GIVING ACTORS THEIR DUE? YOU MUST BE KIDDING!

BISWADEEP GHOSH

In a website poll on underrated actors in India, I came across a lot of names. There was Pankaj Kapoor who I think is extraordinary; Irrfan Khan who can be brilliant when he is not repeating itself in the trying-hard-to-make-you-laugh roles; and Ranvir Sheorey who promises to grow into an even better actor with time.

Seldom do I post my views in such polls, one reason being that several faceless intruders who have just one thing to do – nothing – write absolute gibberish whose dominant presence eclipses the odd strand of serious thought. But, this time round, I did, choosing to talk about just one actor who could have done so much if the affluent fiefdoms of the industry hadn’t overlooked his presence. When he played the wicked and impulsive elder brother in Sarkar, he actually matched the Big B’s magisterial presence in every single frame. In Honeymoon Travels, he was a parochial Bengali guy married to a freedom-loving girl; in Black Friday, the cop Rakesh Maria who had investigated the roots of the 1993 Mumbai blasts; and in Life in a…Metro, a selfish husband in a selfish extra-marital affair. Kay Kay Menon. You know he is the guy I am talking about.

Yes, you know Kay Kay. That’s why he and other guys like him should consider themselves lucky. In a superstars-and-megabucks-driven industry such as ours, these actors cannot get any more attention even if they deserve it. It doesn’t matter if a Pankaj Kapoor can pull off an Al Pacino act as the protagonist. That Kay Kay can step into the shoes of a character played by someone like Russell Crowe – or Kurt Russell – in a big-budget film is of no significance at all. For, such actors will never ever get the opportunity to bat ahead of big stars and score more runs than the latter can. A few such success stories can demolish fiefdoms, create new equations in which power will be decentralised, and even decant the so-called big stars into the zone of no return. Secure in their systems, loaded with cash, blessed with the loyalty of big stars, which big producer wants a change in which rules can be rewritten beyond recognition?

Not that the story ends there. Such is our industry that actors who aren’t stars are caught in an image trap. They are termed ‘character actors’ – which possibly implies that the stars play themselves while the others don’t! But, seriously speaking, the label of a ‘character actor’ is a curse whose power no spell on earth can diminish. What it essentially implies is that the victims of the branding do all the hard work to make a film work in its totality. But, the person who hijacks the promos, sings all the songs, get most solo frames, and the maximum amount of money is the star. He is the one who makes the film work. At the end of the day, the character actors are minor support systems who help the star because the latter is infinitely more talented and works the hardest of course!

Many viewers who have matured considerably are keen to see a systemic change. They will be happy to see many films in which the so-called character actors step into central roles. As of now, however, no one can see it happening. I am in that list.

What about you?