Abhay Deol, Unconventional Redefined
iView Author: SATYENDRA JHA (Pune, India)
Email: satyendrajha30 [at] gmail.com
I have been a long admirer of PFC, and have been contributing to the various discussion-forums on & off. The sheer magnitude at which the topics are looked into with an in-depth analysis, and the sweet-sour (but always well-meaning) comments that follow have always fascinated me no end.
Upon learning that almost all the ‘usual suspects’, who are the major contributors to these free-flowing & insightful views, are professionals engaged in some other field but are passionate about the ‘cinema’, brought in me a desire to write something that is close to my heart, and to kill two birds with one stone, so to say… One, fulfil my long-cherished dream of actually contributing to the world of cinema, and two, to get recognition on this awesome platform, which has contributions from some of the names in Indian cinema I have long revered…
So here goes…
I intend to begin writing about one of the most grounded, ‘un-hero’ and ‘different’ male-actors of the recent times … Abhay Deol. He has broken almost every written ‘code’ of chosen path of success, generally followed by wannabe stars, especially if they belong to a legacy drenched in successful filmy family.
Born on 15 March, 1976 in the illustrious family of the Deols, the nephew of Dharmendra, and cousin to Sunny, Bobby and Esha, Abhay charted a different course for himself from the very beginning. At an important juncture of his adolescence, he had options of going into as varied professions as paining and journalism, but the fact that he had dabbled with theatre during his school days, prompted him to go ahead in the field of ‘acting’. Nothing unusual till now, considering how people would expect the nephew of Dharmendra to take the easiest route, and discount any claims of having thought over the decision before taking the plunge….
To make matters worse in the eyes of the discerning public, he was launched in 2005 in Socha Na Tha, a home-production amid much fanfare by his illustrious uncle, and during the entire pre-release promotional melee and post-release press-meets, was flanked on both sides by his uncle and equally famous cousin brothers. As is the trend, he was helmed by a debutant director, Imtiaz Ali, in a love story. However, the similarity or the formulaic co-incidence ended there.
To begin with, there was not a single scene of action to show-case his ancestral legacy, his character was shy, almost the boy-next door, and he had given up the right to ‘get’ the heroine in the first ten minutes of the movie. And then, he had set out to do the unconventional, as we would see throughout his career till date, to win back the girl in the most un-Raj/ Rahul way. The film didn’t do that well commercially, but the character of Viren and the exploits of an unconventional ‘hero’ stayed warmly entrenched in our hearts.
The next year saw him in another boy-next-door role of Ankush in Ahista Ahista, again with a debutant director, Shivam Nair, and the only thread linking him with his debut movie was Imtiaz Ali, who was the writer of this one. That, and the fact that once again he chose to court (pun intended) the heroine in the most unconventional way. He doesn’t get the girl in the end, as she was never his to begin with, and what’s more, he didn’t even have a ‘better’ girl walking into his life at the end the movie, to vindicate his status of a ‘hero’.
The next year saw him in another debutant director Reema Kagti’s movie, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., where he essayed the character of a superhero, albeit an unconventional one. Nothing great in either the movie, or the character played by Abhay Deol, except that it was a very exceptional choice for an almost newcomer, who had yet to make a mark or name for himself in the industry.
Till this point, our protagonist had limited himself to playing an ordinary boy under ordinary circumstances, (except for in HTPL, but then, I always consider this role of a superman to be his weakest and most unconvincing till date), and had started creating a buzz for himself among the movie-goers.
The same year saw him essaying the role of Nilesh in Ek Chalis Ki last Local, where, for the first time, his character started veering towards the grey areas of human-complexities. The simplicity with which he negotiated the psychological turmoil of the character that was almost debauched in its multi-layered desires spoke a lot of his maturity as an actor, which was to be proved without doubt in his subsequent movies. Though it was once again a ‘debutant-director-movie’, (Sanjay Khanduri, for those who want to know…), the onus of carrying the film was almost completely on Abhay’s shoulders, since there was no love-story involved, (which is a perennial favourite of the audience, and ultimately, we end up rooting for even the most undeserving hero), nor any strong support cast (as in case of HTPL), and yet a leg-room was created by Abhay for his portrayal of Nilesh in this precursor to the neo-noir genre.
