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When Amitabh Faked it…
There is this scene in RGV’s Sarkar where Mr. Bachchan aks his wife for some pickles (in Marathi). That scene for me quite simply epitomised the shoddy piece of work that “SARKAR” was. There was this actor trying hard to infuse in his character a sense of a cultural belonging, which he quite obviously didnt connect with. if i were to generalise the entire movie,taking into perspective that one scene, i think i would well be providing justification to my strong belief of why i think SARKAR was probably RGV’s worst movie to date.
CIRCA 1998:
A local don(of sorts) is on his cellphone talking “businees”. His lines of thoughts are conflicted by his kids playing and making noise in the background. he pauses for a brief moment and shouts in a grunted voice,”GAP BAS RE”…
Bhiku Mhatre connected, and connected big time.
i was suddenly transported to the intellect, the bent of mind and probably the sensibility of a certain “Rajesh Kadam” or a “Deepak Jadhav” i grew alongside with. As the entire movie flashed itself on the screen i could draw simple analogies to those Maharashtrian Mortals i have known and unknowingly evaluated..
Rajesh Kadam’s musings and desperate rants over the Indian Cricket Team’s poor performances could well have been substitued with Bhiku’s desperation over Chander’s kiling. Deepak Jadhav’s devilish laughter seemed like the perfect parallel to Bhiku’s diabolical chirp . Everything seemed to have fallen in place.
Cardboard characterisations and starched rendering of dialogues to me are the two of the by-products of being too loyal to the theory that “Cinema is essentially a visual medium”. Although there r a lot of factors that go behind the decision whether a certain actor is fit to play a certain character or not, one of the most essential consideration should be deciding whether the actor can pull off his or her dialogues without making it appear to be faked or contrived. It comes with visualising how an actor would seem mouthing the dialogues that are written for him. if he or she seems uncomfortable, so would your cinema to the viewer.
For that to happen one should have the minimum knowledge that a character in his movie isnt born to the first reel of cinema. He or she existed much before the film had started rolling on screen. Their perspectives, their belief-systems,their reactions(both voluntary or involuntary) are a part of a process that started way back before they were shown on screen for the first time.
Great performances are those that seem to find a “cultural lineage” for itself without being too laboured. They dont essentially require a voiceover or a made-up accent to prove where they belong to. It all is essentially a product of a “director’s sensibility” and an actor’s intelligence…
32 Responses to “When Amitabh Faked it…”
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= Spot On!!! It’s as if it’s a license to pronounce in a different language in whatever horrible way one can…
=d> agreed.
i didn’t think Sarkar deserved all the attention it got and infact still gets. Amitabh might have faked it in one or two scenes..but what about his son? AB’s baby was a sore thumb in an already sore movie.
Sarkar was awesome. It was captivating from first frame to the last. Dissatisfaction from one scene should not be construed to statement on whole film. If that were the case, the scene where bachchan looks at khan while having a sip of tea from saucer was mind blowing. That makes the movie classic.
I agree that Abhishek was ordinary. He could have brought lot of emotions when he meets Big B after he is shot or in Jail.
//If that were the case, the scene where bachchan looks at khan while having a sip of tea from saucer was mind blowing. That makes the movie classic//
Again it seemed fake to me.with all those zangy music being played in the background. plus, i always like it when a director surprises me. and call me clairvoyant but i knew that look was coming..and by the time it came, the effect of it had subsided.and that precisely was the case with every scene in SARKAR.i cud put my two cents down on what was coming next,and i cud have won every single time..
and unlike third-rate critics who disliked the movie cos they felt it was a bad tribute to coppola,i disagree. i can sympathise with a movie if its good on its own terms..SARKAR wasnt..
I agree with Sreehari on his post. By the way, does any one remember AB speaking terrible marathi in one scene of LAKSHYA? Man, I was like ‘What the fuck did he just say?’
