Cine stars breaking moulds
By K. Naresh Kumar

A RECENT development in the Chennai film industry, one of the few cradles of creative experimentation in Indian cinema, would not have gone unnoticed by cineastes the world over. Kamal Hassan, an actor of immense calibre and an iconoclast when it comes to image typecasting, is now busy with a venture titled Hey Ram. The novelty of this venture is the virtual "who’s who" of the Indian film industry the mercurial matinee idol has assembled for his own production.

From Hema Malini, the "dream girl" of yesteryears to Shahrukh Khan, the heart throb of the "Generation Next", Kamal Hassan has begun with a bang. More interesting is the fact that both Hassan and Khan are doing something different from their screen persons. While the former plays a Tanjore Brahmin freedom fighter, Khan plays a Pathan role, a friend of Hassan. The film, a tri-lingual venture, to be made in Tamil and Hindi and later dubbed into Telugu, is slated for release by the end of the year. By current indications Shahrukh, for the first time, is planning to dub in Tamil in his own voice and the production has already raised audience expectations. Reason: a chance of seeing some pioneering histrionics by all the artistes who have been roped in for the movie. Something rare in Indian cinema, which is content with its assembly-line and uni-dimensional characterisations.

Probably nowhere in the world does the adage "first impression is the last impression" apply better. Indian cinema, with its predictable formula fare, offers little chance for experimentation and offbeat narratives. The characters are easily identifiable, and often cliched. Once the artistes are saddled with a particular image, it becomes well nigh impossible to break free to do something original or different.

Technological advances, notwithstanding, the basic style of story-telling in Hindi cinema remains close to where it was a few decades. The titans — Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar carried on with their images which were then passed on to the next generation. More often than not, these successors have been content doing the same thing over and over. A generation ago, the demarcations were quite clear. Sanjeev Kumar was the character artiste. Amitabh Bachchan, was the "angry young man". Dharmendra with his body beautiful, was perfect at executing powerful action stunts. Jeetendra jumped about and did nothing other than supplanting himself in family melodramas. Rishi Kapoor was the lover-boy, chocolate heart-throb of teeny boppers.

Then came the break-away efforts. To the credit of Dharmendra and Amitabh, both started doing comedy, right from the initial phase of their careers. Their performances were of reasonable standard, and the critics bemoaned the demise of this aspect of their screen life once they got typecast. But comedy alone was appreciated by the audience to a certain extent and the actors grabbed this chance at once. Examples abound, Garam Dharam was doing a Nauker Biwi Ka after a long stint in action movies while after Chupke Chupke, in which the duo came up with a rollicking performance, Amitabh diversified into comedy in many later films. His recent Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan too saw him straining his best to keep up with Govinda, clearly the better of the two with his energetic performance. Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha too, meanwhile, managed a turn-around. After gruesome villainy, they became macho heroes. The audience took to them initially and they settled into multi-starrer films.

In the ‘90s, the formula is somewhat similar. The Akshay Kumars and Sunny Deols still rely on their muscles and stunts. But it is only Shahrukh and Aamir Khan, the former for his infectious screen presence and the latter with his methodical approach who have shown some mettle in coming out of the cardboard stereotyping. Some transformation in approach has also taken place in the careers of Ajay Devgun and Sunil Shetty who have agreed to go slow with their punches and take on roles in which they can show that they too can act. Kachche Dhaage in which Ajay Devgun essayed a powerful role won him quite a few accolades. This was after a few films like Dilwale where his role was clearly performance-oriented rather than action-centred.

Cine observers point out an interesting trend in Indian cinema over the past three decades. Actors have been slotted into "image" conscious types who revel in the image of being image-breakers. In this milieu, Govinda , the dance-cum-comedy hero has stuck on gamely doing what he knows best buffoonery. The audience does not seem to have tired to him till now, even though it is close to 15 years since he has been around.

Rajnikant, the self-confessed disciple of Shatrughan Sinha as far as gimmickry is concerned, too has made his macho image his solitary trademark. Like his senior counterpart Amitabh Bachchan he has grafted in comedy and softer elements into his roles. He has continued to grow from a Tamil film hero to being called a "South India superstar" with his films being regularly dubbed into Telugu.

From the trade point of view, image is a guaranteed draw at the box-office. Now, distributors in India are talking of niche markets. This means that a Hindi film with its assembly of heroes and heroines does not guarantee an all-India hit. Some films do well in certain areas, some films do not. Govinda and Amitabh are considered more strong in appeal in the Hindi belt, while actors like Shahrukh and Amir have an urban-based appeal. Hence, a hero with an image is safe investment to begin with.