The actor came into his own in probably the first genuine noir movie to come out of Hindi film industry in a long time, Manorama Six Feet Under. Once again, helmed by the debutant director, Navdeep Singh, what set this movie apart was not only the fresh treatment and twist to ‘Chinatown’ given by the director, but also the completely unassuming and almost in-the-background-to-the-story approach of Abhay Deol, playing Satyaveer, who proved, once and for all, that he was the king of unconventional. The movie itself is so layered, it would need a separate write-up, and I am sure, it has already been done on PFC, but the contribution of this movie, and in particular, of Abhay Deol, to Indian cinema, can only be described as path-breaking.
And then came the toast of the current year, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye..! I will definitely not go into this Dibakar Banerjee masterpiece, because much has been written / discussed / dissected about it, among other forums, at PFC, and any further dissection at this point in this present article will only denote the obvious, with nothing new to add, to the nuanced impact Abhay Deol’s character has brought to the ‘path less trodden’.
The entire journey of Abhay Deol till date, (and one wishes it reaches new heights with eagerly awaited Dev D., where Anurag Kashyap’s legendary anger is going to be matched by Abhay Deol’s cool-quotient to bring out the Indian cinema’s most sung anti-hero, Devdas, to our lives in a new avatar), has been devoid of any blood-thirst of his famed uncle, super-humanly destructive powers of his illustrious elder cousin and cool-dude style and machismo of the younger one. And still, he has managed to carve a niche for himself, which shall make his clan proud and vindicated in a different sort of way.
The choice of movies he has made till now show a marked effort towards doing something not attempted before, to go on a path less travelled, and to not necessarily fall into the trap where the entry-scene, or the number of songs, or the foreign locales, or the getting-the-girl-in-the-end becomes the deciding factor in picking up a new assignment. He is so full of prospects and untapped energy and talent; one wonders what he can do with his talent in the hands of unconventional directors / story-tellers.
A friend of mine tried to bring things to my perspective by stating that despite all his brilliance, Abhay Deol has not yet managed to break into the A-league territory owned by the Chopras, Kapoors and the like, and to that I have but one thing to say.. We Lucky! Lucky We…!!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
@ Jha
Good to see your first write-up & that too on a truly interesting actor like Abhay Deol.I’ve liked all his films.Though Socha Na Tha didnt do too well at the b.o when it released, it has gone on to gain recognition on home video & T.V and everyone whom I know who’s watched it has liked the movie.Ahista Ahista again didnt too well commerically, but Himesh was in great form & Abhay did quite well in it.Honeymoon Travels was thoda sa silly but still @ heart a fun film.But it was with ECKLL & Manorama that Abhay the actor gained prominence, a fact that OLLO has confirmed.looking forward to Dev D & many more from Abhay!!!
Great to see a article on the most underrated actor in bollywood today.
Loved his socha na tha,and ECKL.
I was spellbound to see him in Manorama and OLLO.
And I am eagerly waiting for DEV D.
absolutely. the most intelligent, diverse and fascinating actor of this generation.
Only one grouch I have with Abhay Deol is that his immaturity was showing in some scenes of Manorama. For those who have started guessing already, it’s the drunken-at-night-on-the-bike scene. While this worked to his benefit in Socha Na Tha, Honeymoon Travels as a timid, shy hero, it somehow didn’t look all that natural in Manorama. But he redeemed himself in rest of the movie, and definitely OLLO is a high-point. Now onwards he should start to be taken seriously by pure commercial cinema minded moviegoers and critics alike.
