Is Aamir Khan the greatest Indian actor in today's times? No, he is not. Is he the biggest star? No, not that either. The best way to define Aamir is that he is a star who seeks otherness in what he does. There have been times when his choices have been highly questionable. He has also been accused of ghost-directing his films, which is something only a director who has fallen out with him can prove.
But Ghajini, despite its structural loopholes and the actor's eagerness to flaunt his newly built muscles, manifests a fact once more. In other words, Aamir Khan works hard: one could say, more than most of his fellow stars have ever done. (If any of his counterparts works harder, it certainly doesn't show).
Cut to Aamir in Ghajini which should possibly be the biggest blockbuster of 2008. As a character with short term memory loss on Mission Vendetta, Aamir as Sanjay Singhania exhales fury and anger. His nostrils flare up; the voice turns guttural; and the eyes show what being menacing is all about. When he wants to emancipate himself from the clutches of cops, for instance, he comes across as an untamed beast whose natural habitat is distanced from civilization by several light years.
Before the change takes place, the actor in his avatar of an industrialist is polished, handsome and articulate. His dress sense (thanks to Van Heusen?) makes statements of uniqueness every time we see him onscreen. But, once his character undergoes a transformation – after the brutal murder of his girlfriend as also the injury to the head – what we see is a man which is as distanced from the industrialist as the Nile is from the Ganges.
The sophistication is gone. Understandable, since he has forgotten what being polished is all about. While one can question how he manages to have an unchanged haircut all through, Aamir's sincerity is visible in each and every frame. As the revenge seeker, he makes Singhania as memorable as his near-perfect act of ACP Rathore in Sarfarosh.
Why the performance merits admiration is mainly because of his ability to conquer the limitations imposed by a flaw-laden script. Not only that, there are other bad eggs in the basket too. Pradeep Rawat as the villain (complete with the golden tooth popularized by Eli Wallach in The Magnificent Seven) is an absolute disaster. Jiah Khan fumbles her way through a badly written role of a young student of medicine who decides to become a sleuth without any explanation whatsoever. Songs assault the viewer out of the blue, breaking the tempo of a fast moving plot guiltlessly.
So many shortcomings could have killed a film: even if we were to keep aside, the human tendency to nitpick for the heck of it. But, the reality is that Ghajini is a super hit already. Aamir is the only reason, the only explanation. The film's fate shows the difference one performance can make.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
WHAT WAS, IS
Kasab has no regrets. Terrorism never does. Have you ever heard of insane sanity? You couldn’t have. It is bloody meaningless. Hence, Kasab, a killer behind the bars, who has no regrets at all.
Kasab’s photograph – with his eyes glowing and an AK-47 in hand - has become the defining face of urban Indian terror. During 9/11, none of us saw the abhorrence in the pilots’ eyes when suicide aerial missions devastated the World Trade Center. But, terrorism on the streets, at the CST station, and inside the Taj, the Trident-Oberoi and Nariman House, left behind killers’ images which will molest the recesses of collective human memory.
Not that terrorism is anything new. It has been there, and always will be. Ransacking hearts. Brutalising bodies. Shocking with its' premeditated suddenness. Such is the horror of terrorism that its' manifestations in the pages of fiction turn into causes of concern for us. Same for textbooks where we have discovered, since childhood, that a great deal of history is heartless savagery. The rest form the basis of civilised human existence. But, the dry blood on those pages doesn’t disturb us like the Taliban or the LeT because they exist amidst us. The ideology is the same: killing for a cause. But, the quest for their perception of justice – and, for many, the choice of martyrdom – is eclipsed by the approach which makes them anti-innocent, anti-constructive and anti-civilisation.
Where there is goodness, the presence of demolishers is a must. In that sense, we can only minimise terrorism and not annihilate it. Also, we must not forget that modern-day guns only add to the script authored by barbaric medievalism. Why the modern-day terrorist seems more destructive is because the arms and ammunition have changed; the population has shot up; and the media tells stories that horrify us like never before. Take them away, and you will find the footprints of a million other Kasabs in the history of time.
