SAUDAGAR (1973)—

This is one gem of a movie, rooted in Indian soil so deep that one could almost smell the fragrance. I guess Mr. Bachchan took on this film before the star-dust of stardom yanked him away from such realistic gems. And that is a complaint I will always have. Watch him in this movie and you can realize what he, us, and directors like Mr. Shyam Benegal or Mr. Satyajit Ray missed by not having him star in their movies. It is a complete anti-thesis to his ‘macho’ and angst-ridden persona he embodied later in his commercial madness. I watched this movie a few years back and do not remember exactly each and every scene. But I remember being just awe-struck after watching his performance in this movie. He plays a character so human and to such perfection that never once, and never ever once, during the entire length of this movie do you remember him to be the ‘super-star’ that he is. And remember, I watched this movie only 6-7 years back, after being privy to enjoying all the Hrishikesh Mukherjee-Chopra-Prakash Mehra-Desai-Ram Gopal Varma movies. His perfect portrayal completely wiped out all the hang-over I had of his ‘super-star’ movies! He plays a simple gurd-selling villager who has all the insecurities and selfishness—and maybe more— of the ordinary man. So deftly he portrays the emotions of angst, jealousy, selfishness, and helplessness that one is just stunned and mesmerized by the range that this man possesses when it comes to his craft. It covers a gamut of emotions from lust, to connivance, to greed, to selfishness, to insecurity, to anger, to helplessness, and to redemption. He just nails it, spot-on.

NISHABDH (2007) –

The film begins with Mr. Bachchan standing on the precipice of a hill attempting suicide. But he doesn’t have the guts. He is weak, emotionally very, very, weak. And his name is Vijay. Vijay? Weak? Thinking of suicide? Yes, it’s the same name; the same Vijay who fought—and killed if he had to— to live his life the way he wanted to in all his other movies. In one cinematic moment, Mr. Ram Gopal Varma, and definitely more so, Mr. Bachchan, successfully blow to smithereens the image of a strong and unyielding Vijay of yore who was always above his emotions, not beneath them. The closest he came to this stage was in KAALA PATTHAR, but again, that weakness was channeled into a brilliant portrayal of latent anger. Mr. Bachchan is just extraordinarily effective as a man caught between the societal morals and that hidden, free-wheeling emotional dynamite in any human being-particularly if that being happens to be of an introverted character. The emotional graph that the actor draws on screen when a matchstick in the form of an 18-year old girl lights up the dormant dynamite is unconquerable—and just impossible for any other actor to better. This is a portrayal so superlative that it just makes weaknesses and emotional instability in life so very appealing to the audience. One just feels compelled to tell the character of Vijay to throw away all obligations and run along with the brazen carelessness of the 18 year old Jiah. The pitch of his performance is more than perfect. Even when he raises his voice, there is mellowness and a subdued nature to his dialogue delivery and demeanor that never ever let the audience forget that this is an introverted man, and will remain so, even if he were to be occasionally stirred by the storm of passion. Isn’t that the hallmark of great performers? This ability to use the same emotions, and then peel different layers off of them?

== Aneesh Joshi