Chaitanya,
I guess its more than just the accent..u cud seem like u r faking the accent, but there’s this “cultural belonging thing” that goes a bit beyond the accent..
manoj bajpai is a delhi-ite, up-ite or something..but he was right up there in the way he traced bhiku mhatre,hence the accent at times might be a bit contrived..but,that marathi psyche was well exploited..its a lot beyond just the accent i guess…
sreehari, i’d like to agree with your view on amitabh’s unconvincing scene in sarkar, but i can’t only because i, and probably the aam junta, didn’t see anything wrong with amitabh’s marathi in that scene. i’m guessing you know marathi, hence you’ve pointed it out.. but to most they would just see it as another scene and move on. moreover, it would be like me calling out madhavan’s pallakad tamil in “nala damayanti” (the tamil original of “ramji londonwale) as unconvincing (which btw, was convincing). if you or anyone else were to watch it, you’d probably just watch it and move on.. but to anyone that really knows pallakad tamil, they would be really bothered by it.
big b is too busy of a man to go about researching his roles.. so it’s no surprise that he wasn’t able to convince you in the movie. in watching sarkar, i myself didn’t see subhash nagre.. i saw amitabh bachchan. and i saw a director who was in awe of the superstar. i also saw an abhishek trying to pull off his first true “angry young man” role. and finally i saw the hype about a movie that was inspired by “the godfather”. as if that wasn’t hype enough, throw in real life father-son bachchans into their first reel father-son roles, and you don’t think twice about watching the movie. you just watch it.
now zakir hussein in his first meeting with sarkar… THAT is an entirely different performance altogether!!
Good work Sreehari. Another reference to add to ur point is of Amir Khan’s in RDB or even Lagaan….but, still, Lagaan looks well revised n he doesnt give all tht belonging to Champaner feeling tht well….but, in RDB…it felt as if he is tht Punju stud lingering arnd in Delhi University. This “cultural belonging” is a basic to develop the character I feel.
Lakshya - Damle. Why the hell did he accept it? It’s ironic that STARS respond with such magnanimous favors to their friends and agree form walk in to the ridiculous acts and when it’s time to support some great cinema with their star presence and give a decent enough budget to a budding film-maker to tell his story the way he has envisioned it….hmm….”it’s too unconventional…why not make this instead….no dates…..I like you man but this is weird
= reminds me of Feroz “Marathi” Khan in Dayavan going ” Kai Zaala Reh “… zaala??? I was hiding my face in my cap whenever he said that…
@OZ: Lol!
Chainthanya and everybody,
well first things first..the reference to SARKAR is purely incidental to what i am trying to tell thru this post. its about definite characterisation and performing according to the “cultural baggages” that comes with it..
secondly, its quite obvious that bachchan’s per4mance is SARKAR is quite a relative issue.
it isnt a per4mance that wud be universally applauded like say a “Stanly Kowalski” or universally loathed like an Aishwarya in “Umrao Jaan”..
so while u have your reasons for sympathising with the per4mance, i have my reaons for calling it an unconvincing one..
Sreehari, I have no sympathies for AB’s performance in sarkar. And you don’t have to justify man, most of us really agree with you. Only thing I felt is, you could change the title of the post and make it more general in terms of the cultural baggage which superstars carry. But what the heck, good post.
Maal aa gaya reh…..
aab to sab aaisaich hai reh……velu
Secondly its not just about the accent as i had pointed out earlier. it also refers to the attitude that every cultural prototype brings with itself..
this might seem a pretty arcane reference. but there’s this malayalam film called “Manichitrathazhu”(which was later remade as “chandramukhi” in Tamil) in which Mohanlal plays a psychatrist(Dr.Sunny), who enters the frame almost towards the fag-end of the movie’s first half..
Now, there is no direct reference either by the director or the actor by virtue of his dialogues to where he hails from. but its just the cultural attitude that he brings to the character whereby u know he is one of those fun-loving,secualar-minded Jacobite Christians residing in Kerala..
u cud do it in such a subtle manner and yet do it so beautifully..
Oh sorry, the last post was meant to be aimed at STRIKER.. and not Chaintanya…
//Only thing I felt is, you could change the title of the post and make it more general in terms of the cultural baggage which superstars carry//
Hmm..thats where box-office got the better of me i guess.. its only such sly gimmicks that can attract ppl into reading my post i guess..
ya, I agree about sr bachchan in this, it was certainly a contrived performance in what had to easily be varma’s worst film.
and furthermore, being a remake of gaayam, which had always been a varma favorite of mine, made sarkar even that much more disappointing..[-(
However, it was Amitab’s best performance in a decade or so.
If we look at inconsistencies in detailing and localization, it ll open up a pandora’s box. from ’star’s sporting a rajasthani pagdi, lungi and ‘ehmak’ n sayin things like mhaari gharaali mane pyaari laage, to clich
Tushar,
i guess u have missed the point here..when i say,”mouthing of dialogues”, there is much more to it,than just speaking the correct accent.. its also about bringing out an attitude ..
