Read a story according to which Jagannath Puri apparently wanted you to play a fan of 'yourself' in his film and you refused. Not sure whether there is any truth to this but if so you made absolutely the right move. Some days ago I made the point specifically with this film that one can 'play' signature as opposed to living it. But elsewhere in another discussion I said something similar about BnB:
[I have mixed feelings about his BnB performance. On the one hand I can totally see the appeal and 'thrill' of this performance. On the other hand I think that he 'plays' his signature here as opposed to authentically 'being' it. In other words I get the sense here that he is 'imitating' a certain gesturality associated with his past. There is a discernable gap in this sense. Of course a different way to read it would be to suggest that whether he does it consciously or not this 'gap' or 'imitation' works for the film inasmuch as it jives with the 'tongue-in-cheek' tone of the film at certain levels. There is an interesting Bachchan semiotics at play here. Almost as if Abhishek had wandered into 'Amitabh Bachchan's wonderland'. Or a world where the trace of Amitabh Bachchan were all too visible. The kajra re moment is the obvious one, an entire essay could be written about it. But here you have Abhishek playing a younger Bachchan in an odd sense while the older Bachchan is once more 'referencing' an older self in a very deconstructive way. Put differently Abhishek's is a 'sincere' Bachchan take while Bachchan's is a 'post-Bachchan' one! And of course Aishwarya still prefers the older guy! But earlier on there's a bit of an interesting 'clue' in the film when Abhishek 'imitates' the Agneepath Bachchan in a rather mock scene. In a landscape where Bachchan survives as 'culture' or a system of 'signs' it is but natural that 'Amitabh Bachchan' himself can appear in such a world only as a kind of 'impostor' i.e. as someone who simply 'references' his signature]
Let's talk about your justly famous 'walk'. One of the most distinctive ones in the history of the medium and certainly one I am partial to more than any other with the possible exception of Eastwood in some of his Westerns. I am going to isolate two supreme moments of this history. Firstly (though not for the first time) that great scene in the second half of Don when you walk across the bridge where Iftikhar is already waiting for you under the bridge, unbeknownst to the gangsters (this is incidentally a superbly constructed scene even in another sense.. both you and the DCP do not see each other, the voices communicate while the gaze in each instance is directed elsewhere..). This is the greatest such example of your 'gait' in your 70s work.
Let's now introduce its perfect counterexample from Coolie. Your mesmerising introductory scene when you are on top of the train and walk across it, master of all that you purvey. This is the 'summa' moment of your 80s 'walk'.
There are however precise distinctions between the two sequences. The Don walk is a distracted, 'spontaneous' one. It is about an easy-going style and abandon. It is about a star who is still exploring his signature or developing it in profound ways and enjoying himself thoroughly doing so.
On the other hand the Coolie walk is all about the absolute dominance of your 'one man industry' phase. Here on display is the plenitude of your signature in the most total sense. In this sense the falcon is a nice touch because it only enhances this sense of supremacy and plenitude. The star here is no longer in flux as with Don. He is 'lord and master' and his walk reflects the confidence of this 'truth'. Though 1978, the year in which Don arrived, was your greatest single year, you were nonetheless still in a process of discovery. By the time Coolie comes about you are 'there' and many films later when you have both exhausted the 'angry young man' as well as the Anthony alternative you can only concentrate heavily on the potency of your signature. But in each case you are still completely authentic.
A supplement here. Agneepath, in addition to everything else, also represents the fracturing of the romantic Deewar universe where that walk first came about in a serious way. And this is reflected in how you handle your body in the film. An element of dissonance is introduced, the fluid choreography of your trademark walk seems 're-inflected' to now register an 'un-hinging'. Also otherwise your shiftiness when you are seated, this marvelously comes through in your introductory moment. Your character is rather uneasy and 'out of joint' throughout the film and this is obvious even in his physical comportment. And yet there is enough of the old magic still there. When you get shot early on the way your body recoils and eventually falls, all this is remarkable to behold (to find the 'repetition' here one must visit or revisit Abhishek's death sequence in Sarkar Raj where the character too owes something to Agneepath's Vijay as do his parts in Yuva and Raavan.. Abhishek is slower, even 'obtuse' about bodily injury here but it's very well done because it is 'in' character). Agneepath is as brilliantly done in this physical sense as the earlier Don and Coolie.
I have briefly recapped key points in a history. But compare this with BnB and perhaps my point above makes more sense. However I offer yet again the counterpoint. Because looking at this history, also considering where you are in your career in 2005, as well as the sort of universe your character operates in with this film, the BnB choice of 'playing signature' (consciously or not) displays in its own way extraordinary instincts on your part. It could not have been done any other way. I paradoxically say I have mixed feelings about it but this is not because I find your performance 'inadequate' in any way.
And now again Bbuddah interests me. How will you handle this? Will it be a BnB (or for that matter a Sarkar-like moment where too you are playing 'signature' even if the stakes are very different from those of BnB) or will you re-inflect your signature authentically in some sense? There is a haunting at work here. All those ghosts that inhabit you. How do you negotiate them?
http://bigb.bigadda.com/?p=7712#comments
For all recent AB articles, as well as all the latest news on BigB and his upcoming films, check out AmitabhBachchan.net
