Subscribe to RSSOf two Bbuddahs and a pretentious “auteur”
The joke that began with that in your face first look unveiled during the IPL, progressed through with promos that promised Amitabh Bachchan’s return as THE angry young man and culminated with a damp squib of a film, was completely on the audience. And it was a twist of irony that four-fifths of the audience comprised senior citizens. If the return was all about attempting to evoke nostalgia in the older generation through referencing one-liners that immortalised the angry young man phenomenon and attempting to connect afresh with the younger set by parading around in garish costumes, weren’t the promos themselves enough? And even if I had to see someone do all this in a film, I’d rather see a Salman Khan do it since he does it with far more panache and such roles anyways don’t require histrionic abilities.
A still from Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap
It doesn’t really rankle when Puri Jagannadh clumsily rehashes the core plot of his runaway Telugu hit, Pokiri (also remade in Tamil as Pokkiri & Hindi as Wanted) to allow for a character of Amitabh’s age. After all, one doesn’t expect too much from him. But it rankles mighty hard when someone who’s celebrated as an “icon” and enjoys such a high amount of influence within the industry and with fans alike, resorts to the limits of mediocrity and self-gratification that define Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap so nicely. And it rankles even harder when we, as an audience, celebrate mediocrity to such heights that it gets delusions of greatness. To illustrate this, it would make sense to look at another actor from a different filmmaking culture who is a decade or so senior to Amitabh but shares a lot in common with him – Clint Eastwood.
Bachchan & Eastwood, both posessing tremendous screen presence which was their hallmark as actors, started their careers with a fair amount of struggle before their maiden hits spawned super-successful screen personas. Bachchan’s Zanzeer gave birth to the angry young man (some more on the angry young man in this profile of Salim-Javed) while Eastwood’s Man with no Name shot to the hall of fame with A Fistfull of Dollars. While Amitabh’s baritone was tailor-made for the screen, Eastwood turned around the initial scepticism sorrounding his raspy voice and made it one of his strong points. But that’s where the similarities between the two end. The two charted distinct paths in their later careers and when their careers are viewed in contrast, it reflects sadly on us as a culture.
Once the political unrest of the 70′s faded out in the 80′s, the angry young man persona lost its edge. The template remained though and merged into the mainstream formulaic tropes that symbolized our cinema from the 80′s. Throughout, Bachchan remained within this muddle and churned out monstrosities of mediocrity like Mard, Coolie, Shahenshah etc. making no attempt to use his influence to demand better cinematic values from his directors. And amongst an audience where a thumping majority still recognizes Bachchan as “the greatest actor we’ve seen”, these were bound to become the standard. When he returned in the 90′s after a brief hiatus with Mrityudaata, he brought down the lowest common denominator for the public perception of greatness even further. And Brand B of the new millenium is an altogether different creature. It thrives on relentless exposure & self-adulation. What’s more, its delusions of grandeur even extend to the rest of his family…err…extended family.
Eastwood, on the other hand, didn’t stop at the Man with no name persona. He used his influence within the industry & with the fans to help create films like Hang ‘Em High & Two Mules for Sister Sara that went on to bend, subvert & eventually broaden the western genre. But all this was happening when Bachchan was just about 
finding his footing closer home. When the angry young man was making waves in Bollyland, Eastwood was busy sculpting the loose-cannon cop genre with his Dirty Harry franchise. Throughout the 80′s he featured in many commercial as well as critical successes, often both. It was in the 90′s when he completely reinvented himself and pitchforked into the realms of a true icon. Three films in the last couple of decades underscore this better than no else.
