GLAM & GLORY

GLAM & GLORY

(A weekly Bollywood overview by Subhash K Jha)

As Sushmita Sen discards her femme fatale image this week to get into her character as the rustic prostitute in Kalpana Lajmi's Chingaari, you know an actor is at work. Dino Morea's elegant salsa steps in Holiday leave a dent in your psyche. Dino spent nearly six months getting his unusual steps right. He doesn't dance, he glides across the polished frames with a style and elegance you thought you would never see after Kamal Haasan in K Vishwanath's Sagara Sangamam.
It takes a lot for a male star to discard the postures of machismo to play roles on-screen that require him to do delicate things. Dino carried off the dancing with muted machismo. The other pinned-up boy John Abraham is unrecognisable as the Gandhian reformist in Deepa Mehta's Water.
Perhaps putting your life in danger for a role is slightly impractical. But actors in Bollywood are growing increasingly aware of the power of preparation. Before Viveik Oberoi plunged into playing the gangster in Company, he wore dirty clothes and lived in a chawl. A female co-star had sniggered at Viveik. "I don't believe in all this preparation and method acting. I'm a switch-on, switch-off actor." This could be translated as, 'I am too lazy to do any homework'. Lekin Madam, yeh chalta hai attitude nahin chalega. Getting ready for a role isn't just the Naseer-Shabana-Om brigade's prerogative any longer.
Mainstream has gone method. If Dino practiced his salsa steps for Holiday, John learnt to play the flute for Water and for Farhan Akhtar's Don, Priyanka Chopra's taking karate lessons. For Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara, Saif Ali Khan has shaved his hair, lined his face with a scar, put on dirty clothes and a limp to boot. "This kind of external preparation always helps you to get into character. I believe once you get the clothes, speech and body language right, you've got it made," says Saif. For Krrish, Hrithik Roshan went through rigorous stunt training in Bangkok. His first costume drama Jodhaa Akbar would require this supremely methodical actor to ride horses and fight with swords. No doubt, there will be a period of intense fighting and fencing training to face the role.
Mainstream actors have always been ready to stretch themselves for a role. Trouble is, no one wants them to be anything but stars. Audiences don't like seeing their favourite stars change their look or personality. Salman's droopy hair in Tere Naam or Aamir's rising moustache in Mangal Pandey are fine. But when Anil Kapoor added 20 kilos to his girth in Badhaai Ho Badhaai, they booed him out.
This kind of rigorous training is only possible today when actors work on one role at a time. Earlier, when Rajesh Khanna had to grow a beard for his psychologically disturbed character in Ittefaq, he sauntered into many sequences of Do Raaste with the facial hair that didn't suit the character. Today's average mega-stars are clued in and understand the value of preparation. It all depends on what they are preparing for.
For a role, Kamal Haasan put his face in a plastic bag and screamed for his dubbing. His voice was never the same again.


Source-Bombay Times, India