When an actor sheds extra kilos to get a wrestler’s body, you know he is a dedicated artist. But when someone takes so much pain for a five-minute screen time, you know he’s a perfectionist. That’s the pull of Aamir Khan.
He doesn’t merely get into characters, he owns them with brutal force and passionate ferocity. To be disconnected from the number game (no marketing blitzkriegs) and yet make audiences crave for his yearly big screen outing says everything about the actor he is.
In his recent release, Dangal, Aamir delivered a knockout performance only because he let his ‘star’ persona take a backseat for the ‘actor’ in him to hog all the limelight. The actor, who started off as a lovable chocolate boy with his debut blockbuster Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, has gone places through his choice of roles.
Sure, there were the usual masala potboilers, but more or less, his trajectory in B-Town has been filled with milestones at every turn. After all, he was the only actor who resurfaced as a superstar even after a long break from the glamour world.
Even when he was giving box office hits with commercial flicks, he ventured into the unknown and untamed with movies like Raakh, Awwal Number, Earth, and so on.
He tried to maintain a balance between churning our popular hits and critically-acclaimed films. Perhaps that’s been the biggest game-changer for Aamir who started off as an actor to a star to a star-actor.
Thanks to his carefully chosen, painstakingly made movies, his big screen ventures are looked forward to by his fans. He gives us one movie in a year or two, but that turns the BO status and critics’ opinion in another direction altogether.
He picked one role a year, but made sure it was worth the sweat and wait. Whether it was his post-interval act in Taare Zameen Par, no-nonsense collegian fare in 3 Idiots or the earthen, rustic farmer of Lagaan, Aamir never let the story overpower his persona. He was a teacher, a student, and a simple farmer in his movies…never Aamir Khan, the superstar.
That’s why he has no qualms playing an aging man onscreen in Dangal with zero space for vanity-display. His bulging tummy, utter tyranny in his eyes, and the salt & pepper hair were so unlike him, yet so relatable. It’s indeed tough to glam it down in this business when you thrive on putting your most decorated foot forward. The reason he can look past that screams his absolute faith in his craft.
BO numbers are nice, great even. But those are just records to be broken by a new face in another year. But a memorable performance that’s devoid of any starry airs can make the actor immortal in the industry.
Similarly, raking up awards is a fabulous feeling too…but watching even the most critical moviegoer walk into an Aamir movie just because he knows that it wouldn’t be a waste of time speaks volumes about the actor and is a bigger thrill than trophies.
Is he the revolution the industry has been waiting for? Maybe, maybe not. That’s the beauty of Aamir. He doesn’t care about such frivolous equations. But one thing is certain, he has got his cinema right.
He wants to continue to deliver. And continue he will. Because he’s got so many of us banking on him. If anybody can make Bollywood less cringe-worthy and more power-packed, it’s him.
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