With Nishabd Amitabh may have pushed his limit but althrough his career, he played several unconventional roles. Here are some of them:
Deewar: In this movie, Amitabh Bachchan played the role of a poor street kid who later becomes a gangster. What is so special about his character “Vijay” in this movie is that he does not believe in god or anything good. He has physical relationship with a prostitute, Anita. He only loves his mother. This kind of character was not very common in Hindi cinema at that time.
Baabul: In this movie ,Amitabh Bachchan plays the character of a father-in-law who not only encourages but also helps to his widowed daughter-in-law remarry despite getting pressure from his relatives. This is some thing typically does not happen in Indian society. The widowed daughter-in-law remains either with her husband’s family or lives with her own family. She does not remarry.
Shakti: Released in 1982, this movie may be labeled as action movie but it actually deals with a very deep psychology. DCP Ashwini Kumar is a very honest police officer. He leads a very happy life with his son Vijay Kumar and wife Sheetal. Oneday, a gangster kidnaps Vijay but Ashwini does not give up to the demands of the gangsters even if his son’s life is at stake. Vijay escapes from the clutches of those gangsters with the help of a man named Narang. Vijay grows up but he could not forget this event. He could not forget that his father did not come forward to save him. Later, in a bitter twist of fate, he meets with Narang, who is now a mob boss. Vijay starts working for him and eventually turns against his father.
Boom: In Boom, Amitabh Bachchan played the character of a mafia boss. In the movie it is showed that he lives separately from his family with his secretary played by Zeenat Aman. This movie has much obscenity. Critics objected that four letter word was used too much and Amitabh Bachchan was heavily criticized for his role in this movie.
Aakhri Raasta: In this movie, Amitabh Bachchan actually has double role; father and son. Amitabh Bachchan plays the character of an idealistic political activist, David, who would do anything for his party. After he was sent to jail, his wife was raped by the political leader under whom David worked. When he came to know about it, he asked for justice but did not get it. So he takes the law in his hand and kill the people. In this movie Amitabh at the same time plays two character, an angry young man, who is a police officer and works by the law and the other an angry old man who would take revenge on the people who ruined his life. In the end, the old man wins.
Finally, Nishabd is now becoming the center of attention for Indian audience. What do you really think about these characters? Aren't they unconventional?
Useful links:
http://www.uiowa.edu/~incinema/Deewar.html
http://filmiholic.com/2006/06/05/deewar/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti_(1982_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baabul
http://www.geocities.com/bigbachchan/akhriraasta.html
http://www.dancewithshadows.com/boom_movie.asp
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