When he had started his career,
India was ruled by Mrs Gandhi and had not yet become a
nuclear nation. Mumbai was Bombay, Chennai was Madras and Bangladesh was not
even born.
Rajesh Khanna was the leading superstar of the time, Vinod
Khanna the toughie who could take on the baddies and Shashi Kapoor the man who would woo women with
his lazy elegance.
Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t yet born. Sunil Gavaskar had not
even played his debut match. India had not yet won its first series abroad in
Cricket.
Televisions were still only Black and White. You had to wait
for years to get a landline connection. Telegram was still alive and kicking. The
word internet had not yet been coined.
When Amitabh Bachchan entered the tinsel world in the role
of a Bihari poet by the name Anwar Ali Anwar in Saat Hindustani in 1969, little
did the world know that the greatest star in the Indian firmament had set foot.
In the ensuing 45 years,
The dynamic Mrs Gandhi has given way to the dumbfounded Rahul
Gandhi, the Khannas have given way to the Khans, both the little masters of Indian
Cricket have retired, giving way to the next gen, and the television, Telegram
and the phone have merged into a 5” screen powered by the internet.
While the world around him has got transformed beyond
recognition, he has remained much the same as an actor. Earnest, expressive and
an embodiment of excellence.
Then, he was a strapping youngster who had come to the world
of Cinema to earn his bread. Today he is a giant, a colossus who strides over
the largest entertainment industry in the world, the Hindi Cinema.
To understand Amitabh the superstar, one needs to read about
him. To understand Amitabh the actor
one has to see a good movie of his. To worship
Amitabh the legend, one has to watch Shamitabh.
This one movie, just this movie
tells you why he belongs to the pantheon of Gods.
In scene after scene, he bedazzles you with his brilliance,
astonishes you with his action and mesmerizes you with his modulation. In the
brief duration of the movie, you are convinced that you are watching the finest
actor that could ever have acted.
Who can ever believe that a 72 year old man has the magnetic
aura to bring viewers in droves to the theatres?
In an era when the great Federer finds it difficult to win
grand slams after turning 30, the supreme Tendulkar could not blaze away after
turning 40 and the cerebral Vishwanathan Anand had to give way to youngsters after turning 40, this man Amitabh,
essays his magnum opus at the ripe age of 72.
At an age when most of his peers
have retired or just vanished, this man confounds critics and fans alike by
demonstrating what being a champion actually means.
It would not be a hyperbole to say that we are lucky to be
living in the same era as that of Amitabh Bachchan.
God must have made him with
a lot of care.
God bless him.
