AMITABH BACHCHAN...Do I need to say any more?????

These days I do not have the luxury of watching trailers of upcoming releases as I don’t have the idiot box at my place. I just log in and book my tickets online based on the stills or my “sixth sense”. Actually, my hunch helps in just deciding the order as I end up watching all d movies that hit the theatres. Life otherwise would be very boring here. Nopes, it’s not an exercise but it’s just that I like to decide for myself rather than believing the Reviews of any Tom, Dick and people like Ayan. Art cannot be objectively judged and appeals in a different way to different people. Anyways, my attempt to book a ticket to a show of TRANSFORMERS failed and so I had to go to the theatre to try my luck.

I waited for my turn and then bought a ticket to the 6 P.M. show of BBUDDHA HOGA TERA BAAP. Now, don’t poke fun at my lack of ability to stick to my decisions. It was a much thought out move. I deliberated for almost 39 seconds and at the end of it I found that a MACHINE was no match for the CREATIVE GENIUS OF the BIG B. Honestly, I was not sure about the movie but I knew I was in for a treat. The story was not that great and it was a bit weird at places. I almost got blinded by the colours that he wore but then gradually the loud colours turned into an extension of the character that he was playing. The moment you hear him say in his awesome voice “Hum jaha khade hotey hain, line wahi se shuru hoti hain…..”, you know this movie is dedicated to the lead Actor himself. You get to see all that makes him the Greatest Actor of the Millennium. His understanding of the various shades of a man’s emotions is there for all to see. Many actors have tried over the years but the Master is still the ANGRY YOUNG MAN. He is a Magician and I was exposed to his magic quite early in childhood thanks to my father’s love for movies. Then I did not understand any damn thing about acting and seeing my sister hide behind my mother during fight sequences, I believed it was for real. In fact, I had tried to convince my father to buy me a uniform that Police Officer’s wear. Thank God, he didn’t.

“Mere paas aao, mere Doston……Ek kissa suno…..” and with this song Mr. Natwarlal had a young fan in me and in fact my cousins as well. Every Sunday morning, all of us would gather in the TV room with a plate full of delicacies and wait for the moment when the cassette would be pushed into the VCR. We would have watched Mr. Natwarlal kill Vikram (that was the name I think) almost 40 odd times. The other Cassette at our disposal was ALAAP which was beyond us and damn boring as well. After lunch, we would be kicked out of the room and all the elders would gather to watch the new releases. I still remember that we wanted to watch DAMINI and got a good scolding after they failed to convince us to go out of the room. Finally, my uncle had to bribe us out.  We went and bought GOODYEAR rubber ball and as we were enjoying a good game of cricket, Sunny Deol was asking  TARIKH PE TARIKH, TARIKH PE TARIKH…..BOLO KITNE TARIKH?????

As I grew up I got to know more about the legend through his movies like Zanjeer, Suhaag, Do Aur Do Paanch, Don, Silsila, Trishul, Coolie, Mukaddar Ka Sikandar, Deewar, Sholay and many more. Then came this movie where Amitabh and Mithun combination worked wonders and gave us one of the most powerful movies of all time in terms of performances. I was particularly delighted to see two of my favourite actors lighting up the screen with their brilliance. (Ok Ron….I expect a comment on this). Vijay Dinanath Chauhan and Krishnan Iyer M.A. are two characters that would never die. Khoon se latpath….khoon se latpath…AGNEEPATH. I saw that same intensity in his face as he was taking on the goons in this latest flick of his.

As a keen follower of his movies, I feel that we have missed out a decade of his cinematic excellence in the Nineties for various reasons. But the Master came back with a Bang and is doing brilliantly well in movies which suit his age. Not every actor gets a strong role when he is 65+ but this Man is aware of his limitations and within those limitations, he is continuing to enthral his audience. That speaks volumes about his confidence as an actor. Rajnikanth is still dancing around the trees and Salman would the same in a few years time. But actors like Amitabh excel in every kind of situation and hence roles are specially created for such Actors.

I have lots of respect for Big B especially for the fact that he stretched himself hard at this age under difficult financial circumstances and reinvented himself through KBC and has never looked back since then. We surely have lots to learn from the man and his life. Hindi Film Industry and this world would be poorer the day he decides to live away from the Sets. He has given us so many moments when we forgot all d hardships that we face in our day to day life. Here’s wishing him many good years and wishing myself many good movies of the SHAHENSHAH…….AMITABH BACHCHAN.