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Watching Ranbir Kapoor do a Michael Corleone was perhaps the best part of Raajneeti. The uninterested son from the sidelines who moves to centrestage deftly was first immortalised by Al Pacino in Godfather. The swift change in gear from being the gentle outsider to ruthless man-in-charge, played so skilfully by Pacino was replicated by Ram Gopal Verma in Sarkar Raj where he cleverly gave Abhishek brooding silence at first to bring out his gradual transformation.
Michael Corleone is a fascinating character for most actors and filmmakers and obviously Prakash Jha couldn’t resist turning Ranbir (younger brother Samar in Raajneeti) into the PhD student in the US who is physically and mentally distanced from the bloody politics of his family. Casting two brothers, one as hot-headed and in the thick of the family business (be it the underworld as in Godfather or politics as in Sarkar and Raajneeti) and the younger one as benign and calm is Godfather author Mario Puzo’s creation. But what is delightful about Ranbir’s take on the character is that in real life too, he has been somewhat similar.
There are obvious actors like say, Shatrughan Sinha, who perform to an audience at all times. Way back in his school days too, Shatru was the sort who’d grab attention by mimicking an array of famous personalities. You know that guys like him are born actors.
And then there are those who turn out to be a surprise package. Ranbir Kapoor is one of them. Much before Saawariya was made, the self-effacing son of Rishi and Neetu Kapoor was always reserved, soft-spoken, head slightly bowed, respectful. Everything and everybody was a “Ji”; he was never the centre of attention. This was not the loud, boisterous celebrity-son personality with an opinion on every subject in the world. If you’d met him then you’d have even wondered what a soft guy like him would do before the camera.
And this is precisely where Ranbir Kapoor has sprung a surprise on everybody. He is suddenly uninhibited when the camera is switched on, it’s like a new personality has taken over. Ranbir does this even on stage like on the Indian Idol show, when you’ll find him quietly sitting with the judges, silently mouthing his father’s famous songs. And when he’s asked to come up and shake a leg, the metamorphosis happens. Ranbir grooves without stage fright, even leading more experienced dancers to follow him as he apes his dad’s moves. Truly, Ranbir Kapoor off screen is like Michael Corleone. Prakash Jha simply spotted that and put a camera in front of him to record the amazing personality change.
If the new generation Kapoors, Karisma, Kareena and Ranbir are holding aloft the RK legacy, there is another family with the same surname that is also bustling with excitement. Anil Kapoor is at his ecstatic best after two successful outings in the West, Slumdog and 24. His three kids are also in showbiz, making this a thoroughly filmi family. While Sonam oscillates between a classic Jane Austen film like Aaisha (based on Emma) and a modern Karan Johar romance like I Hate Luv Storys, sis Rhea has produced Aaisha. Meanwhile, the youngest, Harshvardhan who is barely 19, studies in LA. He will also go into the family business by first training to be a writer, then a director and finally an actor. Acting is his ultimate goal, which means there will one day be three actors, Anil, Sonam, Harsh, all under the same roof.
Anil Kapoor is gung-ho with IIFA honouring him for his achievements on a global platform. And then, he’s just back from LA where he went for the wrap-up party of 24. “I’m blessed to be in this situation,” he says, but adds that he’d always worked towards moving out of the rat race. He has managed to do that at age 53.
By the way, it’s such a pity that Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane, which was made into a film more than two years ago, was practically sneaked into one theatre in Mumbai. The story of a Bangladeshi girl (Tannishtha Chatterjee emerging as one of our finer acting talents) who is married to an older man in London (Satish Kaushik, solidly reliable as ever), Brick Lane is sensitive and rare. It’s a film with a generous helping of Bengali and stilted English. This one definitely needed more promotion instead of just one screening that Satish Kaushik arranged for friends. He drew a good crowd of viewers, including art director Bijon Das Gupta and Shabana-Javed, who turned up for the late night show and loved the small film.
Also present at the Brick Lane screening were uniformed cops, upstairs at the theatre and downstairs in the car park too. They were there to guard Javed Akhtar who has been given protection for the threats from a Deoband sect. The sect protested the writer’s statements against their fatwa on women. That’s a pity too.
