A King Among Men'
THE year ends on such a high, solely because of one man: Ranveer Singh. The actor's brilliant turn as Peshwa Bajirao in the new blockbuster Bajirao Mastani has been feted for its histrionic strength. All the while, he was styled in a fashion only a film costumier could appreciate"dhotis, angrakhas, handlebars, with a bald head and a Brahmin tail. And he owned the look, had the whole country singing hosannas in his name.
Name another leading actor who can pull off this sartorial adventure, and I'll show you a goose egg.
Singh does it with such masculine poise and a suspension of vanity, he makes it tremendously sexy. There's a scene in the film where a beauteous Deepika Padukone lilts toward him, her serpentine hair flowing, her doe-eyes heavy with suggestion. But Singh's angrakha slips and bares a nipple, which suddenly becomes the raciest thing in the frame. There are other moments in the film - the many waterfall scenes, for example - where Singh's hyper- masculinity is equally matched by a feminine softness.
Feminine, because trousers didn't exist at the time of Bajirao. The men wore dhotis, loose pyjamas, pleated kurtas that twirled when they turned, drawstrings instead of buttons, and as much jewellery as the women"earrings, lobe rings, strings of pearls and sarpench. And yet, they were proud warriors, their bodies rippling with muscles veiled beneath the diaphanous muslin.
This sort of androgyny isn't new to the Indian male. Many men still wear the lungi (in the north) or the veshti (in the south). But to urban dwellers, and film goers, a hero must be in jeans, tshirts and tartan shirts, even if he has just turned 50.
In this, Ranveer Singh is an absolute original. He has used fashion to get himself noticed. His getup is his business card, his mood board, and his identity. Nobody in recent years"not even Sonam Kapoor or Kangana Ranaut (who once said she played with fashion because she wanted to feel like she "deserved" to be in the movies) " has wielded fashion as a tool in the image-smith kit this well.
For events leading to the film's release, the actor was photographed in skirts. He wore a lehenga skirt with a bandhgala to one event. At a style award ceremony, he wore a grey two-piece jacket with a pleated skirt and pants, by designer Arjun Saluja.
"The physicality of Bajirao is still in him," says his personal stylist Nitasha Gaurav. "It also came straight after Dil Dhadakne Do, where he was as urban as one could get." Gaurav has been working with Singh since Lootera (2013), and the two have become a fashion thunderbolt"a coup de foudre. When she first met him, he had a typical wardrobe of jeans, t-shirts and jackets""but also a really large collection of hats and shoes. I don't force him to wear anything, he almost always agrees to experiment, and play, and push a little harder," she says, calling him 'a king among men'.
The characters Singh essays and his fashion sensibilities are the same"a tabula rasa"a blank slate on which anything can be drawn. He is the perfect actor and the perfect model.
Of course there are times, many, many times, when his flamboyance is jarring. At an airport, he was spotted in a pink vest paired with a purple floral print shirt. There is another outfit which I cannot describe, but a website calls it his 'Super Mario Bros' look, which should give you a semblance. The pleasure he takes in the pursuit of fashion overrides all else, he wears his attitude on his sleeve, and you know he doesn't give a rat's back.
His fashion is personal and political. He wears what gives him joy, but his clothes are also a mode of originality, of pushing paradigms, of changing attitudes. He introduces us to a new-age man-"this one buffs his nails instead of biting them short, but is still a god in the sack.
Bajirao is the man we want to meet in 2016. Oops, I mean Ranveer Singh.
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