Bachchan turns 74

I found a piece of paper in one of the old file-folders. It was the question paper of my kindergarten admission. The last question was - 'Who is your favorite actor and why?' The answer written by my father beside the question read - 'Amitabh Bachchan. Because he is dashing.' As a 3 year old kid, all I could do was learn it and recite at the test. There was no belief required in the answer. Hardly did I know then that the answer would be a prediction and I would actually end up being a die hard fan of the man.

The earliest memory of a Big B film is Hum. I watched it with my father and used to pester him every day to tell me the story when he used to give me a bath. However, the actual realization and admiration for his work started from SLB's Black. I remember I could not find anyone to watch the movie (which is generally the case with me for all good movies), so I went alone and was mesmerized by the performance. The way he entered the skin of Debraj Sahai was proof enough of his acting prowess. I revisited all his movies after watching him in Black. When I watched Deewar again, it seemed as a brave choice given the negative trait of his character which meets the fate eventually. The anger in Zanjeer, the ego in Abhimaan, the poise in Sholay, the humour in Chupke Chupke, the charisma in Don, the naughtiness in Namak Halal, the dialogue delivery in Sharaabi all represent the different shades of his acting. The actual arsenal of his acting skills can be seen in the unsung movies like Govind Nihlani's Dev and Rajkumar Santoshi's Khakee. To deliver a memorable performance when pitched against the sheer excellence of Dilip Kumar in Shakti is commendable in itself.

Amitabh has done some populist mass movies which were zero on substance and content. The differentiating factor though is the maturity of choice. While the contemporaries are busy making formula movies with larger than life roles for self, Amitabh is experimenting at the age of 74 with movies like Piku, Te3n and Pink, most of which do not have him in lead roles. I can recollect Shah Rukh and Hrithik rejecting Rang De Basanti since Aamir was in lead role. And here is a guy who is fine being paid less than Deepika for Piku. In a world where stars want to empower women just by putting the name of leading lady before himself during the credits, Big B is the true ambassador of equality of pay for both genders and is leading by example.

Mr. Bachchan's life was not aloof from controversies and mistakes. He had his fare share of those. An extra marital affair, an instigating statement post Indira Gandhi's assassination, affinity to the Nehru-Gandhi family which raises a lot of questions about his parentage, affiliation to SP and its fools like Thakur Amar Singh, his political stint, bankruptcy of ABCL, and talking about disasters who can forget Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag. But that makes him more human. The noteworthy point here is his elegance even in his failures. He is an institution in himself equally because of his failures as because of his glories.

The most important attribute of the legend is his humility. While some self-proclaimed stars full of themselves choose to use lines like 'Naam to suna hoga' and 'Bas naam hi kaafi hai', our man makes sure he introduces himself with 'Namaskar, Main hu Amitabh Bachchan' every time he makes a stage appearance. There are three type of actors - one having arrogance without substance (read Salman), one having arrogance with substance (read Shah Rukh) and the last one having substance without any arrogance. Amitabh is the last one, and very few of the contemporary actors fall in this category along with him.

I still cannot change the TV channel when an Amitabh movie is playing, be it Kaalia, Ajooba, Lal Badshah or even Sooryavansham. Recently I was discussing with my father about his performance in Pink. He proudly boasted that Amitabh is an actor from his generation and none of the actors in my generation can match him. My counter to it was that the performances by the Amitabh of my generation were far better than those by the Amitabh of his generation given the diversity and variety of his characters. Finally we agreed on the fact that Amitabh is beyond any generation. All three generations at my home claimed his ownership. I hope the next generations get the privilege to claim the same as well. Here's wishing him a very happy birthday and a long life ahead. May he continue to act and inspire us till eternity.


PS - I know I am a biased fan, but the legend of Big B is beyond any biases. No one can deny his claim as Sadi ka Mahanayak.