Rahul V Chittella’s family drama Gulmohar, a quietly released film streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, tugs at the viewer’s heartstrings. The director’s association with Mira Nair is well-known. Nair’s influence is evident in Gulmohar, which revolves around the affluent Batra family in New Delhi. The Batras and a few of their friends have assembled for a party in the family bungalow they will vacate soon. A story about human relationships with their secrets, differences and memories gradually unfolds.
The film has an ensemble cast, which includes Sharmila Tagore, who shines in the author-backed role of the matriarch. But the actor who makes the maximum impact is Manoj Bajpayee, who plays Arun Batra, a businessman and a father. Bajpayee disappears in the character of Arun, the adopted son of the Batras (Tagore plays his adoptive mother). He shares an uneasy relationship with his son, who wants to launch a start-up without the former’s assistance. He drinks tea from a stainless steel glass in a roadside stall, has a quiet private conversation with his adoptive mother, and reaches out for his pills when he is unwell. He is a middle-aged man with grey sideburns — someone we meet for the first time after the film starts.
Gulmohar’s performance is not the first time the actor has cast a spell on the viewer. He has appeared in big-budget films, too, but he has prioritised films with offbeat and meaningful stories. These films have created his identity — and given Bollywood an actor the industry can be proud of.
A MAN YOU MIGHT HAVE KNOWN
OTT platforms have become an inseparable part of our lives. The actor’s entry into the online world has resulted in a popular web classic like The Family Man, an action drama helmed by Raj & DK. Amazon Prime subscribers are familiar with the character of Srikant Tiwari, a middle-class intelligence officer. He has two children, needs that occasional cigarette, and his relationship with his wife goes through ups and downs. The protagonist of a well-scripted small-screen offering, he is just an ordinary man.
Two seasons old and all set for a third season, The Family Man is easily one of the best web series produced in India. And although it has some fine performances — such as those by Sharib Hashmi in both seasons and Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the second season — the series belongs to Bajpayee. He steps into the shoes of Srikant, and never steps out of them until the series ends.
MEMORABLE HIGHLIGHTS
The actor made his initial big-screen appearances in two 1994 releases: Govind Nihalani’s Drohkaal in which he had a blink-and-miss role of a member of the anti-terrorism task force, and Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen in which he played the dacoit Man Singh. But the film that catapulted him to stardom of a unique kind was Satya, Ram Gopal Varma’s seminal gangster drama.
Satya, the first film of Varma’s Gangster trilogy, is a landmark in Hindi cinema. The story blurs the distinction between the protagonist (JD Chakravarthy), who joins the Mumbai underworld, and the most visible member of the supporting cast (the gang leader Bhiku Mhatre, played by Bajpayee). Satya, which hit the marquee almost 25 years ago, introduced the viewer to a new style of cinematic craftsmanship characterised by raw energy. The most popular quote from the film is Bhiku’s famous one: ‘Mumbai ka king kaun? Bhikku.’ (Yes, that is right, with a double ‘k’). Slim, bearded, cocky and reckless, the gang leader who has embraced danger, risks and uncertainty as a part of his life takes our breath away.
Bajpayee is as good as the best in films like E Nivas’s crime drama Shool in which he is Inspector Samar Pratap Singh, an honest cop trapped in hellish circumstances in a small town. He is superb as the enigmatic serial killer in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s action drama Aks. He is impressive as the Muslim abductor of a Hindu girl in Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s period drama Pinjar. Film-goers have not forgotten his character of the conservative and intelligent CBI officer pursuing a gang of crooks in Neeraj Pandey’s heist drama Special 26 headlined by Akshay Kumar.
And, there is more. He plays the complex character of Sardar Khan with unwavering authenticity in Anurag Kashyap’s two-part epic crime drama Gangs of Wasseypur. He makes a powerful statement of his acting ability as the gay professor in Hansal Mehta’s biographical drama Aligarh and is equally convincing as the retired cop in Bhonsle, Devashish Makhija’s social drama. Some of his best choices have been brave ones, too, and the results have often been nothing short of memorable.
Bajpayee has mostly excelled in smaller films, which define Bollywood’s richness and diversity to a great extent. He idolises legends like Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri. He, in turn, has inspired a certain Pankaj Tripathi, who left Bihar, arrived in Mumbai, and slowly became a face in the crowd.
The author, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed are personal.
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