Amitabh Bachchan – A look at the personalities behind the persona
iView Author: Akshay Manwani (New Delhi, India)
Email: akshay.manwani[at]gmail[dot]com
‘Amitabh Bachchan – A look at the personalities behind the persona
At the risk of courting infamy, I write this piece. For what else can be expected to come ones’ way when you critique Amitabh Bachchan – arguably the biggest superstar ever to have appeared on the Indian silver screen. Make no mistake; I am a self confessed admirer of the man in question. There has been an entire childhood spent in adulation of the man, an education gleaned outside of schooling textbooks by watching all his films. But after several years of watching umpteen repeats of the Big B’s flicks from the 1970’s and the 1980’s, films that have ranged from the average to the sublime, I am forced to take cognizance of several factors that seemed to converge, almost cosmically to take Mr. Bachchan to the pinnacle of glory. Whether this was a case of Mr. Bachchan doing justice to the talent of several individuals or vice versa is then a moot point. One – which I hope this post throws open to its readers.
Salim – Javed – Giving shape to the Angry Young Man.
Has there ever been a finer pairing of individuals in the industry. Beginning with Zanjeer – right through films like Deewar, Sholay, Trishul, Kaala Patthar & Shakti – it was they who gave Amitabh the image of the ‘Angry Young Man’. Amitabh’s reticent and understated characterizations in each of these films that struck a chord with the masses, was as much a tribute to the story telling genius of Salim – Javed as it was to the acting prowess of the former. The six foot frame of Amitabh only seemed to get bigger with their blustering dialogues – “Yeh police station hai, tumharey baap ka ghar nahin…” – Zanjeer or “Sahi baat sahi waqt pey kiya jaaye….” – Trishul. Even in a relatively lighter film such as Don, the duo with their grasp on dialogue managed to give Amitabh the persona of a Machiavellian, larger than life character courtesy lines – “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai.”
And this is not to say that they could not leave us in awe without dialogue. Check out the scene in Shakti where an entire scene is enacted between Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan at Rakhee’s funeral without a word being uttered. The silence in that scene best summarizes the tension between father and son in the film and speaks volumes of the duo’s ability. Is it any wonder then – that the split between the duo post Shakti (1982) marked the beginning of the decline in Amitabh’s career.
Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai and Yash Chopra – The holy trinity.
That the three of them excelled at their craft concurrently was a challenge to the all round skills of Bachchan the actor. If Prakash Mehra’s films rode high on emotional content (Zanjeer, Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Laawaris, Namak Halaal & Sharaabi) then Yash Chopra managed to extract some of the most nuanced performances from Amitabh when he cast him as the protagonist in his relationship oriented dramas – be it the psychologically scarred son in Deewaar and Trishul, the gravitas ex serviceman looking to exorcise the ghosts of the past in Kaala Patthar or the brooding romantic of Kabhi Kabhie and Silsila.
In light of the aforementioned films, Manmohan Desai gave Amitabh the much needed comic makeover – Amar Akabar Anthony and Naseeb. The other thing with Manmohan Desai was that the grandiose, larger than life premise of his films did full justice to Bachchan’s image. Films like – Desh Premee, Coolie and Mard would perhaps not have been envisaged with any other actor in mind. Thus if destiny played a fair hand in Amitabh’s meteoric rise in the film industry it was this triumvirate of directors that gave him the ace to get to the dizzying heights of stardom.
Shashi Kapoor – The perfect foil.
There always seemed to be a strong undercurrent of one-upmanship when Amitabh shared screen space with either of Vinod Khanna or Shatrughan Sinha. I cannot help but think that films like Parvarish, Khoon Pasina, Amar Akbar Anthony (all starring Vinod Khanna with Big B) or Dostana, Naseeb, Kaala Patthar (all starring Shatrughan Sinha with Amitabh) looked to cash in on this tug of war for stardom. In all these films Amitabh’s character does not see eye to eye with Vinod Khanna’s or Shatrughan Sinha’s character for a considerable portion of the screenplay. It was as if the directors had left it to the audiences to vicariously enjoy a showdown between the defending champion and the challengers to his throne.
