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PERFORMANCE FAILURE
Whenever you read or heard “Is actor ne us actor ke performance ko us film me kaccha chaba liya hai” means one actor has overshadowed another actor’s performance. What do you thinks at that time? Is it failure of actor?
Sometimes it is true, sometimes it is questionable.
Take example of Agneepath(1990). It was truly Amitabh Bachchan’s film. But you can not ignore Mithun’s performance. You can not say that Mithun performed badly. This is Director’s success that he knows how to balance characters on the screen irrespective of the lengths of roles of respective actors.
Take another example Deewar (1975)- Amitabh performed very well but you can not say that he over shadowed Shashi Kapoor’s performance. Director and writer succeeded in balancing of characters. On the contrary, take example of Darr (1993) where Shahrukh Khan’s performance overshadowed Sunny Deol’s performance though both have same lengths of roles. After watching the film you only remember Shahrukh Khan though Sunny Deol performed reasonably well. Here director failed to balance characters.
Certain directors like Hrishikesh Mukerjee, Gulzar, Mukul Anand, Rajkumar Santoshi etc. have capability of balancing all the actor’s performances. In their films you can not see that a particular actor steals all the show. All the characters get enough space to grow. Infact, bad actor performs reasonably well in their films. Consider Khakee (2003), Tushar Kapoor was tolerable infact he managed to occupy his space in front of magnificent Amitabh, Akshay, Ajay….
Some actors do not have capacity to perform even if they are given stronger and lengthy role with respect to other actors. In Mohabbatein (2000), Uday chopra was given more concentration and screen space with respect to Jimmy Shergill and Jugal Hansraj but he did not utilize this facility and failed to perform. He was busy with showing designer jeans and bi shapes.
While some actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Amrish Puri, Kamal Haasan etc.are such actors that if they are given freedom they eat opposite actor’s performance. The director should have capacity to control and balance them. .
So if an actor performs badly with respect to other actor or an actor overshadows other actor’s performance, an actor is not responsible all the time. Some times it it director’s , sometimes writer or sometimes actor’s failure.
Some well character and performance balanced movies are Shakti (Ramesh Sippy), Gangajal(Prakash Jha), Damini, Ghatak (Rajkumar Santoshi)
The best example of well balanced characters in a film is Sholay (1975). All the actors were given enough importance, enough space to grow and the result is that you recognize all the characters after 32 years of film’s release. This is writer director and actor’s success.
What do you think?
17 Responses to “PERFORMANCE FAILURE”
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Bang on. just perfect. I would like to add films like waisa bhi hota hai jhankar beats to this list though.
Shailesh: Ramesh Sippy’s all films have that balance where actors are given space to flourish, be it his first ever Andaj or then Sholay/Shaan/Shakti/ but till Sagar only. Bhrastachar onwards he lost the balance and his TV serial Buniyad is far better in quality than his films like Akayla Bhrashtachar and later films like Zameen and Zamana Deewana.
In other examples I doubt that there is confusion between characters and performances.
Re: Deewar, Its not only character of Amitabh which makes him tallest in the film but its his performance which overshadowed all the other actors. watch it three times a week and this will be clear that in the last Deewar will become Amitabh Bachchan and rest you may find lots of flaws. He remains only flawless actor/factor in that film. Though if we compare the roles Shashi Kapoor did not get less important role and scenes but somehow he could not rise where he could match up with Amitabh’s performance. Though if we swap their roles, Amitabh again would have make role of Inspector Ravi Verma as memmorable as he made Vijay the strayed son.
But Same Shashi Kapoor in the film Kabhi Kabhi of same director not only matches with Amitabh but often overshadows him. He acted as his role demanded. here charcater and his performance was completely in synchronisation. At the end we recall him.
Darr: Again here character and performances are mixed up. Surely role of SRK had more power than Sunny Deols but what Sunny did was demand of the role. His restrained behaviour was demand of the role and he did beautiful justice. In repeated viewing it will be more visible. His wriggling because he knows there is enemy but he does not know who he is. SRK did fine job but his role and performance was having visible factors. Role of SRK overshadowed role of Sunny but not his performance. Here swaping of actors will make a hell lot of difference. Whoever would play Sunny’s role will have to be satisfied with lower recognition. But if can recall it was not SRK, it was Sunny whose able performance had provoked editorials and articles by serious writers in main national newspapers at that time when it was released.
