Thread by @diptakirti

My first 'memory' of Amitabh Bachchan was even before my memory formed.
When I was less than 2 years old, a domestic help used to take me to a cinema hall where Sholay was running (on the pretext of going on an evening walk).

And I made friends with Jai.

1/80

After a few years, when I knew movies were fun, I tagged with my mother and aunts to a show of The Great Gambler.

Midway through the movie, when Amitabh was getting beaten up, I got very scared and conned my mother into taking me home. 🤦🏽‍♂️

2/80

The result: my mom refused to take me to the movies. She left me home and went off to see Muqaddar ka Sikandar.

I cried so much that my grandpa used his contacts at the cinema to walk into the show, towards the end. I still remember watching Zohra die in Sikandar's arms.

3/80

I had become an avowed Amitabh Bachchan fan by then.

When it was time for Don, I didn't have to wait like the police in 11 countries. My aunts took me along but thanks to a misread show timing, we walked in *after* Don had died!

I still loved the Ganga kinare wala chhora!

4/80

Then came Shaan.

I didn't know if I should praise his voice or his height, if I should praise his style or his substance, if I should praise his aan, baan or shaan.

Someone told me then that Shaan wasn't a superhit. I lost faith in humanity immediately.

5/80

Did I tell you my Bachchan fandom is a generational thing?
My grandmother spotted his photo on a magazine cover - much before Zanjeer or Deewaar - and wished for a son-in-law like him.

At that point in India, Amitabh had 3 fans: Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar and my grandmother.

6/80

My mom is a Hindi film buff who kept picking up (vinyl) records of films. My love for RD Burman emerged from that collection.

My favourite was Mr Natwarlal, where my hero sang for the first time and without that joyous song, yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai, lallu?

7/80

Around that time, I had become my mother's movie going partner and Yaarana was one of the films we watched together.

I remember both of us exulting (along with the rest of the hall) when Amitabh emerged in his lit costume!

8/80

So who was my mother's original movie partner? My dad, of course.

One Sunday afternoon in January 1975, he sacrificed his precious Sunday siesta to take my mother to a "film about Haji Mastan".

Years later, he wasn't around to see the book that came out of that afternoon.

9/80

My father's memory of Deewaar and my mother's love for cinema was the fuel behind Written By Salim-Javed: The Story of Hindi Cinema's Greatest Screenwriters.

This book's cover mimicked the typography of Deewaar's titles and had Amitabh Bachchan on the cover.

10/80

Deewaar is the first chapter in Bachchan's mythology.

Much before we saw the film, we heard stories about it. The character. The scenes. The anger. The swag. And the dialogues, oh the dialogues.

We were primed to love Deewaar by those who saw it before us.

11/80

Seldom has an actor's performance been so much in sync with the writers' lines, and both so well a reflection of their times.

Deewaar is the definitive 1970s film. And like all classics, you discover new things every time you watch it.

diptakirti.blogspot.com/2006/06/deewaa…

12/80

To go back a bit, my mother's record collection also had Abhimaan - which she liked a lot more than I did.

What drew me to the album cover was the brooding intensity of the man.

13/80

Films like Abhimaan and Anand are the exact opposite of author-backed roles. Who but the really desperate play the jealous (and less talented) husband of an angel? Who but the really talented?

Anand is that rare film where a non-entity steals the show from a superstar.

14/80

Anand. Chupke Chupke. Bemisaal. Mili.

I remember watching all these films on Doordarshan. A Sunday with an Amitabh Bachchan film was a magical one, filling the next day's tiffin break with a lot of discussions!

15/80

Amar Akbar Anthony. Naseeb. Parvarish. Do aur Do Paanch. Satte pe Satta.

These were watched on 'VCR days'. For 100 bucks a day, we hired a VCR and watched 4 movies. Amitabh's entertainers were reserved for the night show, where the entire family got entertained together.

16/80

And then he died.