Shashi Kapoor on the other hand seemed ever ready to play second fiddle. He was always the younger sibling, a kind of journeyman accompanying the shooting star. But neither did he let Amitabh’s character overshadow his own. Beginning with Deewaar where he more than holds his own against the angst ridden ‘Vijay’, to Trishul where he eventually joins hands with ‘Vijay’ to save the family from ruin, to Kaala Patthar where he appoints ‘Vijay’ as his point man in the war against crony capitalism, Shashi Kapoor handled the intensity of each of Amitabh’s character’s without ceding an inch. Who else could have weathered the storm that Amitabh unleashes in that famous scene from Deewaar which leads Shashi to respond with the reverberating “Mere paas Maa hai”. Lesser mortals would have bumbled and fumbled in the face of such a heavy onslaught by the ‘Big B’ but Shashi Kapoor’s conviction in that scene proved that he was the perfect foil to Bachchan’s 70mm stature.
Kabhi Kabhie saw them pitted against each other once again, as they fall for the same woman. Shashi’s rendition of his character is done with such dignity that audiences can’t help but feel for Shashi even as they long for Amitabh to reunite with his estranged love Rakhee. The chemistry between the duo allowed even run of the mill potboilers (Suhaag, Do aur Do Paanch, Shaan, Namak Halaal) an extended run at the box office. Little wonder then that after Shashi started shunning the camera lights in the mid 1980’s, Amitabh found it difficult to find a co-artiste who complemented him as well as the youngest of Prithviraj Kapoor’s sons did.
The villains – When the devil came calling on Bollywood.
The early 1970’s right to the early 1990’s bore witness to some of the most fiendish characters in Hindi Cinema. From ‘Seth Dharam Dayal Teja’ (Ajit in Zanjeer) to ‘Bakhthawar Seth’ (Danny in Hum) – these characters dished out evil with suave and cold blooded single mindedness. Such villainy precipitated the need for someone who could stand up to these magnates of terror, look them in the eye and intimidate them comprehensively even while maintaining a degree of plausibility. A special mention must be made over here of Amjad Khan, who with Sholay announced himself as the devil’s incarnate. His expanding girth and harsh features in sharp contrast with Amitabh’s height and heroic demeanor set the stage for many a memorable script played out between the two – Mr. Natwarlal, Satte Pe Satta, Kaalia, Desh Premee and Mahaan. Muqaddar ka Sikandar highlights this contrast between the two to maximum effect with Amjad’s portrayal as the amoral ‘Dilawar’ proving to be the proverbial thorn in the flesh for the valiant ‘Sikandar’.
Prem Copra as the opportunistic ‘Balwant Rai’ in Trishul, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the blood thirsty ‘Shakaal’ in Shaan, Amrish Puri as the wretched ‘J K’ in Shahenshah and Danny (again) as the scheming ‘Kancha Cheena’ in Agneepath – all played their respective roles with such villainy that it forced Amitabh to respond with a power packed performance in each of these films. Even the relatively small time villain – Madan Puri came up with the performance of a lifetime as ‘Samant’ in Deewaar.
Kishore Kumar – Lending spunk to the baritone.
While it is true that most of Amitabh’s films left very little space for song and dance, given the action oriented nature of the script, the emergence of Kishore Kumar in the early 1970’s ensured that on the few occasions it was required, he did full justice to Bachchan’s baritone. Thus in songs such as “Dekha na haye re socha na” – Bombay to Goa, “Meet na milaaye” – Abhimaan, title track of Muqaddar ka Sikander, “Khaike paan banaras waala” – Don or “Pyaar humey kis mod pe le aaya” – Satte pe Satta one isn’t quite sure where Bachchan’s baritone ends and Kishore’s tenor begins. From relaying Amitabh’s jovial characterization in “Ki pag ghoongroo baandh kar” – Namak Halaal to conveying his melancholic state in “Manzilein apni jagah hain” – Sharaabi – Kishore captured the mood of each of Bachchan’s characters fittingly. With Kishore’s demise in 1987, it was as if the ‘Big B’ had lost his voice.
