Originally posted by: VimalPanMasala
True, it was the golden age for Indian cinema. There are underrated greats like Mala Sinha, Nimmi, Nanda, too from that era. Madhubala was always considered an good actress alongside her looks I feel. Saira and Sadhana too.
I will say from the list, Asha Parekh would be considered a below average/average actress now because of her very...bubbly style of acting but she was an extremely accomplished dancer and handled romance well. I would say another woman in the same category is Hema Malini. (weaker actress besides Lal Patthar, but great dancer), similar to how Aishwarya and Deepika are criticized now for their lack of range.
However it's true that the most popular isn't the most talented. You can really only make a case for Nargis and Sridevi, possibly Meena Kumari who were superstars and the best in their craft at the time. In all the other cases, the other superstars weren't the most talented of their peers.
Nutan, Waheeda, Smita, Shabana were not the superstars of their generation. (TBH Nutan can be argued, she did rule a decade partially like her descendent Kajol)
However the standards have acting have fallen below acceptable now.
madhubala's swan song mughal e azam gave her some gravitas combined with her tragedy but she was considered the same as asha bubbly, beautiful and if you see her filmography there is no heavy duty role, mahal, mr and mrs 55, chalti ka naam, horah bridge, mostly light hearted and romance
infact asha parekh has more emotional and heavy roles
yes, mala sinha, nimmi, nanda all were great and they were not top tier
the depth is totally gone now or a few are hyped much beyond what they deserve
i agree, hema did a lot of different roles, had immense stardom but was aish and deepika level
yes definetly the most talented is not the superstar always but it is like now the context of what and how much credit should be given for anything is lost, it was as deserved then, hema was considered just that a superstar, beauty, great dancer but not some great performer
zeenat was modern, glamorous and was a star, the very change is katrina has more clout and stardom for the very same qualities
shabana, smita, nutan were powerhouse performers and they were given the credit for that
even the awards reflected that, a sanjeev kumar got the acting award though bachchan may have got the biggest hit
everybody got the level and credit they derserved and had their place
now everybody is hyped, one average performance is hailed as earth shattering, everybody is meena kumari, hema and zeenat rolled into one
a handful are hyped and others are confined to the sidelines
Edited by vcs17 - 3 years ago
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