The Coolie accident and the subsequent recovery formed that milestone in my fandom, where I followed every scrap of information and read every quasi-obituary that was written.

17/80

I remember watching Coolie with almost the same reverence of going to a temple. I was disappointed because it seemed over the top - even for a <10 year old.
It's strange that I still remember many of the dialogues...

18/80

True story about Andhaa Kaanoon, several years later.

Friend: "...But after Rajinikanth made his Hindi debut in Andhaa Kanoon..."
Me: "But wait... That was a guest appearance, no?"

Forgive me. I thought AB was the hero, and Rajini's was the side plot. 🤦🏽‍♂️

19/80

It is an irony (or not) that the period of Amitabh's biggest stardom had some of his most ordinary films.
Post-Coolie, he was a God who did everything in a film, everything in the industry.

Since the film magazines had banned him, he went on to the cover of India Today.

20/80

If India Today arrived, could politics be far behind.

Like cinema, my initiation into politics also happened with Amitabh Bachchan. Out of the 543 seats that went to the polls in 1984, I was interested only in Allahabad.

Political pundits hadn't given him a chance, btw.

21/80

I remember, for ages, when I passed Calcutta's Priya cinema, the poster of Shakti would be there.

As a son, Amitabh's was the only performance worth watching in the film. When I rewatched Shakti as a father, I realised Dilip Kumar also did a decent job. (Ahem)

22/80

What a frenzy Aakhri Raastaa generated.

We couldn't watch it in theatres due to the mad rush for tickets. I watched it much later on video, with a bunch of friends. That's the closest to a religious congregation I have been in.

23/80

Amitabh has the dubious honour of facing probably India's first movie boycott call.

Shahenshah had mile-long queues ignoring the calls to boycott the film because of his alleged involvement in the Bofors deal.

I watched it on a double-video-cassette, again probably a first.

1978: Trishul and Don released within a week of each other.
1989: Toofan and Jaadugar released 2 weeks apart.

I found Toofan - which effectively ended Ketan Desai's career - to be super entertaining. How can a teen not like a superhero movie?

diptakirti.blogspot.com/2011/10/random…

25/80

Jaadugar was the first movie I watched without adults. Decided, bought tickets and went with a friend.

And realised Prakash Mehra has reached his sell-by date. I couldn't believe such a great topic was made into such a bad film!

(And who names a hero Goga??)

The trifecta of superhero movies was completed by Ajooba, now hailed as a classic of the so-bad-it's-good genre.

I used to wonder that Zorro in the land of Aladdin sounds so good on paper. (Both movies rocked Hollywood in the next few years.)

27/80

By the late 1980s, there were other claimants to the throne. Sunday magazine called Anil Kapoor No. 1 in a cover story. (AB has outlived Sunday by a couple of decades.)

Main Azaad Hoon was an 'art movie'. I was at the age when it wasn't cool to cry but he made me.

28/80

Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi was so overdone that it wouldn't even have run in the 70s. But you had to be there when Amitabh walked into the climax with a crocodile on his back.

Aaj Ka Arjun also had the decades old revenge plot but it became a hit. I never understood how!

29/80

After all these Bheema Ganga Goga, I was praying for something cool. I wanted something explosively fantabulous. And I got...

TIGER.

Hum released in 400+ halls. And it just blew the box office and our minds away.

30/80

I watched Hum a month before my Class X board exams. On 1st February, 1991. Matinee show.

It was mayhem outside the theatre with the first day crowd going berserk. It was the only time I was (mildly) lathi charged.

diptakirti.blogspot.com/2008/12/random…

31/80

Actually, before Hum, a brilliant film got lost.

Watching Agneepath was a surreal experience. The voice was nothing like we knew and yet unmistakably his.
I had an audio cassette of the dialogues that tore due to repeated playing!

diptakirti.blogspot.com/2009/11/random…

32/80

Mukul Anand was the first of the younger directors who 'got' the aura of Amitabh.
In a very short span, he made 3 films with AB that superbly showcased the charisma.

