Piyush Roy
Kaam se Hero, naam se Villain – ye hai Gabbar!’ – declares the trailer of Akshay Kumar’s forthcoming film Gabbar is Back. Dialogue promos of the film have him rephrase classic Amjad Khan lines from Sholay using adulterated inspirations like, “Pachas pachas kos tak jab koi rishwat leta hai to log kehte hain, mat le warna Gabbar aa jayega…”In another short take, he also audaciously asks, “Ab tera kya hoga Kaalia…” with a vocal menace, fairly close to the original. However, any hint of the threat of the original is promptly diluted by other voices explaining that ‘this’ Gabbar is actually a messiah, an instant law giver, etc. The film’s makers enthusiastically try to live up to the film’s tag line – a hero by action, and a villain ‘only’ by name… But instead of an USP, this sadly sounds more like a supplication in mazboori! Why on earth would one want to dilute Gabbar?
Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Viacom 18, the makers of Akshay Kumar’s latest actioner cash in on the name ‘Gabbar’ and his famous dialogues (lazy writing?), not its attributes. Amitabh Bachchan too had attempted at reinterpreting the impact of those attributes in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, but both he, and the film failed miserably. Not that his villainy was any lacking or wanting in performance, the problem was that in its every act, a conscious effort to outdo the original came across so deliberately forced that it made the overall experience look second rate.
In Akshay Kumar’s case too, even just the way he utters his lines, the intention to ape the original is obvious. Let’s just hope that he’s resisted any temptation to outdo Amjad Khan’s Gabbar. Because Gabbar Singh of Sholay cannot be repeated. It’s like how Emperor Shah Jahan was never able to replicate the Taj Mahal in black (marble), his other dream project. Or how another Mughal-e-Azam can never be made; even a digitised all colour 21st century version of the original could not better the impact of the black and white vintage. Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodha Akbar attempted to update the mood and magic of the K. Asif classic, but his Jodha Bai (Aishwarya Rai) and Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) had distinct 21st century sensibilities and imagination. Roshan and Rai looked and behaved as different from Prithviraj Kapoor’s Akbar and Durga Khote’s Jodha Bai as chalk and cheese.
Artistic icons are not only about great acting, casting and/or unusual box-office luck. The context of production is equally important in lending that timelessness to an aesthetic possibility. Sholay’s Gabbar Singh had happened at a time when dacoits actually existedand their exploits did make regional, if not national headlines. So when Amitabh Bachchan’s villainous Babban happened in RGV’s Aag that extra possibility for sadistic menace that Gabbar’s context lent him was just not there for him.
Try however you may to replicate an icon from the past with the best possible technique, a prototype will always remain a copy, especially if the original is also a first. Gabbar also worked because none had seen any acting from Amjad Khan before. He lent a certain freshness to his character, which coupled with the film’s success went onto become a signature, exclusive to, and made possible only by him. Danny, the first choice for the role and a fairly known actor in the mid-1970s would never have been able to kindle that impact of ‘newness’.
Performance apart, characterisation or the writing and thoughts shaping a persona too are equally significant. What is it about Gabbar Singh that still makes him the most memorable Hindi film villain in spite of many inspiring menace acts by better actors preceding and proceeding Amjad Khan’s debut? Why no other Hindi film badman has been such a hit with the kids as well, (exception Mogambo). Post the Sholay success, Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh was even seen endorsing biscuit adverts for children… How come none objected such an odd association endorsement of a character who actually kills a kid in cold blood for the first time in a Hindi film? Why are we still so indulgent about the oddities of Gabbar Singh that he appears again and again in popular imagination four decades later, this timeas the identity of a hero!
It is courtesy the unique imagination in the nature of his being conceived, developed and culminated in a memorable dramatic tale. Even his extremities, oscillate by the borders, never in between – sadism to comic, disgust to bravado, loud to surprise, unpredictable to underplay.Or just imagine the sheer range of counter force in his opposition – it’s just one Gabbar versus a tribe of the virtuous comprising Veeru (Dharmendra), Thakur (Sanjeev Kumar), Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Basanti (Hema Malini).Such powerful counter packages not every villain gets. And when they do – e.g. Ravana or Duryodhana (lone evil counters against many good protagonists) – they are bound to stay and impress!
