Why Bollywood 2014 is a blast from the past
Bollywood will celebrate the year 2014 for many reasons, including that in one year the three Khans gave us three massive hits (it is safe to assume that Aamir Khan’s December release PK will be a big hit). But in a quiet way Bollywood did something even more remarkable this year – giving second chances to a few actors who had been big stars at one point, but then went out of circulation for some time.
The year started with a bang with Madhuri Dixit making a solid comeback in Abhishek Chaubey’s Dedh Ishqiya. As Begum Para, Dixit glows in Dedh Ishqiya in a very seductive way as she engages in games the film’s male protagonists – performed by Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, are already playing.
It is a role that the 47-year-old Dixit had to play at this juncture in her career. And she has the look saying, "I have lived a life, but I am still here. This is my space. So accept me."
Fans of Dixit will always be grateful to Chaubey, and his co-writer and producer Vishal Bhardwaj for creating a role of an older woman perfectly suited for the actress and for arranging her comeback, at a time when Bollywood is so fixated on the youthful looks of its female stars.
It is unfortunate that Dixit’s second film in 2014 – Gulaab Gang was a dud. But one Dedh Ishqiya is enough to remind Bollywood that Dixit cannot be written off and that there is life for an actress even after she takes a hiatus to focus on her marriage and raise her children.
And Bhardwaj did not stop there. Just last month in Haider he gave Tabu a role that many will agree is perhaps the finest work by the actress.
It is almost criminal that India’s Hindi film industry could not write one significant role for Tabu since 2007 when she played opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Cheeni Kum. She was seen in 2012 in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. But otherwise she had been relegated to act in films that were an insult to her talent and sensibilities, including playing Salman Khan’s sister in this year’s Jai Ho.
In Haider, Tabu’s Ghazala is one of the finest and most complex roles that have been written in the Hindi cinema. For that Bhardwaj, his co-writer Basharat Peer (and of course William Shakespeare) have to be thanked. Ghazala is a seductress, a scheming woman and a tortured mother and at any given point her face reveals so many diverse thoughts that I wondered how Tabu got into the skin of the character. After all like much of the Hindi film industry, Tabu also does not have any formal training as an actress.
Then this summer Rani Mukherjee made one more comeback film Mardaani. But given that she was already back in a striking manner in No One Killed Jessica (2011) and Talaash (2012), it is safe to say that her comeback has been established and she is here to stay.
Still it is important that the one time top Bollywood actress, who made some personal decisions that may have impacted her star status, continues to gets work albeit in somewhat different sort of films.
And now for the ultimate comeback story. Govinda, who was the king of comedy and a star of many a popular (sometimes bordering on crude) David Dhawan-type of films and then had a brief political career, has two back-to-back high profile films coming out where he plays supporting roles.
On Friday is he joins Ranveer Singh in Kill/Dil and my sense tells me that he might even overshadow the young Bollywood star. And a week later he plays a supporting role to Saif Ali Khan in Happy Ending. This will be his third film this year. He also appeared in Holiday with Akshay Kumar, but most people would have forgotten that film by now.
The trailers of Kill/Dil and Happy Ending show a very exuberant and energised Govinda dancing, singing and playing alongside other actors instead of being the lead star that he was in the late-1980s and through the 1990s.
And if Govinda’s performances work well in these two films that certainly would be a happy way for Bollywood to end 2014.