Completing the jigsaw.
Amitabh was also aided in his quest for immortality by some other individuals, whose efforts in scripting Bachchan’s legend while not measuring up to the quantum of work of the aforesaid luminaries is no less significant in the overall analysis. Hrishikesh Mukherjee – who spotted Amitabh’s talent long before he became a superstar and extracted some fine performances from him as a character actor in films like Anand and Namak Haraam. Even when he cast Amitabh as the lead in heroine oriented scripts like Abhimaan and Mili, the shade of grey that he gives to Bachchan’s character in each of these films is outstanding.
Kader Khan as dialogue writer continued belting out punchline after punchline for Amitabh in films like Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Namak Halaal, Sharaabi and Hum. For all the times that we listen to Amitabh do his opening dialogue in Agneepath – we should silently profess our gratitude to Kader Khan. The undisputed master of all character artistes – Pran – gave some memorable performances alongside Amitabh as the large hearted ‘Pathaan’ of Zanjeer, the spirited ‘Jasjit’ in Don, the ever protective father in Amar Akbar Anthony and Naseeb and the tough as nails jailor in Kaalia.
One cannot but applaud Ramesh Sippy for carrying the conviction of casting Amitabh ahead of the then more popular Shatrughan Sinha in Sholay for the role of ‘Jai’. That Ramesh Sippy then brought us the ultimate heavyweight match up by casting Dilip Kumar and Amitabh on either side of the law in ‘Shakti’ is further tribute to Sippy’s genius as a film maker.
Finally as the cliché goes – behind every successful man there lies the hand of a woman. In Bachchan’s case there were a bevy of beauties who starred alongside him, matching him step for step, in each of his ‘avtaars’. No other male superstar in Hindi Cinema, past or present, could boast of such an impressive array of female actors as the ones who donned makeup opposite Amitabh. Be it the intensity of Jaya Bachchan or the glamour of Parveen Babi, the sex appeal that Zeenat Aman flaunted or the vivacity that Rekha sported, the class oozed by Smita Patil or the effervescence of Hema Malini, Amitabh always had the luxury of beauty and talent to complement him.
This post by no means looks to diminish the aura of Amitabh Bachchan. It is only a reminder that in the joy of watching the spectacle of the rainbow, we ought not to miss the significance of its individual colours.
Tags: Amar Akbar Anthony, Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Manmohan Desai, Naseeb, Prakash Mehra, ramesh sippy, Salim Javed, shakti, Shashi Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Zanzeer
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fuckin awesome post. like the way u wrote. choice of words etc. i liked. but i m sure u have missed out on hell lot of people who have contributed in making BigG as BIG as he is today.
I am his fan too. but when sometimes i watch his old movies, which i used to enjoy , when i was a kid, now i don’t like those.
He was not that great actor too. He was a kind of Star.
Few years ago, i watched ’saudagar’, and that is the movie, in which he is so natural, totally in the character.
Now he is good, but sometimes, i can’t see him as a character, the way ompuri,naseeruddin, and irfan and yes, the way raj gopal yadav goes into character sometimes.
Maybe it is my problem. lately i am thinking, yeah he is a good actor, but not that great too.
i was reading RGV’s blog, before writing above, so some things got mixed up. it is ‘rajpal yadav’
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Fantastic post Akshay! My only grouse being that you have described one of my favorite Bachchan movie- ‘Namakhalal’, as a run-of-the mill potboiler…!
all said, i still can watch AB Sr. of yore repeatedly, especially the Salim-Javed crafted AYM than the unexciting stuff he is doing now.
Phulll Technicolor writing???
Akshay- from one Big B fan to another- good attempt to credit a lot of personalities behind the persona.But of course as Magik says there are a lot more people- of course the list is too long to make it perfect I guess.
@Akshay: Really nice write-up. It’s extremely difficult to create a comprehensive list, but this is a great overview.
