The Khiladi of Bollywood

Movie buffs of 1990s will remember the decade as largely depressing. The critics will tell you that movies had no depth, they were too violent and most that scored on the box office were trend-based hits. While a large part of their crib is justified. I only agree with the point that 1990s delivered the highest percentage of garbage cinema. I have always given a double damn to this crowd which looks for an Oscar winning gem in every second movie or ‘depth’ which they themselves cannot define. The cinema of 1990s by and large failed to connect with its consumer. Fact that they were not Oscar material bothered the critics more. The filmmakers of 1990s post decline of Amitabh were looking for answers and they did not have any. It was the triplet of the Khans and Akshay gave long term relief to the audiences.

It was in 1991, when Akshay was seen first time on the screen. Although technically it is not the right fact Akshay had a small role in a Mahesh Bhatt’s movie called ‘Aaj’, which released couple of years before but Akshay was never mentioned in the credits. So ‘Saugandh’ was a typical zamindar ki beti meets gaon ka bholu movie, it bombed. But other makers noted Akshay.

The movie, which shot Akshay to fame was a role of a cocky college student who could kick ass was hugely inspired from ‘Khel Khel Main’, it in fact had the same Hindi alphabet to begin its title. The film was called ‘Khiladi’. The flick was a huge sleeper hit. Akshay had tonnes of high voltage screen presence. It was this movie, which earned him the moniker ‘Khiladi Kumar’.

1993 was a dampener for Akki all his movies bombed at the box office. He did not give the right bytes to the media. In fact I still remember a famous critic calling him dumb. That tag stuck for long. It took Akshay some years of hard determined work to knock that off.

Then in 1994 came ‘Yeh Dillagi’, ‘Mohra’ and ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’. ‘Mohra’ was the biggest of them and smashed one box office record after the other and had India’s most memorable disco party and pub song – “tu cheez badi hai mast mast”. ‘Mohra’ had great chemistry between Akshay and Raveena, unfortunately none of their subsequent movies worked at box office. The other hit ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’ and ‘Yeh Dillagi’ established a brief pairing with Saif Ali Khan where Akshay would usually play the cool dude and Saif would provide the buffoonery. Here too Saif was totally reduced to a glorified comical side kick. In any case with the rest of their movies bombing the Khan-Akshay pair did not last long too. But the success of ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’ did something more for Akshay.

In 1994, Akshay continued his gold run at the BO with ‘Elaan’ and ‘Suhaag’. In ‘Suhaag’ he played the role of a boyfriend who loved his girl but still had an eye for everything that moves and gets slapped by his girl every 10 minutes. Ajay Devgan was the central character but Akshay stole the thunder from him with his comic timing. Critics still would not buy into Akshay’s acting but the man in the theatre was hooked.

This is what ‘Main Khiladi....’ did. The filmmakers of 1990s did not have content or great presentation to fall back on, added to it was a simple mentality of falling on superstitions. So we had this famous maker who thought his movies would work only if they started with a word K. Shared by another TV queen too. So if a movie was called ‘Ameena loves Saleem’, they would prefer to change it to ‘Kameena weds Saleema’. That was 1990s. So true to the industry trend makers thought any movie which had Akshay in it and the word ‘Khiladi’ in title it would work.

Some of his movies which were called ‘Sabse Bada Khiladi’, ‘International Khiladi’ and ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’ were all box office smashers. People wanted more and more of the action god of 1990s.It was only repeat non performance of further ‘Khiladi’ titles that stopped the ‘Khiladi’ producers in its tracks.

Post a glorious 1994 Akshay again went into a free fall but unknown to media glare the man quietly worked on his most hit upon weakness – his acting. As usual Bhatt camp, which had delivered lot of wood actors, Jackie Shroff in ‘Kaash’ is a glaring example, came to his rescue and Akshay delivered a ‘Sangharsh’. The movie failed at the BO, but it had Akshay’s best performance for a long time till ‘Special 26’ and ‘Baby’ replaced it.

Then came the year 2000 and it saw Akshay’s long term partnership with Priyadarshan. Out of the blue came this movie called ‘Hera Pheri’, which of course till date is more remembered for Babu Bhayya played by Paresh Rawal , but the fact that even here Akshay got himself noticed was an achievement for a man who till just about eight years ago was called wood, dumb and what not. ‘Hera Pheri’ was a career defining film for both Paresh Rawal and Akshay. They both reunited recently to deliver ‘OMG - Oh my god’, in my book ‘OMG’ is a million miles better product than the over rated ‘PK’. I am willing to get into a debate with anyone on this.

Akshay and Priyadarshan delivered one comic hit after other and after Govinda, Indian cinema had finally got its most unexpected comic timing super star, incidentally Govinda was part of one such effort called ‘Bhagam Bhag’. And yes you read it right, post 2005 other achievements like ‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogi’, ‘Andaz’, ‘Aitbaar’, etc. Akshay was being referred as a superstar, an all rounder.

The reason why this man has remained consistent is also the fact that while the A lister makers never gave him his due or thought of him as casting material, his relationship with all his filmmakers have remained long term right from a Keshu to a Darshan to a Neeraj Pandey all prefer to work him. Akshay and his directors somehow have preferred that their work does the talking even in this age of aggressive presentation and marketing based cinema. That is why when you look at it, in the last decade Akshay probably has delivered at least three of the most under rated classics – ‘OMG’, ‘Baby’, ‘Holiday’ and ‘Special 26’

In the last three years Akshay has proven to us why he is probably destined to greater glory, anyone else would be resting on glory.

Very few would agree but fact is that besides Aamir, Akshay is the only actor to have experimented with and delivered so much of different cinema, within the clear defined boundaries of commercial interests of the makers.

Last but not the least; Akshay is also the only camp-free superstar of Indian cinema. He is not driven by big studios of Mumbai. But for this unabashed fan since ‘Khiladi’ and ‘Mohra’, today I chose to celebrate the rise of Akshay Kumar.

- Rahul Deo Bharadwaj