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Thanks
to the brilliant comeback of a mellowed and bearded Amitabh Bachchan,
the term ‘character actor’ now has a new definition. The dividing
lines among the hero, the villain and the character actor are a thing
of the past. Thus, there is no such thing as the lover-boy hero who is
firmly slotted into a no-exit ghetto he cannot get out of. He can be a
villain in one, a hero in another, while in both roles, he gets the
solid support of a doctor or lawyer or friend or extortionist, in the
name and style of some of the best actors to have hit mainstream Hindi
cinema. Take your pick and you have ample to choose from. Paresh
Rawal, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, Irfan Khan, Arshad Warsi, Atul
Kulkarni, Rajat Kapoor, K.K. Menon, Rishi Kapoor. Paresh Rawal, who
has shifted from arch villain to any shade—from an impresario taking
goggle-eyed kids on a US jaunt (Yun Hota To Kya Hota) to the
tongue-in-cheek lawyer in Aitraaz to the apparently bumbling
busybee in umpteen comic flicks—has reportedly hiked his price to Rs
3 crore per film. And no one blinked in surprise. Irfan Khan is
proving himself again and yet again since he made a mark in Maqbool.
Arshad Warsi is identified now as Circuit but that does not take away
attention from his talent. Rajat Kapoor who graduated in direction and
made a couple of very good films is now a successful character actor.
These actors have tremendous range, even within a single character
in a single film. Atul Kulkarni, for instance, changes from the
smooth-talking, sympathetic boyfriend and mentor of the oppressed
Raveena Tandon, to diabolic and ambitious go-getter and cold-blooded
killer in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Satta. In Bhandarkar’s Page
3, he is the honest and committed journalist who offers a role
model to the confused Konkona Sen Sharma but contrary to audience
expectations, they do not fall in love; in Rang De Basanti, he
is the fundamentalist Hindu who slowly opens up and holds the hand of
the young Muslim he hated in the beginning. In Chandni Bar, his
portrayal of the small-time goonda killed midway through the script is
memorable for the subtle nuances he invests the character with.
Indeed, the National Award for Best Supporting Actor for his debut
performance in Kamal Hasan’s Hari Om, was no splash in the
pan. As for the Big B, he said in a recent interview, "I never
had the chance to portray such a wide variety of roles with shades
ranging from solid black to pure white when I donned the hero’s
make-up." And look what he has gained in the process. A committed
bodyguard-to-avenging angel in Ek Ajnabee; the patient father
trying to seek legal redress for his son’s murder failing which, he
pulls the trigger himself in Mahesh Manjrekar’s Viruddh; in Baghbaan,
he is the loving father who is shocked at his sons’ attitude and
then turns his back on them forever; in Paheli, he is simply a
metaphor, a belief, a concept who could be an illusion or could be the
Almighty himself; in Sarkar, he is a quiet don who rules the
underworld with an iron hand but has a philanthropic bent of mind; in Kabhie
Alvida Na Kehna, he is Sexy Sam who cannot keep his roaming hands
away from young damsels in skimpy clothes; last, but never the least,
in Black, he gives one of the most power-packed performances of
his career, a failed teacher of the handicapped who drowns his sorrow
in the bottle but perks up when faced with a challenge like the
severely handicapped little girl he is called upon to train to lead a
semblance of a normal life. And then, when he senses that the growing
girl is awakening to her sexuality, he disappears from her life
completely, only to surface as a tragic patient of Alzheimer’s.
Boman Irani stepped into films from the English stage. He got
noticed as the very stern, bald principal in Munnabhai MBBS. If
we felt he would do father’s roles only, we were in for a shock when
we saw him stumble and fall at every step, again as the principal of
another college in Main Hoon Naa. In Home Delivery, he
does the hilarious role of a delivery boy in red uniform and cap and
wins the heart of the audience. In Being Cyrus, he is the
unsuspecting husband of his two-timing, young wife, killed before he
can say John Robinson. In the new version of Don, Boman takes
the entire kudos home as the police officer, putting Shahrukh Khan
almost in the shade. In Khosla Ka Ghosla, he is the biggest
conman in land and house promotion in the country, as it were. His
heavy build, bass voice and mobile face allow him to carry any role on
his shoulders effortlessly. Kay Kay Menon made his strong presence
felt on the small screen, sometimes as hero, sometimes as villain and
often in character roles. He came into his own as a fine actor who
offers solid histrionic and character-centric backing to the rest of
the stellar cast in any given film. His role of the two-timing, coward
and greedy older son of Amitabh Bachchan in Sarkar is a case in
point. He is simply brilliant even in the face of a master performer
like Bachchan. In Corporate, he is in control in a low-key
performance yet manages to convey the basic honesty of the character
he portrays. Jahnu Barua’s first Hindi film Maine Gandhi Ko
Nahin Mara has an absent hero in the name and style of Mahatma
Gandhi. But the character of the retired professor of Hindi who is
slowly getting consumed by dementia is one of the most brilliant
performances of recent times. Anupam Kher produced the film because he
says it was the role of a lifetime for him. "For this film, Jahnu
and I discussed everything about how I ought to look – whether I
should have a beard, whether I should not have a beard, how I should
look, everything. Jahnu had written a brilliant script. I read up a
lot on Alzheimer’s, talked to psychoanalysts, went to mental homes
to meet patients. There was one man who thought he was a postman.
Another imagined that his wife was his sister. A third would suddenly
get up from his seat and begin to walk very fast. Based on this, we
began to add some distinguishing physical features to the character
– such as my twitching my hair when I was getting into the amnesiac
mode. All this led to tremendous emotional drainage," says
Anupam.
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