The Bachchan Series – Part 1
Hi Folks,
Last year AB was being honored in NY and this was my multi part tribute to India’s pride and joy. Posted here in multiple parts. Here’s the first.
AGNEEPATH – THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS
Hi Folks,
As you’ll know NY City will play host to the AB film festival in
early to mid April, 2005. Here then is a build up (or a series of
them) to the man. No I don’t hero worship him or any other actor for
that matter (their job is too easy to make them real life heroes),
but I hold AB in tremendous respect as the CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL. A
professional as defined as someone who (a) Is punctual, (b)
acknowledged by the market he serves, (c) get’s on with the job
rather than get into lenghty arguments about the merits of it or his
emotional state, (d) is prepared (e) caters and adapts to the market
he serves and (f) works with his strenghts rather than go after
things which are out of his control (his rightful disdain for the
Oscars, being a case in point):
We in SAAFA would like to recognize his professionalism and skill by
doing a write up on his works as we approach his festival. Not all
the films we profile will be showcased in the festival, but this is
our “hats off to you sir” to the man.
Festivites kick off with the ONLY FILM THAT HAS WON HIM A NATIONAL
AWARD, the late Mukul Anand’s (god bless the soul of that creative
man), AGNEEPATH:
The title inspired by his poet dad’s works, pits the two
PERSONALITIES of Bollywood against each other. If AB is the consumate
hero, then his friend in real life, Danny Denzongpa complements him
as the perfect nemesis. Agneepath makes the confrontation between
these two larger than life. AB as Viay Dinnanath Chavan and Danny as
Kancha Cheena have a face off, various times during the film. Some
amidst death and destruction, some in the beautiful locals of
Mauritius (where the song, Dost Hote Nahin Dosti Dekhane Wale….Jaam
Hote Nahin Peena Pelanewale…aka… Not all folks who display
friendship are friends and not all drinks are those that are meant to
be drunk) brings out the irony of the situation.
AB plays a victim of circumstances and the angry man (he was no
longer Young at that time), something that he does very well
throughout his career, to perfection in this film. The difference is
that he is no longer the silent sufferrer, he is the in-control
sufferer. The film has shades of Deewar..the man who does not want to
be weak and is willing to wreath havoc on those who made his life
miserable. Like Deewar, here too he loses the love of his mother
(Rohini Hattangadi) in his battle to , ironically bring back her own
self respect. Here too his redemtion is “Main Boora Admi
Nahin!”….I am not a bad person…This sentiment represented the
sign of the times when people were resorting to gangsterism and
violence rather than put up with a system that was crumbling. There
was bitterness everywhere. Something evident in AB’s voice throughout
the film.
That then is one of the downfalls of this film. AB’s biggest plus
right through his career has been his rich barritone and that was
changed in the film, causing considerable hue and cry…the logic
being that bitterness causes a man’s voice to change.
The other social relevance of this film was Mithuin Chkraborty’s
character (this is one of his great performances) .The character’s
name was Krishnan Iyer M.A. THere is also a song which goes by the
words “I am Krishnan Iyer M.A. I am narial pani wallah (I am a
Masters In Arts, but I sell coconut water for a living). This song
caused much uproar, people were offended. However, the song also
reflected the apathy of the times, the ineffective, back then,Indian
educational system, wherein people were getting degrees but no jobs
that supported those degress. Underemployment was rampant and hence
there was mass appeal in this movie.
The film has fine performances by Neelam, Madhavi, Archana Puran
Singh and Tinnu Anand.
However, the film is Bachchan from the first frame to the last, one
can feel and see his struggle as a newcomer and then his ultimate
power ride , righ through the film. The undercurrent of bitterness
that he displays throughout the movie, is something only he is
capable of doing and hence the NATIONAL award.
ENJOY THE MOVIE & AB IN NYC.
Sincerely,
Vivek “there are those who do and those who talk about those who
do”Kumar
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
Some awesome dialogues from the movie:
Topi smbhal Dinkar rao Hawaa Bahut Tez chaltha hain
Hey Saala aaj apun ka Maut ke saath appinment(appointment) hain.
Dekh maa..Haath Saaf hogaye
Ma: Tumharein haath itni asani se saaf nahi honge Vijay
Agneepath is 75% “Scar Face”. Story, scenes are adapted from this Al Pacino’s film. Several scenes are straight lift from original.
Agneepath was not a commercial success at par with other AB’s hit films rather in first two weeks it was a obvious flop because AB and Mukul Anand had used different voice for AB and audience did not understand his dialogues delivered in sharp,thin tone and whispers. Later they dubbed AB’s dialogues again and still you can see his two kind of dialogue delivery in same film. Today people may find Mithun’s performance as plus point for this film but when it was released his character was seen as second biggest hurdle in making film hit ( after AB’s experiments with his voice)
Though AB got National award for this film but fact is it was kind of reward for his total work till that year as President of the selection Committee Dada Muni – Ashok Kumar had clearly said that AB deserved National award much before as he has given performances having different shades in the past and he is a complete actor. This is just a trial to recognise his talent.