And attitude cannot be pigeon-holed statewise or just culture-wise…if u r protraying a south-mumbai character and u act like a “wannabe cool” u r still not doing justice to what is expected of u to do..
why didnt BACHCHAN’S CHARACTER IN SARKAR NOT WORK FOR ME??
SIMPLE HE JUST WASNT SUBHASH NAGRE,HE WAS BACHCHAN..
And it wasnt just the contrived accent u see, it was just that he wasnt able to protray it faithfully..
On the other hand, i found KAY KAY’S character in the movie extremely believable..his spontaneous outbursts and all were so in sync with the character he was protraying. unfortunately, thanks to the mediocre per4mances around him, he seemed like he belonged to an entirely different household..
“AND REGARDING RGV’S EXPLANATION..ITS LAME..PURE LAME…AND ITS BECOS OF SUCH SELF-BACKED UP THEORIES OF MR.VERMA THAT HE FINDS HIMSELF IN THE CONDITION HE IS TODAY…ALL THE CRAPS, THAT HAVE SUDDENLY EMERGED FROM THE VERMA STABLE IS A DIRECT RESULT OF HIM HARBOURING SUCH FLAWED THEORIES..
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN SUCH CINEMA BASICS MEANT A LOT TO HIM.IF HE DECIDES FOR HIMSELF THAT JUST PASSION CAN DO IT FOR HIM, AND THAT ADHERING TO CINEMA BASICS ISNT NECESSARY, TRUST ME U CAN EXPECT RGV TO BE GONE…”
Good Post Sreehari….I kinda always had this problem with AB Sr. which i see AB Jr. repeating too. Amitabh when he tries to play a character who is from a region other than UP-Bihar always falters…Not taking any credit away from him when he plays a Up-Bihar Bhaiyya..but, when he plays a character from other region his mannerism and accent and body language changes on his own whims and fancies..the glarity is seen in Sarkar…For simplicity sake lets compare the father-son duo of Sarkar..ohh not Bacchan Khandan…but, Amitabh and Kay Kay…Both are maharastrians for obvious reasons..and never would you see kay kay getting out of his character as a Marathi guy…even when he says “Nai ga Aai” to the way he eats his “thali”. Comapre that with how AB Sr. has his “Thali”…check this out…it is quite obvious from the way he holds his roti to the way he picks up dal with the roti…it appears as a man who is not used to eat with hand, but with spoon, is trying it for the first time..check where his elbow is pointed..it is away from the dal katori which is about at 75 degress from his chest…that is no way how you pick dal…..Getting in and out of the character seems to be the mainstay of Bacchan Khandan offlate..what with Guru Kanth Desi changin his gujju accent whenever he wants..just to sound a bit more dramatic and to get a few giggles he pronunces business as Bizzness(like a gujju) and later the gujju accent goes to fly a kite…To me Guru had more mannerism of a Marwadi than a Gujju…
@Sreehari: Spot on. In fact, this is precisely the problem I have with AB of late (its too early to judge Abhishek, havent seen ‘Guru;, felt his performance in ‘Yuva’ was highly hyped and overrated, liked him best in ‘bluffmaster’ until now) - he is always Bachchan, and never the character. Comes with being a superstar, I guess. The younger pre-superstar Bachchan used to really act, though. Off late, I liked him in portions of ‘Sarkar’ (esp the scenes where he doesn’t use his voice), and the initial portion of ‘Virudh’, that was it.
Didn’t catch the nuances of Sarkar the way you did, of course, not being a Maharahstrian myself. And let’s not even go into the South Indian stereotypes in hindi movies (Mithun in ‘Agneepath’?), save ‘Company’ I cant remember even a single decent one.
Thought Kareena tried extremely hard in ‘Chameli’, but something - the very rustic sense of belonging that Konkana displayed so effortlessly in ‘Omkara’ - was missing in her performance.
@ Ranjit are you saying Mithun didnt get into the character of a madrasi in Agneepath? If yes..boy we have to discuss something here..right now…:)
amitabh’s performance in sarkar pissed me off.
i saw a new personality in every scene. its like amitabh is playing so many roles. once he is like this, once he is like that. its like he kept on improvising his role thru out the movie.
and the way in which he tries to cover up the crap by infusing ’style’ in his performance or diction was really cheap.
like, check out this trailer http://d.indiafm.com/trailors/s/sarkar/sarkar1.zip
and listen to the way we pronounces the word ‘khilaaf’ in the line ‘poorey system ke khilaaf kyun na ho’
why did he have to utter that word that way? i have no idea
p.s: i love sarkar trailers. can watch them as many times as u can imagine.
