Middle Class Hero
Amol Palekar
A question for you, what would you call a man who has the following qualities,
1. Dances well
2. Fights well
3. Can ride a horse
4. Cries at the drop of a hat
5. has no insecurities about himself,
6. Can make the most beautiful girl fall in love with him
7. Is the perfect son/brother/father/husband
8. Is the most honest person you will ever meet?
9. Has 6-pack abs, a perfectly toned body
10. has no vices what so ever.
The answer is a Hindi film hero. It has been a long time since we had a leading man who does not have the qualities mentioned above. Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham are dream merchants who represent the above ideas.
The question is when did we, the audience, change the definition? We have always had handsome hulk heroes. Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor were among the most handsome men you will ever meet. Then you had Rajesh Khanna, Dharamendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatughan Sinha defining the quintessential machismo, romance, fights required by our films.
But in all these eras, there always were leading men who did not match the standard idea of male beauty. Balraj Sahni, Bharat Bhushan, though not very handsome, achieved a certain amount of success.
The best of the lot of these leading men and the most successful, undoubtedly, was Amol Palekar. A very competent actor, he made a name for himself doing comedies and dramas some of which have become cult classics. ‘Golmaal’, ‘Baaton Baaton Main’, ‘Gharonda’, ‘Naram Garam’, ’Chitchor’ and countless other movies gave the audiences a leading man who was miles away from any other actors that they saw on the screen in those times.
Why Amol Palekar was famous?
Amol Palekar filled a void on the screen. May be people did not want to keep looking at tall handsome men always. Here was a man, with a pencil thin moustache, doing roles which were meant for him. They couldn’t be portrayed by AB, Dharamendra, Jeetendra or anybody else. Amol Palekar played those roles with a certain poise and control. The acting did not dissolve into a slap stick routine.
Amol Palekar did what nobody else did before him or has done it even today. He had a mass appeal. His movies at least during a certain period of time were super hits. He was a certified star. For a film industry rooted in Bombay/Mumbai, he probably was the only ‘Marathi Manoos’ who could legitimately be called a Hindi movie star. His movies commanded a certain initial and were released all over.
Current stars who can match up to him:
Which brings me to question of this post, who do you think is the ‘Amol Palekar’ of this generation? I don’t think we have any at present. This generation wants to see a leading man do all sorts of things. ‘Dance’ being a precondition for being a leading man.
One contender might be Vinay Pathak, but he surely does not command a market as Amol Palekar did in his time. Also, he is dangerously close to being labeled a character actor. Ranvir Shorey is a little too westernized in my opinion but he could evolve into something similar. Shreyas Talpade, another ‘Marathi Manoos’ has a decent chance of filling the void, should he get the right roles.
Reasons for absence of an average-looking leading man:
The main reason for the absence is the death of middle class movies. We hardly see movies today in which the hero is a clerk, a teacher or works as a laborer. These are things of past, nowadays leading men are businessmen (no idea, what business), software engineers, call center executives or idle sons of rich fathers. All these professions or roles require a higher standard of living.
Another notable thing is influx of actors (or non-actors) from the world of fashion and due to nepotism. None of them (except may be John Abraham or Hrithik Roshan) have achieved any degree of success. The quality common to all of them is ability to look fabulous in front of a camera.
Nepotism, which plays a big role in our country’s professional and government fields, has also led to a whole lot of actors coming in to the industry. All of them undergo a tough regime which includes horse riding, dancing and some hardcore body building. One could notice this from reading the interviews given by the new guys. They do not talk about acting in plays or about taking up challenging roles. Instead, they talk about their gym regimes and the work they put into training for dance sequences.
The only legitimate movie about the Indian middle class in the last 5-10 years was ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ . The leading man of that movie was an IT professional. The audience has always defined the requirements for a leading man, and in the present times they need to have the following conditions. They should have a chiseled body, should be clean shaven, and should be pleasing to the eye.
Conclusion:
The gist of this article is request the audience to accept people based on their acting abilities, not on their looks. If we remove beauty as the only criteria for a leading man, I think we would have more movies addressing the middle class. This is not to say that middle class means ugly, it is just that upper class is , unfortunately, associated with glamour, so when they cast for a movie which has rich characters, the actors they look for have to be glamorous. The film makers do not make a market, they respond to what the market wants. So unless we decide on refining the requirements for leading man, the change is not going to happen.
Here’s hoping that the current changes in the Indian movie industry lead to an emergence of a leading man who does not belong to any definition of a hero, who can act very well, who is not afraid to portray a middle class man.
