A different lens on Amitabh Bachchan

Book: Amitabh Bachchan As the Other

Author: Shoma A Chatterjee

Publisher: Vitasta

“Don ko pakadna mushkil hi Throughout the book, author Shoma A Chatterjee beautifully presents the enigma called Amitabh Bachchannahin, namumkin hai” is the opening line of the second chapter, ‘The Don of Hindi Cinema’, in Shoma A Chatterjee’s latest book, ‘Amitabh Bachchan As the Other’. As I sat reading the book, my thoughts kept drifting back to Nag Ashwin’s dystopian sci-fi epic ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, where an ‘angry’ old Bachchan reigns supreme as Ashwatthama. As Shivendra Singh Dungarpur rightly mentions in the foreword, “Was it the sheer force of his presence, the intensity, the voice, the larger-than-life persona that dominates the big screen?” It’s hard to pinpoint, but this 81-year-old icon continues to break stereotypes and that is what the author has tried to achieve. Throughout the book, she beautifully presents the enigma called Amitabh Bachchan and how he became and continues to remain the ‘Other’ in Indian cinema.

Chatterjee doesn’t dwell on Bachchan’s biography or his journey as an actor. Instead, she explores what makes him the ‘other’. As the author aptly explains, “He is perhaps the only actor-star who comes from the most intellectually enriched family background in the entire history of Hindi cinema. But if one takes a closer look at his screen image, except for a few exceptions like ‘Anand’, in most of his mainstream films, he is entirely uneducated, maybe semi-literate and uncouth.” Here, he becomes the ‘Other’ because he refuses to follow the path of his affluent, powerful or aristocratic family, choosing instead to carve out a different life in films.

The author examines and analyses 15 of his films from 1971 to 1990, some of which I am not particularly fond of. She chooses to look at Bachchan through a different lens. She highlights how he broke the conventional idea of heroism and reinvented himself in later films like ‘Black’, ‘The Last Lear’, ‘Paa’ and ‘Piku’. Shoma focuses on what made him stand out from the mainstream, rather than viewing him merely as an icon of the mainstream.

As Shoma rightly puts it, Bachchan’s greatest contribution to Indian cinema has been his redefinition of the conventional Hindi hero in its varied forms. Even at the age of 81, he continues to transform, challenge and inspire. One book isn’t enough to capture the legend, but the author has succeeded in bringing out the ‘Other’ through anecdotes and interactions with his contemporaries. Here’s Bachchan who, from the ‘angry young man’, has portrayed characters that offer him a great range to experiment with different screen images that suit his age. If you are a cinephile or a student of cinema, this book is your treasure trove on one of the biggest movie icons the world has ever seen.