Really loved Amitabh & Shashi’s chemistry in Shaan! Then again, I loved the entire film. lol.
Good post Akshay …summarises Amitabh’s career span quite nicely…no doubt he was helped by all these factors but we need to remember an actor should be able enhance a good script, great dialogues, good direction to dizzying heights through sheer natural talent and performance…Amitabh did that…he could carry the most absurd scenes dished out by Manmohan Desai and the most sensitive scenes from Ramesh Sippy or Yash Chopra with equal aplomb…I have seen many of his movies on the 1st day of release and the response from the audience on his entry on screen is unmatched by any actor …also you have missed out Rishi Kapoor…a fine actor who shared crackling chemistry with Amitabh in films like Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb, Coolie….he is a great actor on par with any of them…just because of his superstar persona people think of him only as a good actor…but you need to watch films like Saudagar, Kabhi Kabhi, Namak Haram to see the sheer versatility of this man…remember he was an actor first and then became a star … unlike today where people try to become stars first then actors
@Akshay,
nice….Actually the other way around is true too…
BIGB makes the other people around him look good too.
Watch him give ample space to his co-stars be it the women(jaya, sri devi,rekha ), villians(amjad khan) or even children he takes you in with his thunder and its an awesome show.
He is all about chemistry.
Film making is not living in fantasy in solitude. It is a team effort and things are interdependent.
If a bead is defective then necklace will not shine as naulakha haar.
AB himself has been following this modest route of acceptance that whatever his directors asked him to do he did, whatever his dialogue writers wrote he simply delivered those dialogues and whatever his script writers created in a situation he followed that.
But if this was the truth then Kadar Khan, Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Salim Javed, Jaya, Rekha,etc etc (whatever names you mentioned) could have made another Amitabh Bachchan out of many other male stars with whom they worked.
But this did not happen and this is the ONLY TRUTH.
Rest anything can be searched in anything. It`s purely a mental exercise and mind knows no boundary.
Amitabh Bachchan comes in a 2 minute role in Paheli and outshines collective efforts of all the actors performing in the film. He is not supported by any of the names mentioned in the article there.
Ashok Kumar, Motilal, Balraj Sahni, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Sanjeev Kumar,Amitabh Bachchan, Naseer, Om puri, Pankaj Kapur etc names are independent of any other names. They were going to shine irrespective of their associations with others. This is different matter that whenever they worked with equally talented people they shone like anything.
In such creative journey they have to meet people who will help them in creating best opportunities for them.
Good directors will use them properly. Good writers will get good performance on their writing on screen because of these actors.
Truth is Indian cinema has been having wonderful actors and we lack in the area of good writers and good directors.
Gr8 Post…I guess the one of the most important contributors to AB”s success is his self-proclaimed ban on media…and his ability to stand out supreme in multi-starers when all other stars were equally competitive.
To each his own..
The greatest challenge is to keep it simple. And in my opinion Mr Bachchan excels in that, esp with his dialogue delivery. It looks so simple that we often forget the right baritone and emotion that he used while uttering those dialogues and often credit people like Salim-javed and kader khan for that. Kudos to Salim-Javed/Kader Khan for writing those lines, but just try hearing those lines in a non Bachchan starrer and you will realize the importance of Mr. Bachchan. I dont remember the name of the movie, but I had seen a Mithun starrer movie long ago, which had most of the lines of Deewaar. And those very same lines of Deewaar looked so funny.
What fascinates me about Mr Bachchan is his rise after the ABCL fiasco. He was down in debt and his film career was labeled as FINISHED by so called film experts. As far back as I can remember no other actor has been able to bounce back so dramatically. And how did he achieve that!!! By taking up a challenge that was considered foolhardiness in 2000. Appearance on TV was considered a demotion then, still he took up KBC. The author of the post might be interested in writing how KBC made Bachchan’s resurrection possible, but the fact is that it was Mr Bachchan who made KBC and not the other way around.
Good post, nicely written
I’d say it was amitabh who gave all these people you mentioned in your post an identity otherwise who’d remember salim javed or prakash mehra after so many years.
great post….