Tags: amol palekar, Middle Class, Ranvir Shorey, shreyas talpade, Vinay Pathak
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
stupendousman,
This is true that good looks should not be given extreme kind of importance. and in film business an appropriate look of an actor should matter.
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Please excuse me but few of your examples don’t support the premise of the subject.
You have quoted examples of a few super stars and stars based on their glorious fame which they did not get overnight but they got it after passing through a long period of denial by audience, critics and media.
For initial few years Dilip Saab was ridiculed as an anaemic hero by leading film journalists of that time. A cameraman of one of his early films had commented,” Who has taken this monkey faced actor as hero in this film.” He was ridiculed for having very thick eye brows.
in their initial films Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor both were compared with their handsome father and they definetely were not as handsome as he was in his young days.
Rajesh Khanna was ridiculed as a person with a typical Nepali or Pahadi face.
Dharamendra was ridiculed as a footballer.
AB was ridiculed for his lanky figure and it was said that his legs didn’t end and he was too tall.
Shatrughan Sinha was made too anxious about the cut on the side of his lips and he wanted to go for a plastic surgery and Dev Saab had asked him to believe in what he was and one day people would accept him in all his originality. What was his weakness became his trademark strength.
But Dilip Saab can be seen scratching his nose or forhead in many close up shots. Shatrughan Sinha can be seen rubbing thumb of his hand on the scar on his face. Dharmendra, who later gained reputation of being a very handsome actor, can also be seen playing with his face with his hand in the scenes where focus is on his face.
Rajesh Khanna would wear shirts falling outside of his trouser or he would wear kurta or suit only. Hardly one would find him wearing shirt tucked in the trousers.
Scene changed after star sons and daughters started making debut in early 80s on a mass level. They all were supposed to be launched through love stories and it became a formula.
and more stress on looks is the product of a phase that came after mid 90s when hindi films went designer.
even unemployed characters started wearing branded clothes.
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This is not right to say that only Amol Palekar acted in a middle class character. Majority of Hindi films were authentically middle class films in 40s, 50s even 60s leaving some musicals, and again 70s represented majorly middle class sector.
Back then (before the TV revolution of post Asiad 82 phase) hindi cinema dealt with variety of subjects and treatment and different types of heros, directors and their films worked at same time. A rajinigandha got success along with a Deewar. Jai Santoshi Ma completed a Jubilee along with Sholay. Chashm-e-baddur worked along with a Kranti.
Action, comedy, social, thrillers, thought provoking films, all kinds of films used to get recognition.
70s promoted Farookh Sheikh and Amol Palekar as heros.
But in any period it is acting skill which helps an actor more than his/her looks. In long run acting becomes primary concern and looks become helping tool.
Nana Patekar a marathi actor had enjoyed super stardom for few years in late 80s and early 90s and he was not a good looking actor from any angle.
On the contrary good looking actors like Naveen Nishchol, Vinod Mehra, Vijay Arora, Deepak Prashar etc could not do much as heros.
Good looking models like Deepak Malhotra etc even could not get any support from their first film or initial films.
This is different thing that actors of older generation and specially female actors were good looking also. But Shabana Azami has earned a very good place and fame inspite of her very average looks in comparison to other female actors of her time.
I am not sure if we can get any example in hindi cinema where an actor inspite of having a brilliant talent got sidelined or got failure because s/he did not have good looks.
But examples can be found on other side and many good looking actors can be quoted who could not get much success because they had very mediocre type of talent.
Hi RK,
Thanks for your comment.
My point of the post was not to denigrate the actors you have mentioned. All the people that you have mentioned did have long periods of struggle and worked really hard on themselves and their acting, but all of them went on to portray larger than life characters and achieve success.
Amol Palekar was unique in the sense that he consistently performed middle class characters and achieved success through it.
Yes, i missed Nana Patekar, though a brilliant actor, he achieved success being a louder version of angry young man. And Farooque Sheikh too, but i don’t think he was really interested in being a leading man or did not pursue it seriously.
You are right in saying that it was not Amol Palekar alone who acted in middle class movies during those times, AB and Dharamendra in Hrishikesh Mukherjee films being the prime example, but i think Amol Palekar is the only actor who achieved success through these roles.
And i wholeheartedly agree with you that we can find more examples of good looking men not achieving success rather than the other way around, but thats what makes Amol Palekar’s success all the more wonderful.