Actors do matter. Amitabh has 1 minut scene in Dost(1974) where Shatrughan Sinha and Dharmendra play lead roles but Amitabh plays that 1 minut scene with full sincerity and he is noticed. He is very well noticed in 5 minut scene in Paheli, not because he has been super star but because he performed it very well.
We may watch Om Puri in rather unknown and less known film “Stop” and he does wonder in that small role of drunkard father who is a failed actor but same Om Puri makes it unbearable in a big role in “king of Bollywood”. His role might have some substance but he did not play it well.
All good films have fine balance between the actors be it Mughal-i-azam or Mother India. When Industry forgot this factor and tried to make stories only around AMITABH Bachchan, he could not remain SUPERSTAR for more than 2-3 years. Stories have to have fine balance between characters and actors who play those characters. Thats why Amitabh’s biggest hits are multistarrer, where he got good competition from Vinod Khannaa, Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor etc.
Dunno wat Karthik will say abt this with regards to Omkara….where langda stole the show frm Omi bhaiyya all the way…may be the movie and director wanted it to be that way….may be the audience claps more often than not at dialogues and the silent face which potrays so much is seldom recognised….
but i take it in this way…like in gr8 patnerships Rahul Dravid always plays the suporting role and Sachin or DADA always win the man of the match awards doesnt detriment his contribution one bit…
every one remembers laxman’s 281…how many remember Dravid’s 180.
so may be even in films somebody has to support while the other plays a wonderfull role…
take for eg: wat do u remember Anand for…Rajesh Khanna or Amitabh or lympho sarcoma
Arre RK i m missing ur reviews man of cult hnidi movies…there havnt been any since Raakh….
shailesh…u r spot on..
it’s definitely director’s failure if it’s not balanced, because if the opposite characters are not competitive enough, it affects the overall scene also…
another example is satya, bhiku surely won our hearts, but can’t forget satya too..
i think rgv, mani ratnam, anurag kashyap and many of the new directors give importance to all of the characters. may it be satya, company or black friday…smallest of the characters are remembered in their own way.
yeah..
everyone should have their moment on the screen..why develope a character when it has nothing 2 contribute to the film..
s far as casting goes, satya is far superior to many other films..just about every character in that film can b remembered…even the last surviving guy of satya’s gang, the tarzan guy on whom the film ends, i guess
thinking about some failed films on this aspect…:-?
RK-:
just ignored seeing that it’s a long message than the original write-up itself, but read on..
u give heart and soul for anything u say…u r one passionate film lover, u study the characters well which i feel is ur greatest strength..
this is the perfect case of balancing act..
with ur reply u complemented the write-up of shailesh..
when u all mentioned shahi kapoor, one film that came to my mind is shyam benegal’s kalyug..
shashi kappors character has the least number of lines, but his performance was very powerful but restrained..
Shailesh, great write up. I totally agree that a good director will know how to bring out the best in his talent/characters. Ramesh Sippy may have been the best at it, but Hrishida (especially in Chupke Chupke where even character actors like Om Prakash, David, Asrani and Keshto had memorable parts..) Yash Chopra as well, with Trishul, Kaala Pathar, Silsila, Deewar, etc. Manmohan Desi knew how to etch out great characters as well.. watch Amar Akbar Anthony (3 heros, 3 heroines, and yet Pran & Jeevan & Nirupa Roy all shine).
