Hum

Amitabh Bachchan was first the fearless fighter named Tiger and then the darpok family man named Shekhar. With his two brothers Rajinikanth and Govinda, sister-in-law Deepa Sahi and Rajini-Deepa’s daughter, Bachchan created the Hum mutthi — the force of five! And when those fingers firmed into a fist of fury, the ceetees and taalis were deafening.

 

 

The Bachchan five

Last year we featured them in our fourth birthday issue and here, as we turn five, we are celebrating the entry of the fifth member in Bollywood’s first family. The news of Aishwarya becoming pregnant, her being dropped from Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine, and then finally giving birth to Beti Bachchan have been the big buzzmakers of the year gone by. We should get to see the little one soon — maybe in a Sabyasachi creation — and crown the Bachchans the Hum Paanch of Bollywood.

PAANCH

Loosely based on the Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders that rocked Pune more than three decades ago, Anurag Kashyap’s gritty film was about a band of five musicians who embark on a path of

self-destruction. Excessive violence, sexual innuendos and the claim that it had no positive characters meant that even a decade after it was made, Paanch is still eyeing a release date.

Do Aur Do Paanch

One of those action comedies of the 1980s where Amitabh Bachchan was the epicentre of an ensemble cast. Directed by Rakesh Kumar, who had earlier made Khoon Pasina and Mr Natwarlal, this masala mayhem starred the Big B, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini and Parveen Babi. Since the film dealt with con men and con jobs, Rohan Sippy went on to use a remixed version of the film’s title track for his Bluffmaster!, starring Beta B.

Paanch Adhyay

The forthcoming film, starring Dia Mirza — her first outing in her mother tongue — and Priyanshu Chatterjee, explores the highs and lows, madness and magic of love in the lives of a schoolteacher and a filmmaker. The movie, to release later in the year, is split into five chapters that take you through the relationship’s roller-coaster ride. The Shantanu Moitra musical happens to be the directorial debut of