Nice post, some more points from my side.
* Apart from Shashi Kapoor, AB also had a great bonding with Vinod Khanna. All the movies they acted together- Khoon Pasina, Hera Pheri, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish were huge hits at the BO. I think the only exception was Zameer.
* In this decade dominated by the Khans, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, he still has people writing scripts with him in mind only.
* Among his contemporaries, Rajesh Khanna has been reduced to doing roles in B Grade sleaze flicks, Vinod Khanna and Dharmendra are in a state of semi retirement, Shatrughan Sinha is more active in politics, and this man is still as active in movie as he was 30 years back.
* At a time when accent is on youth and youthful heroes, he makes a movie like Baghbaan centering around a 60+ lead character, a success.
* Even now the reruns of his movies on TV channels, get a lot of TRP’s. The DVD’s of his older movies still sell widely.
* He has been able to romance younger heroines in Nishabd and Cheeni Kum, without looking stupid. In fact i would rate Cheeni Kum a much better love story than any of the umpteen teen/youthful romances that are released.
* While SRK did a fairly good job in Don 2, his performance was way short of AB’s in the original. I mean when AB says to Helen “Neeche tumhari aunty, kai uncles ko saath leke aayi hai”, you feel the mix of sarcasm, irony in his voice. And SRK’s Paan Banaras Waala, was not a patch on AB’s in the original. SRK did a fairly good job as Don, but as Vijay, AB wins hands down.
* At the start of the decade, every one had written AB off, his movies were flopping, ABCL was in a mess, and his obituary was being put in place. But he makes a comeback with KBC, and reinvents himself on screen for Mohabattein. For me he is the Star of this Decade. Any one can sway the audience when they are at a young age, but to still carry movies on your own, when you are 60+, that is something.
Hey Akshay,
Very good post! Thank you for taking us down the memory lane. I specially loved your notes on Shashi Kapoor. It takes a very good and mature actor to play the perfect foil. Just pointing out a few other gems of AB
Chupke Chupke
Aks
Amit-Dharam chemistry
In reply to Mr. Sadasyula’s comment about DON. I think SRK as DON is a far cry from AB as DON. AB gave you the goosies when he said, Don ko pakadna…SRKs DON was just good marketing. In my opinion it should have never been attempted.
All said and done, in my personal opinion, when it comes to acting prowess, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan is as great as if not greater than Marlon Brando and the likes.
Hi Akshay .. Nice post,
Amitabh Bachchan was an actor first in his initial days, later he became a star and now he looks Amitabh Bachchan in every movie. I still remember his come back movie Mrityudaata, or even his later released movie Deewaar (New) which I still remember couldn’t see itself for a week in most of the theaters. Though I was a fan of Amitabh Bachchan before this movie I realized later that he is robbing me with cheap entertainers.
I have not been able to see the character he has been doing in any of his movies these days. A great actor shows character of greatness in every movie he does, even if there is very little to cheer about in a movie, at least one thing is expected that the actor doesn’t overshadow his off reel persona on the character he/she plays. To me he seems to be an above average actor who was at the right time at the right place, and with the right people to support him, and when he was out of options, we know what has been shoved down our throats.
@Ved, that same commentary has been made about every actor who has been around for a long career. I have read the same about Brando, Olivier, DeNiro, Pacino, Hassan, etc. I think the audience starts to see them more as stars than as actors through no fault of the actor.
I have to strongly disagree with your comment “A great actor shows character of greatness in every movie he does, even if there is very little to cheer about in a movie, at least one thing is expected that the actor doesn’t overshadow his off reel persona on the character he/she plays.”
There is no actor in the world who can rise above a bad script, bad direction and a just plain bad movie to be “great” in “every movie”. It just does not happen.
The Bachchan in Cheeni Kum was not the same character in Sarkar or The Last Lear unless we saw different movies.