For modern times Rajkumar Hirani is great as well. Both Munnabhai films had many standout performances. Farhan Akhtar showed great promise in this respect with Dil Chahta Hai (with his little chapters about the women in Aamir & Saifs lives) but then again Don no one but Shahrukh really stood out (not even “Vijay”…)
Wow, now you got my mind racing on this topic…
RK bhai, I was going to make reference to Amitabh in Dost as well par aap ne mere pehle hi teer maar diya…
But I gotta disagree with you on Deewar yaar. Shashi Kapoor totally stood out. I mean “Mere Paas Maa Hai” was HIS line, while Amitabh provided the set up. Vice versa, the whole “Pehle us aadmi ka sign lekhar aao..” was totally set up with Shashi Kapoors “Bhai tum sign karte ho ya nahin?!” It was a very very well written, well directed and well acted film and I say Shashi Kapoor lent a great deal of credibility to his character, so much so that you can’t say Amitabh overshadowed him.
Same goes for Trishul (who can forget the look on his face when he discovers Amitabh stole his keys in the restaurant scene, and his interaction with Hema after) and in Silsila (as I’ve said before, a very rare instance where you truly miss a character after their onscreen death) and in Kaala Pathar (again the legendary “Gyan, chai idhar laao” showdown btwn Shatrughan and Amitabh, with Shashi Kapoor maaring a hero ki entry breaking it all up.
I can’t say Shashi Kapoor was overshadowed at all in any of these films. He was given scenes where he had the opportunity to perform and allow his character to stand out and he more than seized those moments. A man of lesser charisma and talent may have indeed been overshadowed, but he more than held his own.
Same with Sanjeev Kumar in Silsila, Seeta Aur Geeta, Trishul, Lakhon Ki Baat, Sholay, and dozens of other films. The man made a damn career out of taking supporting characters and delivering wonderful performances. I can’t think of 1 time he was “overshadowed” in a film.
Haan, RK I have to agree with Sunny Deol in Darr. His part was written in such a way as to garner sympathy for SRK’s character. If Sunny was given the scope to perform then he would have the audience side with him which would have make SRK look like a regular villain which would have ruined the whole film. So Sunny was in a position where he had to underplay his character and he did so admirably.
JP Dutta balanced his characters very well in films like “Ghulami” and “Border” as well. Too bad we cant say the same for some of his other films…
Balancing characters takes skill, it takes careful crafting of scenes and of course building character arcs for your supporting characters, something some of todays directors could/should do a much better job of.
Take the Darshans for example. How many times has an actor the calibre of an Anil Kapoor been wasted in poorly written characters (Bewafa, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, etc.) while he shines in supporting roles such as “Taal”, “Biwi No.1″, etc (I know there’s lots of others just cant think of them now).
Sanjay Gadhvi royally messed this up in “Dhoom 2″ where Hritik totally stole the show while the “franchise players” Abhishek and Uday were completely overshadowed.
Sorry for going off guys, like I said this topic got my mind racing…
Tony Mera Naam,
Was Sunny’s performance good in Darr?
I remember in a scene when Sunny, Juhi and SRK sit and have coffee, Sunny’s face as usual as hard as a rock, while a relatively ugly looking SRK had some expressions on his face.
Same case with Dhoom2.
Abhishek needn’t have had that ‘I stink below the nose’ kinda expression whenever he speaks with Uday in the movie. Given that Hrithik looked his best and danced his best in D2, Abhishek could have still saved the day, had he done brought in some value for himself. He spoilt it himself.
Don’t blame the under performance of an actor, on the director. I think directors are like Managers, both tend to favour the person who delivers. Thats my take!
I think Damini was well balanced film.
Though the film was concentrated on Damini, Rishi Kapoor also performed very well and though he was not taking side of Damini or his brother you can not say that he was doing wrong. (unfortunately his performance was underrated)
Amrishpuri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda even tinu anand’s character got very well developed irrespective of ther role’s length.
Jai: yes Shashi Kapoor has long list of wonderful performances (in hindi films). In several rather all of Ismail Merchant’s films he brings out best of his acting talent.Shashi Kapoor needs a separate post to cover.
——–
Tony:
I feel pain to be disagree with Shashi Kapoor factor in Deewar. I had mentioned that if one can watch this film 2-3 times a week (now) then Deewar Dhah jayegee(Wall will collapse) and on other side Amitabh will be seen as standing.