In 1992 came Unforgiven where the Man with no name got one – William Munny – and became one of the most memorable characters ever to have graced the medium. He was dark, worn out from the innumerable battles of life but had a ruthless & cunning instinct deep inside, ready to burst to the fore in the time of need. William Munny rewrote several tropes of conventional definitions of morality. A year later, Eastwood was seen as Frank Horrigan in In The Line of Fire. In contrast to the almost superhuman Harry Callahan, Frank was as human as they come, riddled with conflicts, suspect to weaknesses and yet, a master of redoubtable spirit and grit. Harry Callahan had aged with grace. From then on, Eastwood focussed more on his role as a director and didn’t act in too many films. And while his greatness as a director transcends that of him as an actor, it stays beyond the context of this write-up. In 2009, he appeared for the last time on screen in a film that owns a far higher right to the Bbuddah… title than the actual film. Gran Torino had Eastwood playing Walt Kowalski, a character referred to as an amalgam of the man with no name, Dirty Harry & William Munny by noted Hollywood biographer Mark Eliot. A fitting swansong for a legend.
What’s clearly visible through this study in contrast is that while Eastwood chose to associate himself with many films that are milestones in the larger history of cinema, Bachchan chose to look the other way when a fledgling movement aimed at breaking the shackles of formulaic mediocrity in Hindi cinema was trying to find its ground. It goes without saying that had he tried to associate himself with that movement, Hindi film audiences would have been far better acquainted with some formidable films of that era that were eventually covered by the sands of time. While one may argue with some merit that the filmmaking culture in Hollywood has always been vastly different from that in Bombay, part of my argument also lies in the fact that Bachchan did nothing to change that, despite having the wherewithal to do so. Great men tread in the line of fire, braving all adversity, and often alone, instead of sitting pretty in the comfort zones of mediocrity under the excuse of mass acceptability.
A still from Delhi Belly
The second major Bollywood release of the week gone by, Delhi Belly lends further credence to this theory of the dumbing down of the lowest common denominator for greatness. Produced by Aamir Khan, the present day Midas of Bollyland, the film has been garnering rave reviews and full houses ever since its release. Aamir turned producer with Lagaan, a project so unconventional that everyone from producers to actors were reluctant to touch it with a bargepole, and eventually a superb cinematic effort without any doubts. Since then, he has been hailed as a messianic producer, committed to good cinema and willing to take on projects that defy formula. With Delhi Belly, he is being credited with taking the lid off as far as the usage of cuss words in our films is concerned. He’s being showered with praise for once again having the balls to back a film that was in the doldrums not so long ago but has emerged as a winner from the word go.
In all fairness, the film is entertaining enough to merit the time and money spent over it. But is there really anything more to it than just that? For all the talk about taking the lid off et al, if my memory serves me right, it was Shekhar Kapoor who first shocked audiences with the raw profanity sprinkled about in Bandit Queen, a good 15+ years ago. What Mr.Khan ostensibly did in this case is use his clout for getting a far more generous helping passed in the film. But at the end of the day, a generous helping helps build quantity, not quality. Beyond the profanity though, there wasn’t much to talk about in the film, save maybe that cracker of a performance by Vijay Raaz. However, all this is not really a surprise given Aamir’s track record as a producer. Somewhere along the line, he’s perfected a formula for himself, all the while claiming to be non-formulaic.
The template for an Aamir Khan film is pretty straightforward. Barring Lagaan, all his films have conformed to it very closely. The most important ingredient is a snazzy gimmick (a Lagaan hangover). If it was dyslexia in Taare Zameen Par, Peepli [Live] had farmer suicides. And while Dhobi Ghaat had “the spirit of Mumbai”, Delhi Belly has its gaalis. The next ingredient is smart lines (sometimes oversmart as in the case of JTYJN). And if the film is lucky enough, some good performances. The ace in Aamir’s cards is the finesse with which he promotes his films. In terms of cinematic scrutiny, they don’t really cut too much ice. Entertaining? Yes. Great? No way!!
Unfortunately we, as audiences, have eaten hook, line & sinker into Aamir’s PR propaganda that he’s a patron of progressive cinema. Just as we’ve been eating into Amitabh Bachchan’s PR propaganda that he’s the great actor. At his best yet, Aamir remains a smart producer who knows how to play to the galleries (I’m not deriding his being what he is…we do need people like him too). And I’d be glad to be proven wrong. All Aamir needs to do to prove me wrong is to show a glimpse of the keen eye & cinematic vision he displayed in producing Lagaan.