Mumbai has been at the receiving end of most terrorist savagery, and that’s since one assault on the city can drive the nation berserk. The city needs protective gear which is non-existent. Dismissing a handful of individuals is not the solution as long as the system isn’t overhauled completely. If the NSG doesn’t have its' own plane to attend to exigencies, why does it exist anyway? If the city’s firemen have merely two bullet-proof jackets, how can they save their own lives while extinguishing the fire? If the Chief Minister of the State takes a filmmaker along with him to an encounter site, how serious is he about addressing the issue of terror? If the Deputy CM finds the devastation a ‘small incident’, why is he the Deputy CM for?
When the society lacks discipline and unified action, terrorism thrives. It kills and disappears, and kills to hibernate once more. Death and destruction by capitalising on the loose ends of a system: terrorism is all about that. Like a tiger on the prowl, it hunts for any one weak loophole if systemic complacence doesn’t grant it a tourist visa. Whether or not India will achieve a metamorphosis overnight is anybody’s guess. As of now, the masses need to be far more vigilant as they go through their daily lives, knowing what an ancient formula in its modern manifestation can do to the society at large.
Kasab’s photograph – with his eyes glowing and an AK-47 in hand - has become the defining face of urban Indian terror. During 9/11, none of us saw the abhorrence in the pilots’ eyes when suicide aerial missions devastated the World Trade Center. But, terrorism on the streets, at the CST station, and inside the Taj, the Trident-Oberoi and Nariman House, left behind killers’ images which will molest the recesses of collective human memory.
Not that terrorism is anything new. It has been there, and always will be. Ransacking hearts. Brutalising bodies. Shocking with its' premeditated suddenness. Such is the horror of terrorism that its' manifestations in the pages of fiction turn into causes of concern for us. Same for textbooks where we have discovered, since childhood, that a great deal of history is heartless savagery. The rest form the basis of civilised human existence. But, the dry blood on those pages doesn’t disturb us like the Taliban or the LeT because they exist amidst us. The ideology is the same: killing for a cause. But, the quest for their perception of justice – and, for many, the choice of martyrdom – is eclipsed by the approach which makes them anti-innocent, anti-constructive and anti-civilisation.
Where there is goodness, the presence of demolishers is a must. In that sense, we can only minimise terrorism and not annihilate it. Also, we must not forget that modern-day guns only add to the script authored by barbaric medievalism. Why the modern-day terrorist seems more destructive is because the arms and ammunition have changed; the population has shot up; and the media tells stories that horrify us like never before. Take them away, and you will find the footprints of a million other Kasabs in the history of time.
Mumbai has been at the receiving end of most terrorist savagery, and that’s since one assault on the city can drive the nation berserk. The city needs protective gear which is non-existent. Dismissing a handful of individuals is not the solution as long as the system isn’t overhauled completely. If the NSG doesn’t have its' own plane to attend to exigencies, why does it exist anyway? If the city’s firemen have merely two bullet-proof jackets, how can they save their own lives while extinguishing the fire? If the Chief Minister of the State takes a filmmaker along with him to an encounter site, how serious is he about addressing the issue of terror? If the Deputy CM finds the devastation a ‘small incident’, why is he the Deputy CM for?
When the society lacks discipline and unified action, terrorism thrives. It kills and disappears, and kills to hibernate once more. Death and destruction by capitalising on the loose ends of a system: terrorism is all about that. Like a tiger on the prowl, it hunts for any one weak loophole if systemic complacence doesn’t grant it a tourist visa. Whether or not India will achieve a metamorphosis overnight is anybody’s guess. As of now, the masses need to be far more vigilant as they go through their daily lives, knowing what an ancient formula in its modern manifestation can do to the society at large.
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