This dialogue “Mere Pass Maan hai” has been quoted by countless people and sometimes in mockery way also. But seriusly this dialogue has more impact on Amitabh’s character then the speaker. Means speaker did not say it with that conviction but Being ready Amitabh was ready to show his part of being affected. If you recall Kranti, Manoj Kumar says once to Shashi Kapoor,”ye mitti man hotee hai senapati, ise ghav par laga lo” (This soil is our mother, captain, rub it on the wounds) he says in his usual soft way.
If we compare the under current electricity between characters of AB and Vinod Khanna in Parvarish then its lost in Deewar between AB and Shashi.
Same Shashi matched and complemented AB in Dharam Karam,Kala Pathar, Trishul (in some scenes better), Kabhi Kabhi(even better here).
Something was lost in Deewar from Shashi Kapoor’s side.
For examples: There are 2 scenes to understand this point.
Script brings equal opportunity to Vijay(AB) and Ravi(Shashi) before their respective bosses/partners.
Scene 1 - DSP/IG(whatever he is) ManMohan Krishna gives a file to Shashi Kapoor where crimes of AB and his partners are mentioned. Shashi Kapoor is in dilemma.
Scene 2- AB is sitting with Iftikhar(Dagar) and Sudhir and Sudhir tries to emphasise that Inspector Ravi Verma has become a problem for us and we should kill him, AB tries to change the topic and tries to say that killing a Police walla will be wrong. Sudhir knows his relation and AB is trying to avoid the topic.
The command over these scenes by our two actors should define what I mean to say re deewar and Shashi Kapoor.
——-
NS: Re: Darr and the scene you have mentioned, pls see it again and then make ur opinion.
Sunny has to be with tension and hard face as he cant be relaxed. he is facing an unknown enemy and this enemy has ruined his present life. While SRK knows what he is doing, he has to be clever and he has to show that he has just came there by chance. Sunny has got some doubt also on SRK, thats why he proposes to have drinks, remember his saying to Juhi,” Mardon ne faisla kiya hai kee we daru piyenge, aurtein taya kar lein unhe kya karna hai”(males have decided they would drink alcohol, ladies shd decide abt them).
re Darr: we have to discuss performance under the boundaries given to the characters. SRK is doer and Sunny has to live under those actions done by SRK.He is a trained commando and an officer in Navy, in the film and he cant be boy like person as SRK’s character is. so difference in performance has to be understood with definitions of character’s behaviour.
There have been few films with this thin but well written balance for all characters. One actor who in every role that he has played, done this consistently is Aamir Khan. I recollect a not so great movie “Hum Hain Raahi Pyar ke” where AK was spendid in offering the centerstage to Juhi and the Kids. It was possible because the film and every scene was written beautifully. AK was subdued yet so powerful in making Juhi’s character bloom to its full glory.
Another movie AK was superb was 1947 - Earth, where he maintained a low key extremely well and giving the canvas space to Rahul and Nandita Deepa Mehta had a fantastic script (of course, The Book - Ice Candy Man was in itself a wonderful Script in itself so it required little effort to make it into a film). But AK’s role comes alive post the Train to Pakistan, scene. and the Silence and Fury was so well done. Here again, there was no effort in taking away shine from anyother character in the film. A few moments like the scene where AK peeps into the room only to find his beloved making love with another man. The background score coupled with AK’s expressions brings alive his anger, fury, disappointment, and then his ultimate communal inference ….that was Cinema at its best.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee was one of the best, when it came to strike a balance in his movies. If we look at most of his creations, till date we not only remember the Leading Actors but each of the supporting casts. Chupke Chupke for example. The Fact that we remember each and every characters names is testimony to the fact that every single person had a welll written character. It was not just about dharmendra, sharmila, amitabh, jaya, it was also about Om Prakash, David, Asrani, Keshto ..everyone.
I quite agree with RK when he says, that it all depends on the situation of the movie. Certain directors have that flair is creating the balance beautifully but sadly majority get overawed or myopic with their leading actors. Something that makes these actors look like megalomaniacs. One of the worse castings was PArdes by Shubhash Ghai, where I felt so let down to see Pawan Malhotra being used as an Extra. The same Pawan, was a class act as Tiger Memmon in Black Friday !!!