Here’s hoping for some improvement in our standards for greatness. Cheers!!
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14 Comments
Dude u r Awesome… there are many points which i totally agree..
Yet to read glad your back
awesome readup !
Bang on about Delhi Belly and AK, glad to see some one viewing it properly and his views not clouded by star’s PR propaganda
Big b and Clint Eastwood comparison i would.say is unfair, both actors from different industry and compared to Clint, big b did not have enough opportunities i feel even if he have asked for roles according to his calibre or age
Hah! Good! Someone called out Aamir Khan
. I had almost given up! 
While I do appreciate him supporting some movies that no one else would, his image as the man who can do no wrong really gets to me. And seriously, what’s it with people getting all excited about a film having a few gaalis? If that isn’t juvenile, what is?
Cinemausher – I beg to differ with you on the point that Amitabh didn’t have enough opportunities…. Apparently, he did…. even before he came ‘bbuddah’. He just chose to be the angry young man, until the time he became a joke. He could have done so much!!!
He’s explored so much, its unimaginable! 
Who would have thought the cigar chewing, horse-riding, handsome young man would one day give us ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ or ‘Gran Torino’! (Grand Torino was more ‘Bbuddah hoga tera baap’ -ish for me 
)
Eastwood’s my man!
@Denashri ,
I agree your point of Big B, but in 1995 , Big B never had an option apart 4m Mrityudatta, he has been open to experiments in recent times, he has done films like Boom,Nishabd
He started experimenting when he didn’t have anything else…. That’s like starting to work when you find your unemployment checks have stopped and your savings have been used up. When he was in his prime and he could have had any role that he wanted – and was approached by filmmakers – he turned them all down, not wanting to hurt his image. Jaya Bachchan also said so in one of her interviews (before she suddenly started being this angry older lady that you see today!!!) about 7-8 years back. I don’t find the argument that there was nothing for him plausible at all – look at the roles Paresh Rawal, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anu Kapoor, Anupam Kher…. even Shashi Kapoor…. and Jeetendra (of all people!) et al have done in alternate cinema. You think Amitabh couldn’t have had any of those roles if he wanted to? Instead he always gave the excuse of ‘Alaap’ or ‘Saudaagar’ not doing well!!!
I have been an Amitabh Bachchan fan my whole entire life! Hence, I am angry, that he decided not to challenge himself and spent his prime doing stupid roles like ‘Namak Halaal’, ‘Kaalia’ etc. Nothing like what he had promised with his performances in say ‘Anand’.
Bollyfan
Awesome article.Bigb is one of the best actors of generation but yes his some of present movies were very bad.You could have also added some more mediocre films of ABsr like JBJ and the one you hate most RGV’s ‘Rann’
Clint Eastwood also acted in Grantorino which I would say was very bad movie.
Unforgiven is masterpiece.
P.s-Bollyfan,sirjee was waiting for your comeback post.and you dint disappoint.
Reminds me of Dada’s return a couple of years back in Indian team.Keep posting.
Thanks everyone for the comments.
Cinemausher : I do agree that AB & Eastwood belonged to different filmmaking cultures and its not a very linear comparison. Have said so in the post. However, what I was trying to draw attention to was the differences between the scripts they chose to associate with. As Debashri says, the opportunities were there for him to take, he just let them pass since they were seemingly beneath his status as a star.
Even his attempts at so-called experimentation in recent times have been plagued by his insistence on furthering the Big B image through them rather than investing seriously in the character he was supposed to play – an act that I feel betrays a lack of integrity towards the acting profession.