Ranjit,
Mithun’s act in Agneepath deserves 5 star in any decade.I saw the movie like nth time last weekend and boy, he did really act well here.
Well,
when i read all your comments , I’m with most of you guys. except aamir khan no one does get into the charcter even Big B. He does his routine style of dialogue delivery nothing special. I Mean you dont see him altering his pitch or whateva that makes us belive he is playing the character. I think there are two aspects that an actor should get right while playing different character 1) getting the right accent 2) right expressions and mannerisms with the help of that accent in the character.
Its totally beliveable when aamir plays bhuvan or munna in rangeela. Nasiruddin shah is another actor who is brilliant in this aspect i remember his role in “Hero Heralal” where he plays a role of hyderabadi auto driver to perfection.I think Abhisheik Bachan cannot convinence me with his acting what ever he does.
I feel actors like abhay deol are much better to watch than abhishiek bachan. Last week i saw Ahista Ahista the movie was so simple and great to watch with real life characters if it had better screenplay it would have been far better than what it ended up to be.
@ Om, Jwalant: Mithun certainly is a fine actor (when the mood strikes him, that is), but his South Indian act in ‘Agneepath’ certainly left a lot to be desired. In no way - be it demeanor, accent or mannerisms - did Mithun appear to be anything but an actor trying hard to act like a South Indian.
The ones who did get it right were Om Puri (’Bollywood Calling’) and Konkona (’..Iyer’). Also, a largely ignored performance (as its from an obscure Malayalam movie) is Rajat Kapoor (of ‘Making of the Mahatama’ fame) in ‘Agnisakshi’; he didn’t dub for the movie, of course, but he was perfect even to the minutest detail - a twicth of an eyebrow, body language, everything. The fact that he didn’t dub for the movie came in the way of a whole lot of awards for the poor chap.
http://www.cinemaofmalayalam.net/shyamaprasad.html
Sreehari, that is exactly what i had said, i went to see a bachchan.
Kalki, Im glad you mentioned that you can watch ‘Sarkar’ trailers as many times as we can imagine.
I feel the same way about the trailers of ‘Bhoot’ and ‘Meenaxi’…………….er nobody wanted to know that??
Oh, ok!!
@ Ranjit Om Puri in Bollywood…, Konkona in Mr and Mrs Iyer and Mithunda in Agneepath were all so different characters as is Chiken Tikka Masala and Gulab Jamoon…you cannot mix them… Mithun was a Naariyal Paani wala in Agneepath..a roadside vendor..who is overtly-exuberatnt with a weird sense of humor and one who talks in high pitch all the time, he also was a very loyal friend. And mind you this was not Mithun …this was Krishnan Iyer MA…i could envision everything that Krishnan Iyer MA would do..i got connected with his character…i felt infuriated when he was getting beat in that Dharavi scene…I felt happy when he laughed..He might have/havenot had a madrasi accent..but, Krishnan Iyer MA was raised in Mumbai…so, asking for a pucca madrasi accent from a mumbai iyer is like asking me to speak with a pucca marathi accent while i was raised in Hyderabad..not possible..logically..Now, Body language..i found the body language of Krishana Iyer MA as good as any Naarial Paani wala..
Now that is what was missing from AB Sr in Sarkar…Though the the Nagre Khandan was raised in Mumbai with strong connections of Marathi( if we were to belive it was Balasaheb) then those accent/mannerisms of inconsistencies is not pardonable
//Sreehari, that is exactly what i had said, i went to see a bachchan//
Yeah and ur happy cos RGV catered to your taste..fair enuf i guess..but its like certain things r made for certain ppl,u knw..when RGV made all those films with relatively unknown ppl there were a section of us, who kept patting him cos he wasnt following the regular star conventions, was churning out wonderful films and was successful..now i see it this way,its not a case of courage there, but that is waht RGV is good at doing,putting a character above an actor… exploiting a star’s star value and making compromises to incorporate that expolitation isnt ramu’s forte..we have seen it in so many films of his…and thou i agree YASHRAJ films probably churn out grotesque pieces of work,most of which heavily rely on a star’s star status, i must say probably they r good at it..RGV isnt..again,all of these above comments make sense only if u like me didnt like sarkar..or else its just a load of shit u see..
//and never would you see kay kay getting out of his character as a Marathi guy