"Sarzameene Hindustan, mera naam Badshah Khan hai..." How often do you hear a hero address a country?

33/80

Then Amitabh took a sabbatical and came back as the Chairman of ABCL. The media was abuzz with how the company will change the face of the film industry.

I wondered if the company would be big enough to hire MBAs from campuses by the time I graduated.

34/80

And then came the apocalypse.

I watched Mrityudaata on the first weekend. I remember facepalming a couple of times when the cringe just hit the ceiling. He played a doctor who could only operate on his patients when he was drunk. 🤦🏽‍♂️

The bg artistes here show how I felt.

Then came a series of terrible films stuck in the 1960s/70s.
Lal Badshah
Kohraam
Hindustan ki Kasam

Major Saab and Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan were passable, though they looked decidedly dated.

(Nirupa Roy played his mother for the last time in Lal Badshah.)

36/80

It is an oft-repeated story that when everything was crumbling, Amitabh asked Yash Chopra for a job.

Mohabbatein was the result.
There couldn't have been a worse character for him to play. He plays a patriarchal killjoy, essentially the villain.
I hated the film.

37/80

I don't know why he had to ask for the role because no one else can pronounce Parampara Pratistha Anushasan as well as him. 😀

His voice was going great guns. The Lagaan VO set the tone for the film superbly. And Hello Brother credited him as 'Heavenly Voice'!

38/80

The voice also did singing with an album called AB Baby. It had some cool remixes and some awesome music videos.

And ads. Suddenly, from not enough of him, there was too much of him... Right on our TV sets.

39/80

TV changed the game.

One evening in July 2000, I rushed to a colleague's home to catch the first episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati.
He was still not the genial uncle. I remember him nudging the first contestant oh so slightly in the wrong direction.

He was back. And how.

40/80

KBC's biggest contribution to Hindi cinema was that it freed Amitabh from the perceived constraints of audience taste.

AB's next decade was a cornucopia of the crazy and the sublime, all of them hugely entertaining in their own ways. For fans, it was a period of delight.

41/80

Let me start with Aks. AB toggled between an upright police officer and a crooked criminal not beyond rape and murder.

I escaped from a meeting for an arranged marriage to watch the night show on Day 1. 🤦🏽‍♂️

I wrote about it as well.
diptakirti.blogspot.com/2006/05/24-fra…

42/80

Many of AB's roles were in pairs... E.g. the police officers of Khakee and Dev were spiritual descendants of Zanjeer's Vijay Khanna.

His performances were subtle, yet commanding. And he was a beacon of morality, in direct contrast to the depravity of Aks.

43/80

The next pair were the bank robbers of Aankhen and Kaante.

Both had a flimsy justification for the crimes, much weaker than in his anti-hero days. And in both, he upstaged the entire young brigade in the cast (which was kind of expected).

Oh... That gun in the left hand!

44/80

From Angry Young Man, he then became Horny Old Man.

Boom: the WTFness of AB's character and the film seemed made for each other.
KANK: Sexy Sam was the exact antithesis of the sanskari pitaji of Bollywood.

Easily the most crazily watchable roles in two unwatchable films.

45/80

I watched Baghban with a bunch of friends, including a couple who had just had a baby.
The guy came out and declared he needed to start saving, lest his (<3month) daughter throw him out of the house.

His financial planning spreadsheet was saved as Baghban Plan.

46/80

Black has its share of detractors. But I am not one of them. (Duh)

I thought the touch of eccentricity he brought to the character of Debraj Sahai was just perfect. Teachers who take on uphill tasks have a hint of madness.

And they make you cry.

47/80

From the dude of Dostana who refused to woo women, Cheeni Kum's sexagenarian chef wanted to get frisky with his girlfriend. I know it was Tabu but still... I remember being a bit embarrassed at this.

