Future Bollywood Calling…

I think we are ready for the next generation of heroes to take over. If I’ve to take a call from what I see today, I will have to put my bets on three of them:

1. Abhay Deol – I had written about him in a previous blog too. He exudes amazing confidence on the screen. The capability to carry a movie on his shoulder, on one hand and blend into the background, on the other. I think he will go a long way, if he just sticks to doing what he is doing in a calm and composed way.

2. Ranbir Kapoor – He has a brilliance about him that I noticed in the song sequence “Jogi, Mahi, Heer…” of Bachna Ae Haseenon and a mature presence on the screen. He has a natural pace on the dialogue, finds his space in the screen alongside larger than life actors and rises up to the occasion, when required. He is 2nd in my selection for the post of future Bollywood king.

3. Imran Khan – I see a lot of potential in the kid. He really shines in the latest Coke Ad and has a lot of “impish” charm that he can play to his advantage. Though it is the same thing I would hold down against him, in favor of the two actors above. The new age actors seem to maintain an aura about them that doesn’t necessarily emanate from their “boyish” or “impish” charms.

All the best to the new generation of heroes and may the best man win! I wanted to put these thoughts down. It will be interesting to see how each of them evolve over the next few years and then revisit this space.

Third time is a charm…

Whenever I see Abhay Deol (cousin of Sunny, Bobby and Esha Deol, nephew of Dharmendra) on screen, two things come to my mind.

1. How the success/failure of a person as an actor, even before he/she acts, is determined in our minds. In fact it is the same with people, we make judgements in our sub-conscious minds that reflects an instinct that is dormant in us. All the same it is unexplainable and irrational and knows a star when it sees, we know when someone is saying untruth and all this in the “blink” of an eye (pun intended). Some people trust this more than any other proof that is given to them and a few others, use this as a starting point and change their judgements based on actual incidents around them.

2. The phrase “third time is a charm”, as was obvious from the title, of course! However, this third does seem to have worked his charm at the box office and hopefully will salvage the Deol image (beyond being food for comedy shows) going forward in serious cinema.

So here’s wishing luck to the “oye, lucky, oye” boy.