Thanks
Dhiraj
Yeah that’s very true.When you think of Amol Palekar, you always remember him playing the roles u can relate too. I dont know if anyone remember, but the roles he portrayed used to have this insecure feeling. Mebbe thats what made it connect to audience. Nice article. No one makes those kind of movies anymore n no one plays it better!!
i agree totally. He was always more than a hero. he was actor. Not in league of Bachchan but in league of Sanjeev Kumar. I guess everybody understands what i mean. ;-O
It does not entirely rest on actors as where are the director who can make such simple yet interesting films these days??
Also Abhay Deol comes to mind. He was excellent in Manorama 6′ under…
my vote rests with abhay. sure
I remember a movie called ‘Teesra Kaun’ where Amol Palekar played the bad guy(it also had prabhuji playing himself). I think he was also the bad guy in a film made by the director who later went on to make a pathbreaking film(don’t want to name the film or director so as not to spoil it for those who may not have seen it).
But you are right, barring few exceptions(which anyway didn’t do well), he is one actor who tasted success mostly playing the simpleton, common man. From the recent lot, first name that came to my mind was Abahy Deol, as Rajvir mentioned earlier. He has all those qualities that made Amol Palekar successfull in his depiction of the common man.
But apart from Manorama he has not played a common man. May be you can mention Ahista Ahista too but it was still a hero type role.
Forget “Ahista Ahista” or for that matter even “1:40 ki last local”.
I know you will argue but even OLLO has him as simpleman with ofcourse some extraordinary skills…. hehe
How about “Ahista Ahista” or “1:40 KI LOCAL TRAIN”
I prefer vinay phatak or Ranvir Shorey to Abhay deol any day man….!!!
Abhay comes across a tad sophisticated…Yeah he looks the best and that will probably matter…He is overrated.
The Dubey character (I cant even remember his name )would win hands down if he were handsome…His work in “Barah Aana”, “raghu romeo” and Dilli 6 was awesome…..
A very good post!
It’s all in the characters etched by the filmmaker. The actors/non-actors cannot be blamed for it completely.
A genuine filmmaker while casting his actors will definitely concerntrate on the looks of the actor. It can be building a six pack, getting a new hair style, changes in the looks, to support the character like the way Saif was portrayed in Omkara. It makes sense then.
I feel this post should be for the filmmakers, rather any layman audience, pleading them to give good characters rather actor’s attributes or style.
Surinder Sahni was exactly the Amol Palekar type character. But yes, he had to transform to superstar SRK to get the girl. The movie was panned a lot in PFC
The new age superstars just had to concentrate on their bodies, especially when the yesteryear stars like Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor just didnt pay attention to look fit. Nor was there any attention paid to their attire. It was just plain ridiculous to see the heroines going ga ga over the bell bottom trousers wearing, pot bellied, ridiculous hairstyle carrying slob, in the movies.
All reviews mentioned Sanjay Dutt as pot bellied in Blue. Yesteryear reviews wouldnt have mentioned that.
Dont think the current generation has any patience to hear a story about a slob. Those who wish to, can catch Mussaddilal in Office office or watch Lapataganj
Some filmmaker of repute once said, “if the audience does not see a beautiful face in the frame for a while, they get disinterested”..Even Amol Palekar and his leading ladies were good looking. For ‘Ardhsatya’ we may say it did well w/o good looks of the lead actor.
Ferfect post on the Middle class hero!!! Amol palekar was so funny in his roles
Mithun and Govinda also played the middle class wala youth falling in love with richhhh girl with full-too maa ka pyaar so well in 80’s
Hi Stupendousman,
No doubt about Amole Palekar, may be the only one, who has crossed limits not to be superstar actor but an universal acceptable actor in Hindi cinema. Other things we shouldn’t forget if he had act in these universal appeal movies not just because of his looks but script, director vision and soothing music played a significant role in his middle class hero journey. If you listen Golmal movie songs I bet the good taste listener still feel freshness about his naive feelings towards his lady love. Same goes true to AB or Dharmendra favor when they act together in Chupka Chupka. Khosla Ga Ghosla is another example where complete start cast performed nailed down performance and director vision articulate quite efficiently. I don’t think you would find Boman Irani to his par performance in any other movie.. Cunning, smart but fool paradise chirping bird.
I do agree with reader comments that Abhay Deol carries required skills and prerequisites to be a middle class hero and mass appeal actor. That’s what brings out his actual intellect in reel time journey too. I have watched numerous times Oye Lucky Oye and if you remember the scene when he talks to his would be mother in law about toaster and other kitchen gadgets.. Marvelous expression and introvert body language. And I haven’t seen any an unconventional actor like him who would take break after finishing successful movie and gone to NY for welding course. These kinds of hobbies depict actor interest in their cinematic vision. Other examples may be Gulzar, Nana Patekar.
