Anil Kapoor – Representing India in Hollywood
From Om Puri to Irrfan Khan, Tabu to Aamiir Khan, only a privileged handful of actors have had the glorious opportunity of represent mainstream Indian cinema to a global audience. And yes, when I say mainstream Indian cinema, I am indeed referring to the flavors popular of “Bollywood” which most Indians worldwide embrace as amongst their most beloved passions.
In that respect, seeing Anil Kapoor in the spotlight promoting Slumdog Millionaire on mainstream American television programs, on Hollywood Entertainment websites, and watching him on stage accepting the Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, on stage with Tom Cruise when SM won Best Picture at the Golden Globes (and if seeing Anil Kapoor there was surreal, so was this GG moment!), and of course seeing him tonight at the Academy Awards and the post award reaction clips has personally given me a great deal of pride.
Why am I choosing to single out Anil Kapoor here? Is it because he is the “flavor of the season”. No, it goes much deeper than that. Is it because I didn’t feel this same level of pride and excitement when Lagaan took Aamir Khan and company to the Oscars, or whenever watching films like “The Namesake” in a theaters packed with non-Indian audiences? I know it’s not that either, because I felt a great deal of pride watching Tabu and Irrfan in the limelight as well.
I guess its because, of all these “ambassadors”, I feel Anil Kapoor is the most fitting representative of both contemporary Indian cinema and the cinema we all grew up with. From Woh 7 Din to Tashan, from the era of Amitabh Bachchan to the era of Shah Rukh Khan, he has always been a top star and a fantastic actor, entertaining and enthralling us in our kind of cinema, and all kinds of it at that.
So while others will honor the grand achievements of A.R. Rahman (of whom we are all extremely proud of) and Danny Boyle whose Slumdog Millionaire has provided us with these precious moments, I for one am most proud of Anil Kapoor for representing our cinema on the world stage with such vigor.
And so, as both a small tribute and perhaps a small reminder of why we love the guy so much, here is a short list of my personal all-time favorite Anil Kapoor films and performances: (Please include your lists or perhaps favorite Anil Kapoor scenes and moments to make this post complete).
Woh 7 Din
Saaheb
Meri Jung
Chameli Ki Shaadi
Karma
Mr. India
Tezaab
Ram Lakhan
Parinda
Eeshwar
Awaargi
Lamhe
1942 a Love Story
Laadla
Virasat
Deewana Mastana
Biwi No. 1
Taal
Pukar
Calcutta Mail
Musafir
My Wife’s Murder
No Entry
Salaam-E-Ishq
Welcome
Black & White
Tashan
Slumdog Millionaire
*Yes, some of these films are listed not so much because I loved the film but more so because I loved Anil Kapoor’s performance in the film*
Man what range this guy possesses, not only to because of the varied films and characters he’s performed, but also because of the way he has continuously re-invented himself so many times over the years.
Cheers to you Mr. Anil Kapoor, this lifelong fan genuinely hopes you are enjoying every moment of this well-deserved recognition!
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
yup…i just mentioned abt tat in my post: http://passionforcinema.com/slumdog-millionaire-a-true-story
One Anil Kapoor scene stands out in my mind because it provided an aha-moment for me in what acting was all about.
This was in Pukar where because of his various travails (accusations of treason et al), he gets pretty drunk one night and is walking back home. He is hesitant because he would not like his parents to see him drunk. So he stops over at his “friend” (Madhuri Dixit’s) house.
She stays with her father – who is sympathetic towards AK. There he has a fumbling conversation with him, as Madhuri looks on from the kitchen. His diction, the fumbles, the embarrassment at being drunk before a senior person – the repeated apologies – they were all so realistic, so natural, so NORMAL – that I was awed into appreciation of his craft.
I thought to myself – “Shit! This is how drunk people behave when they are embarrassed, especially people who are otherwise well behaved (like an army guy would be). I have been there at times, as have my friends, and this IS how we behave!”
I could not help but contrast with the usual (and usually admired) portrayal of drunks as shouting, screaming, idiots who stick plaster on mirrors instead of themselves as hammily popularized by Amitabh Bachchan.
At that moment the difference between stylised acting that player to the gallery – and natural acting became crystal clear to me.
Rock on AK!
Hmmm…he has always believed in Cinema!! Thats the greatest thing abt him. I have heard he had changed the casting of HUM PAANCH produced by Surinder Kapoor & became the casting director of the film, even before he made his debut as an actor. It was him who brought in actors like Naseer, Sanjeev kumar, Mithun, Deepti naval etc. & made the film memorable in its own sense. He did it agn by producing flicks like My Wife’s Murder & Gandhi-My Father. Look fwd to his contribution to cinema, not only as an actor but even otherwise. He seems to be in a good loop!!! Cheers Anil!! Jhakaas!!! Nice & much needed post Crazyrals!!!!
And did anyone miss Anil Kapoor making an ass of himself before the event? “We love India, We love Mumbai, We love Maharashtra”…just for a moment, I thought it was Danny Boyle or some other firang who was high on Indian exotica. But no, it’s our very own Anil Kapoor…ae jhagaaasss!!
Well… Slumdog Millionnaire was a hair raising tale… so Anil Kapoor had to have something to do with it, wouldnt he???
Jokes apart… I always did think that the man had more talent than the mediocrity he chose to thrive in… And it took a mid-life crises and the fact that he was denied opportunities to drown in the same mediocrity by film makers who went and found younger blood to sell the trash they made. If he did mediocre stuff, the man wanted to hog the spotlight.