Great first post on PFC, Satyen. U have wonderfully covered all aspects of Abhay. To be honest, when Abhay first made his debut in Socha Na Tha, i thought of him as just another star kid got lucky. And for that matter i did not have much expectation from SNT either, but Imitiaz really crafted a wonderful movie. I think Abhay’s understated, restrained approach works well. He reminds me a lot of Tom Hanks, both having a kind of restrained approach to their acting.
Well even if Abhay moves into the A-League as u mentioned, i think his presence would add more value to the movie, than other way around.
Great post. I didn’t like HTPL much (inane, I thought), but OLLO is an all time masterpiece. I must find out where I can get a copy of Manorama and Socha na tha
Abhay’s use of his body while emoting the understated characters is getting to be a study in itself. The way he looks optimistic, deflated, happy, calm or even irritated has not been seen on Indian screen before this. We were so used to over emoting that this “different” kind of character portrayal has just got to us. He, Ranvir, Irrfan, Vinay and some others are redefining Indian movie acting..
hey thx all of u guys, esp. Ratnakar (u were the first one i told abt it) & Sethu (u r one of the ‘usual suspects’, btw). im waitin for our punjab da puttar, Steve, to give his views as well…
its nice to be officially ‘accepted’ on PFC. n yeah, the publication of this first post gives me the confidence and carrots to go for many more.. hope to play a long innings here…
@ Naren: Socha Na Tha n Manorama DVDs r easily available in stores. check out Music World, i think they have some tie-up for promoting Manorama.
@ Tejas: yes i agree with u on tht manorama drunken-on-bike-at-night scene, but if u look at the character of satyaveer, u cud expect him to give vent to such outbursts, considering he had to negotiate with his failed literary life, anonymous professional life & nagging personal life. Not to mention the suspense lurking just round the corner (literally) for him…
tejas – what was wrong with that scene in manorama? he was drunk out of his skull if you remember the preceding scene. i think he was very convincing.
given time, and the kind of films he’s doing (which require really acting – something most of bollywood’s forgotten) – I think Abhay Deol’s gonna turn into one fine actor very soon.
Jha@ 8- ‘usual suspects’- kyon dara rahe ho bhai?
aisa kya kar diya maine
@ Naren- the original DVD’s of all the movies of Abhay ( except OLLO) are available easily all over ( atleast in India).In fact as far as my knowledge goes HoneyMoon Travels is a T.Series title,ECKLL is a Moser Baer title and the other 3- Socha Na Tha, Ahista Ahista & Manorama are Shemaroo titles.
Interesting bit of news here
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/12/17/3864492.htm
UTV Motion Pictures and Moser Baer Entertainment have signed an exclusive home video licensing agreement formalising a strategic alliance into the home video distribution business.
@ Sethu: ‘usual suspects’ coz since the day i cut teeth on PFC, I have had the privilege of sharing thoughts with some of the regular bloggers, one of the prominent ones being u. And i look forward to keeping it that way for times to come. Owe u, ratnakar & steve a beer, whenever u guys r next in Pune. Cheers in anticipation
@ Jha
Damn cool- good to know you r in Pune.I do come there once in a while.My brother is in Pune & my fiancee is also from Pune.So beer peene ka mauka zaroor milega
yes itc certainly great to interact with people like you out here.bada maaza aata hai- a big relief considering my regular job is completely different- I’m a retail professional 
@ Sethu: My email id is already mentioned on this post. do plz leave a word the nxt time u plan to come over to pune. and yeah, its really a great relief to interact with the like-minded ppl away frm the deadlines of everyday professional life.
keep up the good work all u guys r doing on PFC.
This guy really deserve as hats OFF, He is my Sharukh, Salman etc. FOR me he is A+++ Actor.
@ Karun: der aaye, durust aaye… thts what applies to abhay deol. i had written this post prior to Dev D being released, and i had expected AK-AD combo to work wonders. Seems my claim was not unfounded.
AD has vindicated his choice of movies, and today he is officially being touted as the face of changing cinema in India.
yeah, hats off to him…