RS
i don’t wish to spoil the abhay-deol-party, but i dont think he qualifies for that because:
a. i cant imagine amol palekar in devD or OLLO
b. i cant imagine amol palekar looking suave in designer wear
c. i cant imagine amol palekar as tall and handsome
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so, in lots of ways amol palekar was the guy-next-door. and not many people can come close to that performance or image or the perception of a commoner that he created.
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i agree with one of the comments above that amol excelled in playing the frustrated, quiet, under-achiever very well. we can identify with that, it was his forte. among the current genX, i dont see anyone being like amol palekar for the simple reason that we are not in such a society anymore; so, we cannot re-cretae that character
@crazyrals… somewhere I think an Amol Palekar character holds good even now not cuz his characters were from the society in his ages, but hsis characters were the kinds you would want to root for… like getting succeeding, see how he manages it… just the way maybe the social fabrication today makes us live in the world of desginer clothes… those were the days of bell bots and the AB sidelocks and kinds.. even on those days AP was the average joe insecure part of everybody… and so is he today… his biggest virtue was that he used to look real vulnerable…. though he will succeed, the whole movie would be viewed keeping his vulnerablity in mind…. its just that in todays extremely competitive cinema land where we have 3 releases a week, creating such a character seems to be a huge risk… but yeah maybe surinder sahani being liked while the moment raj walks in is panned… there is the option of checking this character out…. somewhere down you feel for him the way you d feel for the kid in TZP…. wanting to be a lil protective yet warm…
@PS: yes, agree with u. the character holds good because its a reflection fo society. i only said that it cannot be re-created. efforts have been made with movies like ’swamy’ and ‘dasvidaniya’ etc; but they were nowhere close.
one thing for sure ya, there needs a lot of conviction to make Amol Palekar kind of movies these days… the kind of fine balance that AP used to strike with his characters were not remotely touched by even Dasvidaniya… additionally somewhere the middle road cinema of those times never directly competeted the mainstream (did they… for that matter as much as we love them on TV, during those days were they huge hits in cinema halls?) … these days even television serials seem to be on a horde to compete with big budget starry movies… somewhere to strike a realism is missing… even to pay tribute AP movies there has to be a caricature comedy these days…
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Even today audience is ready to accept a vulnerable character though exaqggerated but Akshay Kumar in Jaanemann and SRK in RNBDJD were still liked… pretty sure Uday Chopra is going to be OTT in their upcoming flick… but striking the fine balance is missing….
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though as much as this maybe against the conventional heros I think if properly played rajit kapoor rajat kapoor both can pull it off… Boman Irani maybe out of shape however can pull it off again …otherwise we will have to wait till SRK or AK pull it off again …
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to be honest I think we can still have these kind of characters coming in …. just that the conviction of Basu Bhattacrya and Hrishikesh Mukherjee has to be found amongst directors who are invariably falling for glitz…
@crazyrals…Amol Palekar can’t do the kind of roles Abahy has done, doesn’t mean Abahy can’t fit into the kind of roles Amol Palekar has done. I think what everybody means when they say Abahy Deol is, he is the closest from today’s lot who seem to have some of the qualities and personality traits that Amol Palekar showed when successfully portraying the middle-class man. This doesn’t mean Abahy doesn’t have other qualities which enables him to play roles other than the middle-class man
@Sudip: can u tell me what those ‘qualities’ and ‘personality traits’ are? i mean, i haven’t seen abhay deol in movies where he has played a commoner or middle-class guy! even in ’socha na tha’ he was a rich bloke. there was a ‘ahista-ahista’, thats all.
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i am not counting M6FU and 1:40LastLocal because they were genre based movies and not middle-class guy.
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so, how and why the hell is he even being compared to amol palekar? or spoken of in the same breath, if not compared.
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abhay is a fab actor, no doubt. but not in the league of amol palekar. you are pushing the right guy in the wrong league:)
no no I was never comparing Abhay with Amol Palekar…ok let me put it this way..I feel he is perhaps the only actor among the current lot who will get more acceptance in a role of the kind Amol Palekar played in his days.