Baghban and Cheeni Kum's silver romances were the precursors of Badhaai Ho.

I always felt Nishabd was a bit of a cop out.

It was an incredibly bold topic and Jiah Khan did her part. But RGV couldn't convince his superstar to bring in the physicality that would have made the film real.

Amitabh needed to look at her legs instead of her face.

49/80

RGV made amends with his Godfather tribute: Sarkar.

Bachchan was the original Don and Sarkar/Bal Thackeray was a perfect canvas for him to sink his teeth into.

I also realised how good an actor KK Menon was, to have matched up to him.

50/80

Did I say RGV made amends? Scratch that.

Everyone said Aag was terrible. I thought how bad could it be?
I bought the VCD while on tour and watched alone in my room, at times laughing madly at the unfolding travesty.
And after he made the booger pellets, I couldn't have dinner!

Going back to pairs... The helplessness of Viruddh matched well with Te3n.

In both, he played meek old men, out to find (justice for) a (grand)child. Both roles are underrated and hardly discussed but his body language was the most far removed from his usual swagger.

52/80

I went to watch Ek Ajnabee alone. After coming out, I bought another ticket and went back in. I may have been the only person to do this.

With it, Ekalavya formed the "old warhorse" pair. An amazing performance in a film that didn't turn out to be as good.

53/80

Just to go back a bit...

I think Amitabh's friends' families think of him as a bit of a boomer.

What else explains a perfectly inconsequential role in Lakshya and a negative role in Mohabbatein, both films directed by sons of his really good friends?

54/80

Paa was a case study in voice acting, where he replicated a teenager's intonation and cadence, merging them with an old person's gait.

Probably the first time, I wanted to protect him instead of the other way around.

55/80

Pink was Atticus Finch in dystopian Delhi. (Is there any other kind of Delhi?)

It was a dream to see him play a lawyer and I loved the superb pre-interval montage scene in which he prepares for his case.

And once again, a dialogue of his became lingua franca! #NomeansNo

56/80

Oh yes, there is another kind of Delhi.
The Delhi of jalebi and chaat, of cheek by jowl neighbours, of living beyond death. The Delhi of Delhi 6.

Delhi 6 had a nice cameo where he played Abhishek's grandpa, thus completing three generational relationships with his son on screen.

Every Bengali saw Piku and found their baba/kaku/jethu/mama in it.

I felt Amitabh did the Bengali accent wrong, though his body language, mannerisms and reactions were pitch perfect.

They basically gave him a National Award for half his performance.

58/80

Piku was momentous for another reason.

Just like an earlier Bhaskar Banerjee stole the show from a superstar, I felt - for the first time ever - another actor had stolen a march over this Bhaskar Banerjee.

It was unprecedented. But then, it was Irrfan.

59/80

Gulabo Sitabo was a first day first minute show. I started watching it the moment it dropped on Prime Video.

It was easily the most unheroic of his roles. It takes one helluva hero to do such a role.

But then, if he isn't that helluva hero, who else would it be?

60/80

What's the point of this thread?
There’s no new info or insight, no analysis of Bachchan’s craft or impact.
It is what I believe cinema to be. A procession of memories, a yaadon ki baaraat.
My set of memories, random and chaotic, that have entertained me and kept me sane.

61/80

Amitabh was an integral part of my growing up.
For 70s to 90s kids, his movies were often the reward for doing well in things. They were the glue that held many friendships together. His songs were the soundtrack of our lives.

He was what we wanted to be when we grew up.

62/80

And most of my leisure time as an adult was spent trying to insert Amitabh into things I did.

For my first book on Bollywood, my editor had asked me if I had any directions for the cover artist.
I had said, “Anything is fine, as long as Amitabh is there on it.”

63/80

That book also had a chapter on the silent scenes of Amitabh.
After years of celebrating his legendary baritone, I thought the actor needed to be praised for his eloquent silences as well.

One of my favs is Babu’s exit from jail in Satte pe Satta.
Yours?

