'Mooch' ado about nothing
Much mustached and loving it: Aamir Khan returns to the Raj with Ketan Mehta's The Rising
What is the one thing that Aamir Khan and former PM VP Singh have, that Veerappan and Albert Einstein had and that James Bond has never had?
It is not vodka martinis, women or even sandalwood. It is something that was a must-have for the ancient Greeks and was looked down upon by the ancient Romans.
One of Amitabh Bachchan's most famous movie statements is about it and even the Guinness Book of World Records has a category on it.
The carry on with 'it', Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin had it in common, Asterix and Obelix also had it, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's style statement was nothing without it, Kapil Dev got us our only World Cup with it and even Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had it.
For those who have not figured 'it' out yet, we are talking about the moustache.
Life is a funny business: Charlie Chaplin's moustache became the symbol of the funny man.
From mythology, to history, to the sports field and cinema, where there's been a man, there's been a moustache.
KL Sehgal, Raj Kapoor, Kishore Kumar to Kamal Haasan, some of Indian cinema's most talented people have been mustached men. While that doesn't discount the talent of the non-mustached ones, the number of leading men with 'it', is fast dwindling.
If a Charlie Chaplin-esque moustache became the symbol of 'funny', the moustache had its moment of glory on the Indian celluloid thanks to Amitabh Bachchan.
Think the movie Sharabi and what immediately comes to mind is Vijay (Bachchan) telling a blushing Nathulal (Mohammed Mukri), "Moochain hon to Nathulal jaisi, warna na ho." (One should sport a moustache like Nathulal's or not sport it at all)
While Bachchan made Nathulal's moochain (moustache) a legend, the actor himself never sported one in his angry-young-man avatar (in Akhri Rasta it was the older Bachchan who has a mooch, the 1973 Saudagar was not his typical film and in Shahenshah, the entire bearded get-up was a disguise).
However, with the advent of age, younger actors and what Bachchan calls his "character roles", the moustache and beard have become his best friends. From Baghban, to Dev, Khakee, Boom, Lakshya and Veer-Zaara, the Big B is seen with a moustache and/ or beard.
It's only bizness: Ajay Devgan changed his career graph with his mooch in Company.
The magic of M: It's been heard (and read) often enough that Bollywood has a fascination with anything to do with the letter M (there's the K too, but that's FAT - for another time).
From movie names with M to actresses being renamed with M, Bollywood's M-ania keeps re-surfacing now and again. We take it a bit further to include another M factor - the Mooch.
One of the funniest movies in Indian cinematic history was the Amol Palekar-Utpal Dutt starrer, Gol Maal. The entire story revolved around Palekar wearing a mooch in one scene and not in the other because Dutt's character believed a man with a moustache has more brains!
Anil Kapoor famously refused to shave off his mooch and insisted the public accept him the way he was (and remains). Guess what? The movie that turned his career around was Mashal, followed by guess what, Mr India! The only movie where Kapoor got rid of his mooch, Lamhe, was rejected by the public.
If you speak of Lakhan, Ram can't be far behind. Jackie Shroff is another Hero who has stuck to his mooch. While Jaggu dada has been seen clean-shaven at parties and other dos, his on-screen characters have always been with a moustache.
Then there are the actors whose careers got that the much needed boost thanks to a mooch. Sunny Deol's biggest hits (Gadar and Border) were with a moustache... a beard and a pagri! Border also had mustached Suniel Shetty.
Ajay Devgan's not so good career did a volte-face with Company - his character was called Malik and had a moustache. Next he sported the mooch for Prakash Jha's Gangaajal, another hit. Ram Gopal Varma's Bhoot also had Devgan in a French beard.
But the mooch, like every other 'formula' in Bollywood, does not guarantee a hit.
Shah Rukh Khan made a special appearance in Army with a special get up - Army fatigues and a mooch. However, the audience did not find anything special about the movie. We are yet to see SRK with a moustache again.
Ditto for Salman Khan whose only appearance as a bleached-mooch warrior in Suryavanshi, was a disaster. Most of the other Khans too - Saif, Zayed, Fardeen - seem to prefer the chikna (clean-shaven) look.
Ever since Akshay Kumar has grown out of his khiladi mode, he has grown a fondness for facial fair. He will be seen sporting a moustache and a French beard (strangely bleached) in two of his forthcoming flicks: Ab Tumhare Watan Sathiyon (pic on right) and Bewafaa respectively.
While Sanjay Dutt has played the bhai a tiring number of times now, Sanjay Gupta's Musafir will be his first don-with-the-mooch look. Will it work? Dutt should hope! Earlier Dutt was praised for his role in Mission Kashmir - that of a mustached-Army officer.
Abhishek Bachchan had been called the dark horse ever since his debut days. He finally lent some credit to that idiom with his performance in Mani Ratnam's Yuva - with a mooch in place (agreed it was more of a not-shaved-for-weeks look!).
While both Suresh Oberoi and Rakesh Roshan had moustaches, their sons - Vivek Oberoi and Hrithik Roshan - usually go without one. However, it should be pointed out here that Vivek made an impressive debut in Company - with a moustache and will again be seen unshaven in Subhash Ghai's Kisna (pic on left).
The younger lot apart, there are umpteen examples of mustached actors in Bollywood, from the talented to the has-beens - Mehmood, Johnny Walker, Shatrughan Sinha, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai (in Satya, Pinjar, Veer-Zaara), Amrish Puri (in all his papa-roles) and Anupam Kher, to name just a few.
And when speaking of moustaches, how can one not mention Aamir Khan's handle-bar in Ketan Mehta's The Rising?
But mooch ka magic chalega kya (Will the magic of the moustache work)? Let's wait and watch.
Source: The Times of India
Is my Vijay Nathulal? Why his name is in the article?
Edited by Sandy_01 - 19 years ago