A.B., baby

Like doctoral dissertations on hip-hop, here’s a highfalutin’ take on the original Bollywood ass-kicker by David Chute of Film Comment. It was written in honor of the Amitabh retrospective at Lincoln Center last month (via Hollywood Masala):

… he is most fervently admired for his verbal gifts: the sonorous baritone that makes all his setpiece speeches sound like Mosaic proclamations, and the flair for mimicry he exploits as one of the first Bollywood actors to adopt authentic Bombay street slang in his gangster roles… In contrast, Bachchan’s typical terpsichorean style is about as basic as it gets, a sort of blue-eyed Punjabi variant on one of Zorba the Greek’s “hoop-hah” strut ‘n’ shrug routines… Decked out in what looks like a gaucho outfit in Don (78), prancing and preening next to the staggering Zeenat Aman (India’s answer to Claudia Cardinale), he looks less like a performer working through a carefully choreographed routine than a man enjoying himself, and enjoying life…

… even when Bachchan was playing proletarian characters he always walked “with the posture of an aristocrat.” … this guy never feels outclassed. “You see a certain grace about that character… So many other actors have tried to ape Amitabh, but they’ve failed. Because they don’t have the sophistication and the tehzeeb [culture] that he grew up with. As an actor, Amitabh’s anger was never ugly. Other actors mix anger with arrogance. Amitabh’s anger was mixed with hurt and tears…”

In an ironic reversal, Bachchan has begun playing establishment roles against Shah Rukh’s angry young man:

… in Mohabbatein, he looks more like something carved from granite… the ne plus ultra of all the stern father figures his Vijay characters rebelled against in the Seventies.

The reviewer too lightly skips over the intense Ajay Devgan, who starred in just this kind of role in Yuva:

… as no one in the current crop of younger actors has anything like Amitabh Bachchan’s moral authority… there was really only one viable choice for the voice-of-reason title role, an honest policeman fending off both Muslim and Hindu demagogues.

An accident on set, not to mention Big B’s entire career, inspired a chapter in Shashi Tharoor’s filmi novel Show Business:

The mid-Eighties marked the pinnacle of Bachchan’s superhuman stardom: news of his near-fatal accident in 1982 on the set of Coolie brought the country to a standstill.

The author also takes an interesting look at Jaya Bachchan’s career:

A throwaway shot early in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham drew affectionate chuckles from the mostly-NRI (Non Resident Indian) crowd when I saw the movie in Los Angeles: Bachchan’s real-life wife Jaya standing on a chair to adjust her husband’s necktie… It plays upon the Indian public’s sense of the Bachchans as one of Bollywood’s most durable couples, and upon the affection due to Jaya herself as a performer, a diminutive firecracker whose headstrong teenage characters in the Hrishikesh Muhkerjee films Guddi (71) and Mili (75) brought a recognizable type of modern, urban woman to the Hindi screen for the first time. Jaya and Amitabh met when he played a strong second-fiddle role in Mili, at which point she was much the bigger draw…

3 thoughts on “A.B., baby

  1. Dear Mr.Amitabh Bachchan ,

    Sir first a warm greetings from me . IÂ’m samy from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sir when I was a young boy my dad had a huge problem with his business and we have to move at my uncle house with my mother and 3 of my brother. My mother was a great great and great fan of yours and sad part of that when my uncle auntyÂ’s watching movies of youÂ’re my mom and we miss all those movies so much but some times we used to watch from doors small hole and we enjoy it most Â…I still remember the movie DO AUR DO PUNCH I was standing fore almost 3 hours and next day I had huge pain at my arms . then after some years my dad able to achieve his target to give all happiness to his family and when we move to our new home my dad buy a Black & White Tv with VCP and that day I have seen most beautiful smile at my mother and she is too saw the happiness at our faceÂ…since I born my mom was paralyzed and she pass away last 1995. Today is 31/ 10 / 2005 and IÂ’m lying at my bed watching SONY MAX and showing my MOST GREAT favorite actorÂ’s movie DO AUR DO PUNCH its around local time 7 pm and I proud my self today coz IÂ’m able to achieve my target due to when I was standing and watching your movies at my uncle house.

    Sir I still grateful to you every time I watch your movies I always remember and automatically the powers come to me and I always even with a small way try to help out those people who were out of there small wishes.

    Thanks sir and always good bless you and best wishes to you !

    Best Regards

    From

    Samy Ali Syed Chairman Ocean Pearl Ltd. Lao Airlines GSA BD. Putri Group Of Companies.

    E- Mail : syedsamy@gmail.com / gsalaoairlines01@hotmail.com

    Address : Road – 03 , House – 252 ,G Level , East , Baridhara D.O.H.S Dhaka – 1229 , Bangladesh. Tell : + 880 – 175 006223

  2. i still remember that day when i was watching a movie”janjir” one of my favourate movie so far and thir “diolog” that “YE POLICE STATION HAI TUMAHARE BHAPP KA GHAR NAHI” really it was very Appreciative.i m a big fan of amitab bachan his personality say that how he is talented person so far.and I have nop word`s to say about him .well as a human being hi is a gentle personality.

                                                                                                       THANK YOU
                                                                                                    RAJEEV KUMAR