64/80

Silent scenes. Drunken scenes.
Laughing. Crying. Dancing. Romancing.
Doctor. Prisoner. Soldier. Spy.

Amitabh is the last Bollywood superstar who did everything, his filmography dotted with professions now forgotten in Bollywood.

65/80

That Bollywood trope of double roles.
Cop-crook. Father-son. Simple-complex. Silly-serious.
Two radically different characters played by the same actor is extinct now.

I once created a Venn diagram (forgive me, I am a geek) on his character types.
[From BollyGeek]

66/80

And what happened to the working-class hero?

A migrant from Bihar, who defeats the ensconced mafia and rises to the top.
Where is the hero who unlocks doors on his own terms?

67/80

Amitabh Bachchan is from the times when a Hindu-born atheist could choose an Islamic symbol as his talisman. (And his film wasn’t banned, though it became a conspiracy theory 50 years later!)

Amitabh Bachchan is the most durable symbol of those times.

68/80

He was the first Bollywood star to conquer TV.

Everyone said TV was too small a canvas for big-screen stars. What the stars feared was that their limited repertoire would get caught out on the repetitive media. And they won’t be able to hold attention.

He changed that.

69/80

And that was not the only time.

One of his films became arguably the ‘highest watched Indian film on television’, much to the delight of memesters!
He kept having the poisoned kheer, almost on a nightly basis.

70/80

From Heera (Lawaaris) to Heera (Sooryavansham), the variety has been unparalleled.
When 5 writers listed 50 of his scenes, they almost didn’t have any overlap. Between comedy and action, words and silences, everyone came up with different facets.

diptakirti.blogspot.com/2019/11/50-yea…

71/80

In the 80s, I watched Kaala Patthar during Durga Pujo, projected on a white screen tied across parking lot pillars. We cheered him on as he wrenched away a knife from a villain.

The audio was terrible, but it didn’t matter. His silences spoke more than his garrulous adversary.

Last week, I watched the same scene on the big screen.

In the intervening 40 years, my point of view had also changed. As we grapple with mental issues and apathy towards them, a hero battling his mind’s monsters was both uplifting and reassuring.

73/80

His current Boomer status distracts us from the characters he played 40 years back that are still relevant.
The reforming alcoholic of Mili.
The insecure husband of Abhimaan.
The smooth entrepreneur of Manzil could well be raising Series A in Bangalore right now!

74/80

I have a thumb rule. If someone names Saudagar as one of their fav AB roles, they are pretentious! (Come on, the man has done 250+ roles and you pick that because it’s arthouse?)
But we must accept that his slimy mercenariness is spot on. And we still see a lot of those!

75/80

On the other end of the spectrum, he has played four superheroes:
- Shahenshah
- Toofan
- Ajooba
- Supremo

If fate had intervened, he would have played Mr India also. (And maybe Salim-Javed wouldn't have split so early.)

76/80

An interesting feature of Amitabh's career has been certain filmmakers have repeatedly used him in different phases of his career: Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Hrishikesh M, Mukul Anand, RGV.

Of these, Manmohan Desai never made a film without him after his first film with him.

This shows a certain addiction. To the work ethic, to the talent, to the charisma.

It's no different for fans.
Once you have seen what he has to offer, then you keep asking for more. This was great but what next?

What's the next dream role?

78/80

I once made a wishlist of the roles I wanted him to play: diptakirti.blogspot.com/2005/01/under-…

In the intervening 17 years, he has played about 5 of the 10 roles I wished for.
I am still waiting for the rest.

For the sceptics, let me remind you of the range…

79/80

Don Corleone. Obiwan Kenobi. Terry Malloy. Atticus Finch. Tony Montana. Lord Jim.
Some of Hollywood’s greatest actors have played these characters in iconic films.
In Bollywood, they have been played by one man.

And he’s not done yet.
So till the 90th birthday. Goodbye.

#AB80