Probably the most famous Indian cinema star who has managed to create an empire both inside and outside India. Overseas, he has the best popularity and is second to none. Within India, the nation cherishes him as one of the best actors ever born. There is no denying that he is talented. Very, very, very talented. However, there have been times when I have been angry with SRK for not displaying his talents properly.
Ever since I had started walking as a child, I had started watching Hindi movies. It was around in 1995, when I saw some of SRK’s movies. After watching Kabhi Ha Kabhi Na, Baazigar, and even Darr I became a huge fan of SRK. He was probably the most ambitious performer I had seen. He would light up the screen with his energy.
Since then, he had been my favourite actor. More movies like Dilwala and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman established SRK as a fine actor in my eyes. He then appeared in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. This is one of my favourite movies till date. Fair enough it may appear cliched and the usual dramatic portions, yet however it contained a message of never giving up. I thought that SRK had given a really good performance in that movie.
However, I was surprised when he won the filmfare award that year. Next came Dil To Pagal Hai. Again a very good film by a seasoned director. He won the filmfare award, again for this movie. His performance in movies like Pardes was also remarkable. Next was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Mohabbatein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Kal Ho Na Ho. In between he gave forgettable performances such as Devdas, Ashoka.
Other than Devdas and Ashoka, he did give good performances but they were again predictable. I started to think that SRK was being lost in a world of glamour and stereotypes. He never really attempted any different roles, and when he did, Ashoka, he kept portraying the star SRK and not the character Ashoka. For the rest of his movies, I admired his performance but always wondered when would he experiment with his role. It was almost like a sin for an incredibly talented actor not to experiment with his roles.
Other talented performers such as Ajay Devgan and Amir Khan were leading the way with versatality. They both had names for themsleves commercially and in terms of experimentation. Even legends such as Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachan, Rajesh Khanna and Dharamendra had experimented.
Not many are aware but the role of Bhuvan, played by Amir Khan in Lagaan, was at first offered to SRK by Ashutosh Gowariker. However, SRK thought it was too experimental and refused the offer. Bhuvan marched all the way to the Oscars and Amir Khan again won the domestic awards for his performance. He did Kal Ho Na Ho, and it was not one of his better performances. It was very good but not excellent as it usually was in his usual and upto a certain extent cliched movies.
However, with the release of ’’Main Hoon Na’’, I began seeing another change. He produced the movie, and played a character which was different to what he would usually enact. His performance was brilliant & clapworthy and instead of the usual romantic-drama movies he played a character not larger than life and had ensured that the roles of the other actors were well chartered.
A newcomer like Zayed Khan received a chance to display talent, which he did; ditto for Amrita Rao. Sunil Shetty too gave a fantastic performance and his role was not degraded when compared to SRK’s. Not many had realised but SRK had played a different role than he usually would although it did not appear different. But it was.
Main Hoon Na was his last release. His next venture is Swades. Here he teams up with Ashutosh Gowariker for what seems like his most hatke role in years. Hopefully he will give an award winning performance in a different role. He finally learnt to experiment with his talent. Veer Zaara, the most eagerly anticipated movie also does not seem like a usual run of the mill love story. Instead it is like a social love story concerning the emotions of the two neighbouring countries.
As I keenly await the release of the two movies, I hope that SRK will continue to experiment with his talent and not waste the talent inside him. So do not write him of just yet as a media made star or cliched actor.