Skip to main content

Nawazuddin Siddiqui & Randeep Hooda: Representing the New Face of Indie and Indian Cinema

I was watching Highway upon its release in one of the last remaining single screen theatres of Karolbagh and it was a surreal moment. Location had something to do with it definitely but it had to do something Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt as well. Probably, that was the moment when I started imagining Alia peeping Parineeti out on the finish line in next decade. But hasn't Alia already done that? Parineeti, still my favorite, is nowhere to be seen. But what about the Burly Hooda? Through his sheer hard work and all the qualities that make a man of iron, he has crafted a niche of his own. Highway was a high point in his career but nobody really talked about him. Just one month ago this year, Laal Rang followed. He does Indie films like Junkie and very often, he helps them to uplift their portfolio. Now Sarabjit is coming out and once again, Indian media is talking not about him but Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. He shall not only surpass her but that powerful actor in Richa Chaddha too, I'm sure. Then next month, Do Lafzon Ki Kahani is coming out with Kajal Aggarwal in lead with him and from its first look, it's looking a spectacularly melancholic, heart wrenching film. I just happened to watch the trailer of TE3N and its first song, Haq Hai and I have never seen Amitabh Bachchan that heartbroken in a long, long time or perhaps after Mahesh Manjrekar's Viruddha. Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan were there too. Awesome. Then a story on Nawaz's inspiring journey as an actor followed. This man did street plays for a no of years in New and Old Delhi and became a much sought after actor in Delhi theater circuit but Mumbai and Bollywood didn't come calling. Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (1 min role) and Kabir Khan's New York (a 2 min monologue) happened. People started taking notice. Gangs of Wasseypur. Stop. OMG. Cannes. Standing Ovations. Miss Lovely. Fully Blown. Badlapur. Oh, he swallowed everyone. Raman Raghav 2.0; Cannes, Another Standing Ovation.

Now you see Nawaz and Hooda every year. Perhaps two-three times a year. They always belonged to Mumbai but they matter more now. But without any 'perhaps' and 'probably', they certainly deserve a three fingers royal salute from me. We all owe them that for They are the living, breathing specimen of that indomitable human spirit. They always were and still are UNBREAKABLE!!!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

P.S. Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix: The Master

My infatuation with the movies is well known but my involvement with the actors and their characters is even more heartwarming. There are innumerable movies that I saw simply because they featured my favorite actors, however they themselves were not great. Examples could be infinite, however for the sake of this article I'll have to produce something here. Anger Management for Jack Nicholson (boy, isn't he a legend?), Swing Vote for Kevin Costner, Snatch for Brad Pitt, Legends of the Fall (Brad Pitt), Leon: The Professional, Immortal Beloved, Bram Stroker's Dracula, State of Grace & Prick up your ears; all for Gary Oldman (mind you, he is a chameleon). Meanwhile, I started accumulating some of the finest performances by some of the legendary actors of all time. Very recently, as anyone who follows me regularly knows, I grew very much fond of the craft and artistry of Daniel Day-Lewis. He is a fine, fine actor whose study and impersonation of a character is often pictur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love and Friendship

Friendship is an aspect of life that’s not controlled by its beholders. Ideal friendships, well they are the things of past now. Many a times we have seen our parents or their parents talking about their old great friends and how amusingly they tell us about their bonding, the moments they spent together and we see a ‘priceless’ twinkle in their eyes…..that’s something which is missing from modern friendships. There are terms & phrases like ‘yaar tu to apna bhai hai’, ‘yaar tu to ghar ka aadmi hai’ which even today invoke something very beautiful inside our hearts but we all know that the feelings underneath them are ‘hollow’, they are just mere words, ‘emotionless’ and ‘impassive’. Well who am I to comment on such an indefinable ‘qualitative’ perspective? I’m one of you, those wretched creatures that are still in need of true, great friendships. Well I certainly can’t say that I haven’t got friends. I’ve got friends, plenty of them in fact, and some of them are real great. I s...
1 comment
Read more

Film Essay: Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

It must be said that when I became routinely aware of the existence of Hollywood films, the one name that always crossed my path and eyes was 'Kill Bill'. It wasn't very hard to guess it's genre from its poster...Uma Thurman in a yellow spandex suit with a 'killer-looking' sword were very much indicating that it was an action film and we Indians LOVE action picchhers . But I wouldn't watch it, not until a week ago and the reason was that I never quite liked those 'action picchers'. It's very UnIndian to say but I was always more into 'Drama' and other genres of movies that unsurprisingly brought me to Hollywood and World Cinema doors. And Kill Bill I had to watch it because of two people that I respect and admire very much from movie fraternity, viz. Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert. As much as these two people were fond of each other, I was doubly in awe of them. One a master filmmaker and other, the most popular film critic of the world....
Post a Comment
Read more