The Sultan of Bollywood

How often have we visited the question of who is the biggest Khan? The debate triggers extreme emotions in fans of the three Khans. Each one is a powerful gladiator in the cinema industry. I have visited this question so many times.

If you would have asked me this question about five years ago, then in my opinion that mantle rested clearly with Aamir. And for a simple reason, as an actor, he till then displayed an acute eye for great entertaining and different subjects.

If you look at products like ‘Lagaan’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘Talaash’ and ‘Taare Zameen Par’ – Aamir was the leading light of quality cinema, which was also never boring. Most directors suffer from the notion that great cinema has the right to be boring, Aamir changed that.

Shah Rukh, in my book, has an acting range, which is limited compared to Aamir. But SRK has learned to play to his strengths; he does films based on romance and NRIs. He was of course ably supported by the Yash Raj camp and Dharma Productions – arguably these two production houses dominate romance in India, even today.

Here lies SRK’s biggest weakness too; in my book, which is now beginning to show with not so great numbers of ‘Dilwale’ and the absolute gutter that ‘Fan’ was. SRK has limited himself rightly or wrongly to only feel good cinema. His last different effort was ‘Chak De India’.

Then we have Salman. Which genre does he belong to? He started out as a lover boy, and then shifted gears into action, excelled amazingly in the David Dhawan’s brand of comedy. Very few would know and note that David Dhawan delivered his biggest hits minus Govinda with Salman. He is not hailed as the quality cinema maker by the purists.

Salman does not belong to any camp but has some affection for Sooraj Barjatya for obvious reasons. Ridiculed for a long time by the critics for not being able to move beyond the trick of opening his shirt; Salman makes for a brilliant case study of cinematic success.

He has probably (cleverly) not bothered to associate with camps and genres but has successfully built a persona of a “can do” superstar on screen. For a long time that capability rested with the king of 70s Amitabh, Big B could do nothing wrong; he could do anything and everything when on screen.

Salman over the years has been working on that. As it happens initially when you start on that road, the “thinking audience” does not give you many marks. Later ,without even realising you fall in line.
And here is why today, post the surprisingly well-made ‘Sultan’, I must clearly rule in favour of Salman as the best and biggest of the three Khans.

You judge actors primarily on how they deliver in their on-screen competition. My favourite example of Salman being able to pull the carpet right under the feet of the more celebrated Aamir is ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ - every critic and audience, who has loved this movie, will tell you how Salman’s bumbling spontaneous buffoon act totally overshadowed Aamir Khan’s method acting in this one. Salman also outperformed SRK in ‘Karan Arjun’.

His brooding intense Karan was more convincing than SRK’s largely over the top happy go lucky lover boy – Arjun. Even in SRK’s biggest hit in the 90s, which left an impression on so many college romances, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, Salman overshadowed both Kajol and SRK in his brief cameo.

Then comes Salman’s capability to deliver consistent hits with non-existent scripts. ‘Wanted’ frankly would have been bombed with either Aamir or SRK, however, it worked with Salman. You cannot assume anybody else to deliver Chulbul Pandey so convincingly on screen.

Try placing Aamir in that one; sure it won’t work. Look at the genres that Salman has attempted. Romance, revenge, comedy, family movies and the list goes on and on. Sure Aamir is a close runner here but look hard, Salman has delivered this stuff with directors, who were not even known before.

Aamir works with largely celebrated and reliable teams. Let us not even discuss SRK here; outside romance his biggest hits have been delivered by Rohit Shetty. Salman has moved leagues ahead in my book from the other two Khans. Period!

By: Rahul Deo Bharadwaj http://thesocietyasiseeit.blogspot.in