And he is such consistant actor… I would say a consistantly good actor that I cant remember any film scene, dialogue or performance that stands way above any other performance.
And I mean that as a compliment. He is good even in his poor movies.
The only movie that stands out is Lamhe and that because he had a little less hair on him than he generally has :-)
Bravo, Anil!
from a new and devoted fan!
Alwin Kalicharan?? ;)
@ankur
hahaha….I’m sure, Anuraag would concur!
he has made a trademark style of his typical ‘tapori’ accent, so much so, tht u will find him saying something like “main bachaoonga usse” with a typical tilt to “main”. and tht slight use of hs shoulders while delivering a dialogue. i guess it was most pronounced in ‘eeshwar’, but continued in ram lakhan and others as well.
some of the atrocious movies he has done are: hifazat (batata wada – madhuri), benaam badsha (juhi), andaaz (juhi-karishma and that ‘khada hai-khada hai’ song), trimurti (subbu’s worst movie), rajkumar (again, madhuri), Karobar (indecent proposal – juhi, i guess)
@Shan:
That scene stands out for me too. Specially it gives me goosebumps when he hesitantly in tearful eyes says,”Kayi dino se achhe se khana nahin khaya hai.”
Great scene!!
I concur 100%! He really is one of the best we have and no one else could have represented India the way he did. He has been around and rocking for ages now. With every movie, he only seems to be getting better, IF that is even possible for an actor for such class. Whether its drama, action or comedy, the man pulls together a fine act.
Some misses in your list! Thikaana was one of his best performances. Ditto with Jaanbaaz. He made the movie very watchable with his performance. And since you have included movies like Laadla, i guess you should include Nayak too!
Some of the other possible includes in your list:
Thikaana
Mashaal
Jaanbaaz
Andar Bahar (I have watched this one many times and its mostly for AK’s terrific tapori act)
Jeevan ek Sangharsh (even though this was a bad movie, I liked AK in this a lot)
Deewana Mastana – Possibly the best clean comedy David Dhawan made.
Just in case, it wasn’t obvious, have been a big AK fan all through!
The only Anil Kapoor movie that means anything to me is Mani Ratnam’s Pallavi Anupallavi. I saw it some 20 years ago as a teen & connected instantly. I’ve since seen it, oh a million times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzMgMepKSko
Ofcourse after that film, neither Mani nor Anil has been consistent.
@NRI, Anil’s movies have been inconsistent. yes. Anil as an actor is fabulously consistent! He and Mithun have consistently stood out for their acting even in the most unwatchable movies.
I thought Danny Boyle’s casting choice for the quiz-master in Slumdog was great, and I was really happy to see Anil, and Anil’s happiness, all over the place at awards shows and interviews.
And as data from a one-person study – my brother (a show business person himself), who guards the purity of his negative opinion of all Indian movies by never watching any of them, thought Anil was a brilliant actor.
Crazyrals: Read you post man. Great write up!
*
Shan/Bharat Bhushan: I vaguely remember that scene from Pukar, I think I’ll re-watch the film soon and will definitely keep an eye out for that scene. You’re dead on Shan, far too many actors are a bit too “uninhibited” when performing drunken scenes, they ham it up way to much man, no ones is THAT silly drunk! Especially hate watching SRK play a drunk… horrible… maybe this is another post for another day… lol…
Abhishek: I had forgotten that My Wife’s Murder was co-produced by Anil Kapoor. Good stuff man! Looking forward to Shortkut… Hope to see more of him as a producer as well… umm, as long as he’s not backing more films directed by Satish Kaushik…
*
Oh, and I think Ankur and Vindows mentioned something about Anil as a Producer here earlier as well… Too bad, was looking forward to that film as well…
Ullas: Not sure how that’s Anil Kapoor “making an ass of himself”… in fact my impression when I saw similar clips was “awesome, he’s not trying to be all politically correct! He’s enthusiastic, he’s excited and he’s proud, and best of all he’s not embarrassed to show it!”
Blog.Gore: “I always did think that the man had more talent than the mediocrity he chose to thrive in…” True enough man. Seen plenty of his films where I thought “Man he deserves much better than this…” Also agree with you that he’s arguably the most consistent actor Hindi cinema has ever seen…
Ravi: Yeah I can’t believe I left Mashaal off that list! He was great, and that too so early in his career! I confess “Laadla” is on there because of the wife… don’t ask… I didn’t think much of Andar Bahaar or Jeevan Ek Sangharsh (which I think had THE most annoying title song of all time!), and I haven’t yet seen Thikaana. Is it worth a watch?
Virginia: Heard rumours that Anil Kapoor is hosting KBC next year… that would be cool to see… wonder if he’s use the infamous “Its my fucking show!” line! LOL!
Tony – ha ha, I don’t think I’ll put my money on it!!
@TMN: Thikana is well worth a watch. Its an adapted rip off of Paul Newman’s Verdict with Mahesh Bhatt’s usual additions of illicit relationships etc. But I should say, its well worth a watch. Anil Kapoor and Smita Patil are awesome in it. Its one of AK’s and Mahesh Bhatt’s better movies. Jeevan ek Sangharsh, i included only for AK’s performance. Andar Bahar has me in splits everytime I watch it
Thanks for the recommendation Ravi. I somehow missed Thikaana, but will definitely look for it in the next week or so. Is Andar Bahar a comedy?