Its completely a director’s perspective at the end !!!
One of the best scenes in Indian cinema is in Ghatak. The scene when Sunny Deol cries in front of Amrish Puri in the hospital. Both actors performed very well. In this scene we can’t say one was better than the other. This was because both the actors were very good, the scene was written well and was well executed by the great director Raj Kumar Santoshi.
RK bhai, we’re seeing the same scenes with different perspectives. I don’t see Shashi Kapoor as being overshadowed performance wise. I thought his performace was great, which is one of the big reasons why the film is such a classic.
What I do see is that Vijay’s character had a lot more layers: It was much more intense, had much more fire and anger and there for was much more emotionally charged, and Amitabh brought all that out awesomely with his performance.
Ravi’s character was a lot more subdued. Though not exactly an introvert, he was the educated, sensible, pratical of the two. He was able to rationalize and therefore anger wasn’t one of his major character traits. Shashi Kapoor showed a great understanding of this character which shows in the confrontation scenes I’ve mentioned earlier.
Either way, I can see your point of view RK which is why this is such a good debate. Lets agree to disagree shall we?
NS - I still think Sunny Deol in Darr was very good. I agree with RK that he was playing a more disciplined man, so he had to portray some reservation in displaying his emotions. I found Sunny brought forth a different kind of intensity, his guard was up and he was very protective of his wife, he had anger and frustration built up but he couldn’t necessarily bring it all to forefront in social situations such as the one mentioned.
But yeah looks like we (ALL) agree that Abhishek’s performace was quite lackluster in Dhoom 2. Whether the blame is put on the actor, or the director, or shared between the two (that’s my theory) we can’t really judge from this vantage point.
The above noted scenario bring up an interesting point: Is it necessary that brooding introverted characters lack charisma? Fine, they’re meant to be quiet and serious and all that but that doesn’t mean they have to be limited in their expressions or that they don’t have a different kind of energy running through them.
Look no farther than any of Amitabhs or even Anil Kapoors angry young men characters. Or Sunny from films like “Arjun” or “Ghayal”. Or Akshaye Khanna from “Taal” or “Dil Chahta Hai”. They managed to balance the quiet intensity with some more subtle charismatic traits. A hallmark of these great performers.
Justin, yes that was a great scene (Ghatak), very well handled by the director and performers.
Sheel, yeah I’ve always thought Aamir Khan was great not only playing his part with great conviction but also giving other actors space to perform well also. This is why whether its 1947 Earth, or Andaaz Apna Apna, or Dil Chahta, or Lagaan or Rang De Basanti, other characters/actors are able to give great performances as well.
It makes one wish Aamir did more multi-starrers. Imagine his with an Ajay Devgan or another film with an Akshaye Khanna, what screen magic could be created!
Also Sheel you’ve echoed my sentiments on Chupke Chupke and Hrishida exactly! YES Hrishida was THE BEST, just brilliant the way he handled his actors - they always become the characters. Credit has to also be given to Gulzar for writing such well fleshed out, real characters.
yes, Ghatak was great movie. your mentioned scene is my favourite in Ghatak.even K K raina (brother of sunny deol)performed very well rememebr scene where sunny says “buzdil ki koi zameen nahi hoti” outside shop of his brother. very well written dialogues and both actors ki kaante ki takkar.
Regarding, shashi kapor and Rishi kapoor both actors tried to do justice whatever they were given even speicial apprearance in Silsila or Damini or sagar ….
both are most under ated actors.
RK, you should write about special post on Shahshi and Rishi kapoor.
Sunny deol was quiet good but i am still of opinion that SRK overshadowed him due to script or director. Like Sunny deol Overshadowed all the actors in GADAR except amrish puri.
If an actor has to be in limit while showing expressions or acts, then you Naseeruddin Shah was excellent in Katha whose was shoen very introvert though he has to face Farooque shekh who was very extrovert. both characters were balanced and after watching the film you rememeber both the characters.