I’m sure Eastwood would have also met with considerable obstacles in the Hollywood setup (its not very different from the current Bollywood setup though far larger in scale). But he showed his commitment to good cinema through his production company, which belted out one milestone after another. On the other hand, ABCL (now ABCorp) has confined itself to the same mediocrity that AB has been wallowing in. The amount of resources ABCorp has plugged into Bbuddah… could have been so better used on something more productive. Puri Jagannadh could’ve served his objective of paying AB a tribute by cutting a longish promo (10 mins would’ve been more than enough IMO) and releasing it for free on Youtube. ABCorp could’ve financed that and recouped its investments through ad revenue.
Debashri : I won’t really use Namak Halal & Kaalia as examples since they were fairly entertaining films otherwise. My problem lies more with the couple of films I named in the post and others in the same category (Jaadugar, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati, Desh Premi etc. are a few other examples).
Kushal : IMO, Amitabh has been delving in mediocrity since the 80′s…its not a recent phenomenon. And my argument is not that Eastwood didn’t act in bad films…he sure did. My argument is about the good films Eastwood & Amitabh chose to act in. And by no standards would I rate Gran Torino a bad film. It was a very good film according to me.
welcome back dude! nice to see you here again!
I agree 100% with your assessment of the BigB and the Aamir Khan phenomena…but wait…wasn’t this article only meant to be reviews of the two films?
Honestly, as a film goer how did you feel about the two films?
My take: BHTB is an entertainer with a weak first half. There was no story or script to speak of and the direction was atrocious. The only reason it was watchable was because of the performance of BigB. My dad’s a die hard fan of BigB and because of this I had taken my parents to see this film. He thoroughly enjoyed the film and walked out with a huge smile on his face. His day was made! At the end of the day this is what is important – for the average film goer as well as the film makers and of course to BigB.
Now…Delhi Belly. Its after a long time that I have really laughed so much while watching an Indian film. agreed its not a “great” film but it doesn’t really matter to me. it was 100% entertaining and was totally paisa vasool. in fact I am planning to watch it once more (at least!). On this count at least I consider Aamir Khan a very good and intelligent producer. none of the films he produced have really disappointed me.
IMO, while reviewing their films, it would be unfair to compare BigB or AK to Hollywood actors n producers and then say their films do not make sense.
Good to see you back! … yet to read the post or the comments… but surely will and have my inputs ..
CAD, PS : Thanks
CAD : It wasn’t really meant to be a review of the films but rather a comment on how the films were being consumed by the audience & viewed by critics. Though my views on the two films have been stated in a nutshell in the post. I found BHTB to be a shameless piece of self-promotion which had no right to exist as a full length feature film. As I’ve asked, wouldn’t a 10 minute short, shown free, have served the purpose of making your father happy? Why spend 2 hours and money for that? And if BHTB is being rated as a decent film, what was so wrong about Kites?
Delhi Belly, as I’ve mentioned in the post, is an entertaining film IMO but no way a “great” one as the general consensus has been. There’s hardly any depth to it in terms of characters, plot, milieu etc. IMO, these are the things that determine the shelf life of a film.
The comparison between AB & Eastwood is not about their films making sense or not. It was more about the gap between their commitment & integrity towards their profession. I don’t think the respective setups in the Hollywood & Bombay film industries is too much of a factor vis-a-vis that comparison. Moreover, in the last few years, the structure of the Hindi film industry has come very close to the studio driven Hollywood structure, though the scale there is far bigger. Even in the recent past, when there are more opportunities for better quality films in terms of better production values, enterprising young talent, institutionalized finance etc., we hardly see any attempt from Amitabh to associate with quality projects. His PR generated image is paramount to anything he says or does. Where’s the acting?
Welcome back Dude!!!!!!! i was waiting for something for long time…….i live in a small city in canada………so i regularly read your articles…….so keep posting ……..and this was different article……..liked it…..i have been watching a lot of movies of martin scorsese………i need 3 best movies from you…..so that i can watch it here…….
Bollyfan has writen a post on his favorite scorcesse’s movies on this website.
check out the link
http://www.cinemaaonline.com/cinemaagazine/martys-best-10
hope this helps:-)