Film borrowed title from a famous poem of Dr HariVansh Rai Bachchan – Agneepath agneepath, and poem was also used in the film.
RK, You are correct that Agneepath is hindi take of Scarface.
It remains one of my favourite AB film. The dialogues and acting is top class. I just can not forget the scene when he comes to the police station for ‘hazri’. The dialogues, style, bodylanguage are just wonderful!
There was some talk that the character was actually inspired by Don Ibrahim. His style of wearing white clothes always, even the sun glasses AB wears are exactly similar to ones worn by D in his famous footage during sharjah criket matches. The different voice which was used originally also resembles that of D!
Hi Manjeet,
Never met D:). Yes I saw his photos at Sharjah etc in magazines. But cant opposite happen? Its known that D like underworld people have always a fascination with film walah and perhaps those kind of goggles were famous in that era and D had no dearth of money to wear latest fashion. But yes there are possibilities that Mukul borrowed mannerisms of D. But I doubt given AB’s status in India he would do it. AB was closest friend of then PM Rajiv Gandhi and I doubt AB will opt any thing related to a real life gangster living in same era. He never liked controversies though they approached him.
Though AB’s performance was cent percent his own but I doubt Mukul Anand’s intentions as he had lifted several scenes from Scar Face. The way AB’s Deena Nath sits on chair in Police stationis 100% similar to Al Pacino’s Toni sits in chair at sea side in white suit. White has been a fascination with 60s 70s and 80s film stars. Raj Kumar always wore complete white attire in every film atleast for one scene. Jeetendra and AB also wore complete white suit in most of their films.
RK, Offcourse its a speculation and not confirmed fact that actually D’s get up was used.
I am not making this point as one of his obssessed fans:) But if you look at the performances of both of them AB shows a more wider range as a performer. Can anyone imagine AL doing the mirror scene of AAA?
But even if it was that does it make AB a criminal. Isn’t it a part of his profession to portray a charcater good or bad? Does that make him good or bad. I can not say about Amit ji’s personal choice of playying a character like D.
Comparing Al to AB its a very interesting subject. AB was offcourse was his own, when he acted. In my personal view I rate him higher than Al! Lot of you may not agree with me on this
Manjeet:
Some time ago I had written a about strkingly similarities between Al Pacino and AB and similarities between their career. May be some day I post that here. Incidently AB praises Al Pacino and Marlon Brando’s performances. They both are wonderful genius actors and I think both have capabilities to do any kind of role in any kind of films. Only thing Hollywood does not make kind of films AB had done in 70s and 80s. I have yet to see AB playing blind Ala Al Pacino( Scent of a Woman) as only then AB’s journey as an actor reaches to completion. He has played a dumb person in Reshma aur Shera and I am eagerly waiting for his Zamanat to be released where he is said to play role of blind. If Zamanat does justice with his talent and does not impose a black goggle all through the film. If he does something like Girl Ayesha did in Black or Nasser did in Sparsh and Al did in ScENT–Woman then only a fun will be there to watch him.
Do you find any difficulty for Al to do mirror scene as AB did in AAA? Dilip Kumar had done the same scene twice much before (in Kohinoor and one other film I cant recall). Incidently AB also repeated Kohinoor’s scene in Mard with Prem Chopra. Even in Hollywood one more actor had done this kind of scene in early 50s.
Al is so good in scent of a woman! I am not able to imagine Al in a role like AAA is coz as u rightly said hollywood does not make the kind of movies we do. The same point was picked up by actor director friend, who was so correct in pointing out that the acting styles used in our films are alien to hollywood. The majority of Als roles give u an impression of an Italian character. I wish I could see Al doing the stuff our AB does!
Manjeet: No playing any role based on any criminal does not make AB criminal.I may be completely wrong but I really doubt AB would do that in last year of 8os when he was facing lot of troubles in bofors case. He had resigned from politics and his shanshah had seen a lot of trouble from Shiv Sena and film stars attending D’s parties in Dubai or Sharjah were becoming talk of discussions and at such Time he would not do deliberately which could bring him another controversy. Though its said that Deewar’s character was loosely based on life of Underworld don- Haji Mastan” But AB did not take body language or attire similar to Haji Mastan and time was different. He was not “The Amitabh Bachchan” in 1975 when Deewar was released.
Moreover films D and Company are also said to be inspired by D’s life but do we find any similarities in body language and dresses of Ajay Devgan, Randeep Hudda and D?
This is also true that actors often borrow their get up and style to play a character from real life people. so what you are saiyng may be right. AB’s opting Ds style certainly does not make him criminal or even wrong afterall he is an actor and can immitate any real life person but this could have added to his those days troubles and this is my reservation and doubt.
Pardon my ignorance but dint D shoot to ’superstardom’ post Mumbai Blasts(1993) and was just a small time crook/local don(probably the ‘Viv(i?)ek Oberoi’ type of 1st half-Company)?