17 Comments and NOT ONE has had the time, inclination or the awareness to point out the major flaw in your stupendous post
You say “cult classics. ‘Golmaal’, ‘Baaton Baaton Main’, ‘Gharonda’, ‘Naram Garam’, ’Chitchor’”
My retort: Cult Classics? Cult? Get a dictionary or log on to a Wiki to find what Cult means… Get your basic ducks in row before shooting a blog on PFC.
Thanks for your comment, i did check it out,
10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.
link : http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cult
Though i think ‘Golmaal’ can be classified as one, but that’s just my opinion,
I would rather remove that word, if you don’t mind, let’s just say, popular and still remembered movies like ‘‘Golmaal’, ‘Baaton Baaton Main’, ‘Gharonda’, ‘Naram Garam’, ’Chitchor’.
Thanks ,
Dhiraj
Oz is the ‘Thesaurus’ of cinema
Thanks for acknowledging a minor comment. Correction again. Golmaal is not a cult. It was a hit upon it’s release. You’ve got to give Hrishida some credit. He had and has a massive following.
Samjah karo bhai,
It’s good you noticed but so does most of us. Classifying GOLMAAL was not the intent of the post. Still I think constructive criticism is always good.
why the fcuk u being so harsh on such a minor thing. i dont think naming the movies cult had any impact on the overall article…
I think more than the choice of words, what is more important is what Dhiraj was trying to convey through this article did come across.
As the great DeNiro once said, I humbly repeat herewith ‘You talkin to me?’
oz..i can never think of taking panga with you on filmy matters…it was just what I felt or how I took this article
Abhay Deol is very good, but I somehow feel that he looks way too suave and self-confident to play the slightly diffident and not-so-cool characters that Amol Palekar played in most movies. I think the closest I have seen in recent times is SRK as Suri in RNBDJ. But then, they had to go and create the Raj character to spoil the fun :(
Enough about the heroes, but when will see a normal sized and normal looking heroine in Hindi movies? Excluding maybe Konkona in a few movies, Hindi movies seem to portray an India where women are all fair complexioned, size zero and wear designer clothes and shoes!! Where exactly are the middle-classed Suri-equivalent girls/women in movies?
I guess, we are talking about disappearance of characters in lead role, who came across as vulnerable. Someone who when confronted with a problem, can not solve it himself. The underlying theme of many a movie of Amol Palekar was, he gets into a problem, average middle class worker, can not solve it, takes help from someone and what follows then are some truly hilarious situations. initially, the problems will keep getting bigger till it gets finally solved. Deven Verma and David helps him in Golmaal, Ashok Kumar in Baaton Baaton Mein. In Naram Garam, he keeps inviting people to solve his problem but it just keeps aggravating. The notion of ‘HERO’ is one who takes control of the situation and handles it. Generally in movies, the lead actor is the hero so obviously lines between lead actor and hero is completely blurred. I am pretty sure there are actors to pull off such role if such stories are written and made into movies. Maybe some newcomer will do it, Maybe Abhay or Shreyas will surprise you (like Saif did in Omkara). The basic premise for me is that writers should not assume that the lead actor must solve his or the world’s problems. What lead to demise of this simple concept is in my opinion, star power/value/system etc. If you make a realistic movie where Sunny Paji gets slapped by someone and he lives another second, the audience will find it unreal or even surreal. BTW, the title should have been ‘COMMON MAN’ rather than ‘MIDDLE CLASS HERO’…… One movie i want to bring in discussion is ‘KATHA’
@ OZ,
Who cares what a ‘cult classic’ is? Does correct usage of English matter at all on PFC?
Isn’t PFC about passion and only passion?
I didn’t see you get a dictionary in your genuflectory ode to a comment by a greek-namesake on SethuMadhavan’s ‘Main aurr Mrs Khanna’ review.
If its not too late, can u get back on that blog, track the comments and let me know what a ‘Spoiler’ actually is?
I never got to hear that from anyone else-including the greek figure who had laid one of the first bricks of the hallowed temple of PFC.
Come on it’s not about English and grammar. He might have referred the person to see a dictionary but look for the intention there. Saying those movies as cult is like misleading the people and conveying wrong information to the people who may not know that the movies were hit.
BTW. I found that in my previous post there is a misleading thing as well. The movie Junoon may have been inspired by many werewolf flicks but certainly not by The Wolf. I’ll request PFC editors to please edit it and replace ‘The Wolf’ by “The Howling’ or any better movie if they are aware of.
O yea, just remembered Junoon has taken something from Natassa Kinski starrer Cat People as well.
Darn, I didn’t remember this while writing. Anyway, replacing with ‘The Howling’ will do.