Nov 04, 2009 05:23 PM
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There are two kinds of actors - Actors who play themselves in each character and Actors who get into the character. There are the third kinds, actors which can neither play themselves nor play the character quiet well such as Fardeen Khan, Celina Jaitely et al. But lets not waste our times talking about those nerds.
Denzel Washington, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino belong to the first kinds. You can see Washington leaving his imprints in movies like Training Day, American Gangster and the pathetic, Dejavu as well. Similarly, Niro enacted himself in Raging Bull, Ronin and Godfather 2 and Pacino in Scent of a woman, sea of love or the underrated, Insomnia. In each of their movies one could see their idiosyncratic style, their true self taking over the character. There's nothing wrong with that because ultimately give the character an authenticity. The second category sees Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, and Ajay Devgan in it. They play "the" character and not themselves and I feel are much better actors than the first category.
Unfortunately, SRK lies somewhere inbetween the 2 categories. He's terrific in Swades and ChakDe, the only two movies where he played the character and not himself. Then there are pathetic movies like Kabhi Alvida na kahna, Ram jaane, Om shanti om. the list goes on, where SRK played himself. You can't blame the guy much about that, its what people want to see in him. People want him to still stutter in front of a girl, give a hurt puppy look in an emotional scene and give a raging tiger roar when pushed to a corner.
Then why Swades and Chakde were different? Why didn't we see the same old SRK, glaring in his crimson red eyes at the opponents and giving a pathetic fight sequence as he gave in DDLJ(I forgive him for that since that was long time ago and he was just out to prove himself)in the end scene? First, the movie and the script, they demanded a mature SRK and not the flippant, chirpy and chocolaty SRK as in his most of the movies. Secondly, the director. I can bet to my last penny that Ashutosh, on the first day of the shoot, must have told SRK that -
Ashutosh: "Look Shahrukh, forget that you are SRK. Forget you have accumulated so much wealth. Forget that you are even an actor. Concentrate on the character. Think that you have just returned from US after a 20 year stint and you find yourself in this small village of UP, how the hell would you feel?".
All this while, SRK nodding, muttering and mumbling "hmmm. yeah. ok".
Ashutosh: "And for god sake, SRK, no K. K. Kiran stuff. I am done with that."
SRK: "B. B. But A. Ashutosh. thats my selling point. my trade secret"
A: Dude. just act as I say ok. We can get through it. if it hadn't been the producer, I would have casted Deepak Tijori. so listen. here's how Mohan Bhargava is supposed to be.
What SRK needs to do is break-away from jerks(If I may call them) Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra, who, although are only accelerating SRK's career, are ruining him as an actor. What SRK needs is to do is work more with directors(charging less perhaps) with indie directors who have a story to tell. SRK must stop playing the body-hugging, DKNY sporting and gelled metrosexual man. He needs a maturity in his acting, he needs characters with more depth where he can explore himself too. He needs to learn something from Nasruddin Shah, from Rishi Kapoor.(I know he will when he'll reach their age. but the sooner he does it better for him).
I believe he has earned enough money to last 7 life times. he has saved enough for his kids and their kids and theirs. what he needs now is to give back to the society and since he doesn't have any other talent than acting, he can give back to the society with his acting.