Great Post, Big B would read this and have a glint in his eye, you sure done do papa proud. Now i’m expecting one on Dharmendra, it surprises me that Dharmendra often doesn’t get a mention as much as Big B does
Yeah i accept other contributions but nobody can ignore his dazzling screen presence.Amitabh is the greatest actor in Indian Cinema.
@Lee:
“There is no actor in the world who can rise above a bad script, bad direction and a just plain bad movie to be “great” in “every movie”. It just does not happen.”
But its within the actors power to deny working with any of the assignments he thinks would be injustice to his / her acting abilities.
Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson, Cate Blanchett to name a few, they are more or less as ripe as Amitabh is .. but I can’t remember these guys jumping into anything and everything.
Lovely post! Of course, there are loads of people who shaped his career, life and personality. And of course, this list is incomplete. But that doesnt matter. Its probably impossible to even have a complete list.
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I would add Jaya the wife to this list. I never peeped into their house, but I sure as hell know that without her support, in good times and bad, he wouldnt be the man that he is. Ditto for the parents that he had. These perhaps didnt add directly to his superstardom but they kept him grounded when he could have flown away to insanity. And we would have had a totally different BigB.
@ved said “But its within the actors power to deny working with any of the assignments he thinks would be injustice to his / her acting abilities.
Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson, Cate Blanchett to name a few, they are more or less as ripe as Amitabh is .. but I can’t remember these guys jumping into anything and everything.”
Are you for real? Please check their filmography to see that even these greats have been in bad movies. No actor is above doing crappy work sometimes.
Very nice fan-post.
Some quibbles:
Namak Halaal is NOT a run of the mill potboiler – Thank-you-very-much.
Great to see the Kader Khan love here. He wrote some great dialogue but they only come alive when Amitabh mouthed them. Kader has written dialogues for so many other films (eg Himmatwallah) but in the mouth of others (including himself) they just come out as cheap , bizzare and forgettable. Poor Pjs in fact.
Sad to see you under-estimate Hrishkesh Mukherjee and Ramesh Sippy – not making them a part of the holy trinity.
I always loathed Manmohan Desai’s work – except for AAA and Suhaag.
Also Rakesh Kumar (Khoon Pasina, Mr Natwarlal, Do Aur Do Paanch etc), Tinnu Anand are pretty important too.
But overall, wouldn’t agree with you more – film magic IS team magic.
. Who else but Amitabh could have made “Aapko toh ek button se chalne wallah insaan chaiye” dialogue work
yes i agree with that dialouge form his mouth look great we grow up mounting his dailouge, who can forget “mucche ho to natthu laal jaisi ho warna na ho” or “duniya main do tarah ke keede hote hain”, did any actor have done this ?
after him there is not any actor whose film ran to full houses from delhi to patna to mumbai to kanpur.
ones in a interview ashutosh rana said that his graetest quality was that he make his weakest point to his trademark,when he enter film industry people said he was to tall,his voice his too heavy now the whole of india wants to be taller and heavy voice.
and last no one ever ran like him on the 70 mm screen
great job. for the people trying to run AB down with the whole “hes a star, not an actor” thing. please have someone else play the characters in Anand, chupke chupke, sholay, deewar, kala pattha, abhimaan, Sarkar, Cheeni kum, Khakee, Agnipath, Eklavya, Black, Baghban, Katein, Aks, Shakti, Silsila and see what they make of that. Anyone, anywhere in the world. And please, remember, it is one man playing all these roles. He is one of the biggest stars the world has ever known because he is a great actor with unmatched screen presence.
Someone wrote one of these things about Satyajit Ray a while back and these two men are like God to me. My biggest regret in the film world is that they did not work together in a film apart from ABs voice in Shatranj ke Khiladi. i really believe they would create unparalleled magic.
From all the mentioned names it’s Shashi Kapoor who probably contributed greatly to Amitabh’s career without being obsessed with the limelight himself.
I will never accept that he played “second fiddle” to Amitabh rather Shashi is the main lead in “Kaala Pathar” and a few more.
” With Kishore’s demise in 1987, it was as if the ‘Big B’ had lost his voice.”
Give me a break…..