s KBC tee that I have got a decade back at the Colaba Causeway, tweeting the Big B and watching at least two of his movies on TV. I finished with Shahenshah in the afternoon which remains one of my favorite Bachchan film as a child and shall wrap up the day with Khuda Gawah or something else coming on cable. Honestly speaking, it is tough to assess the career of Bachchan the star or the actor and both on the role it played in my life. Ok! Let me try this one. I think the reason I am a crazy and passionate film buff dreaming of making at least a short film a day is Amit Sir. He is the ultimate reason that I watch Hindi movies like crazy and celebrating Hindi cinema that runs in my mind like anything.
There is a considerable debate with people telling how there was a disconnect with the times when he started his corporate venture ABCL that faced heavy losses. I’d disagree to argue that he sets the trend and today corporate have stormed in our movies and raking the moolah much the same way he took the biggest risk in his career by embracing TV that made him a household name while many of this contemporaries shied away from. First all, Bachchan introduced the corporate culture in the early 90s through his company ABCL and was ahead of the curve and times since he was convinced of the role that it would play in the future. Secondly, remember Asia TV that worked like crazy but unfortunately, it suffered in the long run because perhaps it wasn’t the right time to launch owing to audience maturity and sensibility. Today, corporate culture is working on such a big scale in cinema.
Big B is a brand that has not only become increasingly reliable but powerful over time with equity pegged at hundreds of crores at the age of 75 and is beyond generation or time. Perhaps, the only character actor for whom roles are being written with his personality in mind and in the same fashion as the main lead romancing the heroine. That’s the difference, here. The hero should kick the villain and get the girl. How do you call Big B? The mature hero transcending age or defying logic a bit like his characters in the heydays.
There are so many things that Big B can teach us in the way we do business or lead life. Be patient and go ahead with the times, never say no to experimenting with roles, risk-taking or turning the tables when the time is ripe. For sure, he can give the several of the B-schools a run for their money. Of course, the buzz should be communicating with clients and in this case, audience through a down-to-earth approach and do not force marketing down the throat. Picture this, lock kiya jai or computer-ji as the buzz words of business and giving it mass appeal pretty much like his dialogues, jahan hum khade hote hai line wohi se shuru hota hai.
The stage where Bachchan no longer carries the burden of box office on his shoulder is the most exciting phase for any actor to experiment with a variety of roles and he performed brilliantly whether it’s Sarkar, The Last Lear, Black, Paa, Pink, Aks or Piku but I miss my favorites massy roles with the terrific hero ka dhamakedhar entry of kicking dozen villains. Call it cliché or illogical, I just don’t care. I love his entries in Deewar, Agneepath, Aaj Ka Arjun, Shahenshah or Hum. For me, Bachchan is the cleanly shaven guy.
As a die-hard fan, I hope that he was never in the frame of movies like RGV ki Aag, Department or Sarkar 3 but then the emperor cannot be flawless and it’s the sheer madness of cinema that drives stalwart to step on the wrong foot. It is surely not the end for I believe there are so many roles and myth-breaking experiences he can indulge into since whatever we have seen of him in recent times is very less of what he can achieve as an actor, pushing the bar higher. The man with the midas touch just needs directors and scriptwriter who understand his emotions to the hilt, his vision of cinema and of course, not star struck.
How many of you remember this entry of the camera panning on his shiny black shoes, trousers, shirt and close-up zooming on Bachchan’s face? A true fan will!
Happy birthday Amit-ji
Die-hard AB fan
With love
V
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