A green mustard field. Raj Malhotra, standing with both hands spread in the mustard field, looking ‘ordinary but extraordinary’ with a cheeky toll. Simron’s slow motion run towards him… a stormy tune on the mandolin… as if this run was not only Simron’s. Like her, many… qualities… countless… women, thudi lovers. Lakhs of young women in this country have created the image of ‘ideal lover’ by imagining this scene in their hearts since childhood. Shah Rukh Khan, the ‘hero’ of the 90s, is the ‘poster boy’ of that romanticism. The plain-looking ‘pathan’ boy had no wisp in acting. He entered the arena by beating an ‘X Factor’. Instead, it was a huge success. That boy started from serial; Theater before that. Gradually, he entered the cinema as Chak-Bhanga. Rahul Mehra is the psychopath lover in ‘Dor’. Ajay Sharma is burning with revenge in ‘Baazigar’ too. King caught the attention of Bollywood with the role of ‘anti-hero’. Then came films like ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Haye’, ‘Call Ho Na Ho’, ‘Mohabbatein’, ‘Veer-Zaara’… Other films came in the career. There has been a ‘Swades’, ‘Chak De India’, ‘My Name is Khan’. There have been flops like ‘Fan’, ‘Zero’. But he could never break his romantic hero image. Now Shahrukh tried to break that image. A genre he has never signed on to, but has wanted for the past 25 years (Shah Rukh made it clear in the Netflix documentary series ‘The Romantics’ that he has been casting Aditya Chopra as a full-fledged ‘action hero’ for over two decades). given), the action-packed ‘Pathan’, ‘Jawan’ made 60 touching ‘Badshah’ (today is Shahrukh’s 68th birthday). And once again proved the age-old adage ‘age is just a number’.
The king has come of age. The hair is tangled. And that’s exactly why he is ‘jawan’. Bones are weakening, that’s why he ‘sends’. ‘Old wine in a new bottle’, said one-time ‘action hero’ of Bengali cinema Chiranjit Chakraborty. Interestingly, November 2 is also Chiranjit’s birthday. The difference between the two superstars is only in age. He is 10 years older than Shahrukh. TV9 Bangla wanted to know how challenging it is for an actor to break the image of the poster boy of romanticism and earn the title of action hero.
Chiranjit has always spoken frankly about the need for commercial films in Bengal and the need for single screen cinema halls. Audience favorite fights. Seeing that the number of films is decreasing, he also expresses enthusiasm, “It is a very challenging thing. Prosenjit Chatterjee has created artificial baldness on our head, ‘Aay Khuku Aay’. I think there is a success curve in the life of actors. It is also in the life of scientists. Shah Rukh is very interested in the film. He is very conscious of his image.” So is trying to break this image by approaching 60 actually slapping the ‘success curve’ on the back and saying ‘a raha hoon main’ (‘send’) or ‘ready-e-e-e…’ (‘jawan’ )? Chiranjith said, “That success curve has fallen on Shahrukh. I also think Shahrukh’s image needs to be changed. He is old. So you can’t be a romantic hero at that age. Looks don’t support it. So that’s one thing. Shah Rukh is trying to move to a greener pasture. That is why he is making ‘Jawaan’. Because youth is hidden in the word ‘jawan’. Old wine is put into new bottles. And that’s what it should be.” And then again Sochhar Deepak aka Chiranjit. In his long-standing ‘stand’, Chiranjit, a staunch actor, director, producer, painter, and storyteller, once again says, “And that’s what I’ve been saying for years. There has been no change in Bengali films. Actors like Shah Rukh, Kamal Haasan, and Sunny Deol are constantly trying. Their old image is not performing well at the box office. So these actors are changing themselves radically. I want this change to come in Bengal too. But not happening. As a result, I don’t get those hits.”
On the one hand, 58-year-old Shah Rukh is making action films, leaving his own image. But Chiranjit, who shares his birthday with him, why is he not acting like Rajinikanth again in an action film? He replied, “Shah Rukh also has 9 flops sometimes. Do not forget. Red Chillies (Shah Rukh’s production company) has huge money on him. O can take risks… and Shah Rukh…” Well, ‘O Shah Rukh’, even in 2023, ‘Jawaan’ can effortlessly deliver that signature dialogue from his 1997 film ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, “Naam To Suna Hi Hoga… Actually, Shah Rukh Khan might be like that. The ever-young Raj, even at 58, can spread the image of ‘Jawaan’ with dialogues from Kashmir to Kanyakumari… Don’t remember the lyrics of the ‘Jawaan’ theme song? “You Know We Game Time, On The Front Line, Till It’s Over/Deep In The Trench For Us, Like A Soldier”. In fact, SRK is the father of that ‘drug-charged’ son… the scarred ‘soldier’, ‘jawan’, who stopped talking to the media at the pre-release of the movie lately (probably out of shame)… yet at 58 Come and see who is not tired that much… He is the real ‘Azaad’ (the name of one of his characters in ‘Jawaan’), who can feel the heartbeat of crores of Indians humming a song in his heart, “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani”. …”
