Mr India Looks Back

Waiting for a Bollywood star to arrive fashionably late for an appointment at one of the K. G. Marg highrises, one's tempted to play clai...

Waiting for a Bollywood star to arrive fashionably late for an appointment at one of the K. G. Marg highrises, one’s tempted to play clairvoyant. The image of the man one is yet to meet is easy to create: a black outfit, certainly; dark glasses that aren’t taken off even inside a dark, dingy room; mobile phone in hand; hairdresser and make-up man in tow. When Anil Kapoor strides in, he fits the image right down to the tip of his zip-flashing black shoes. The stereotype ends here, though. Unlike others of his fraternity, he’s quick to apologise for the delay and cheerfully packs off a flunky for some snacks. “I am in a good mood,” he explains, “and that’s because Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain is doing well.”

The much-hyped film, where Kapoor is paired opposite Kajol — for the first time — has just been released. It’s a hit Kapoor badly needed, with his last few films, like Kabhi Na Kabhi and the more recent Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate, having bombed. “To be frank, I think Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate lacked a certain energy,” he says of the disaster in which he starred opposite Juhi Chawla. He’s looking ahead now, and he pretty much likes what he sees. “I think the magic between Kajol and me worked for Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain,” he continues, his face lighting up as he talks of the Satish Kaushik film. Other co-star possibilities were considered first, including the tried and tested pairing of Anil and Madhuri. “But what we needed was two people who have never worked together before,” explains Kapoor, “because we are supposed to meet as strangers in the film.”

Kapoor is also happy to have got a chance to work with Tanuja’s light-eyed daughter, especially given the rumour that she may not sign new films after her marriage to Ajay Devgan. “She is an intelligent and instinctive actress,” he says of his talented co-star.

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Much like the actress he so generously praises, it is Kapoor’s native intelligence that has earned him his place in Bollywood. “Nobody must have taken the risks I took,” he acknowledges. If he is patting his own back, he has every right to. At the time Kapoor started his career, there were no takers for his Moochhwala’ looks, and Bollywood was pretty much conservative (the Shah Rukhs and the Aamirs were yet to happen).

After small roles in films like EK Bar Kaho and Hamare Tumhare, he tried his luck in the South, before striking gold with Woh Sat Din. Versatility, over the years, was to become synonymous with Kapoor, as he delivered a wide range of performances in films like Ram Lakhan, Mr India, Beta, Tezaab, Lamhe and Ishwar.

“After Ram Lakhan, I could have done the safe’ thing and acted in various re-makes of the movie, but instead, I took on Ishwar, where I played a grandfather,” he recalls. “Even with Lamhe, I was sceptical about its commercial prospects. I wasn’t sure if I’d be accepted in the role I played.”

The idea of playing a middle-aged man struck him as being challenging. “It’s easy to play a young man; it is also easy to play an old man. But a middle-aged man is difficult — the body language doesn’t change much, and whatever change is there, it is subtle. I wanted to capture that change.” Both films flopped, but Kapoor has no regrets, thanks to the critical acclaim he got.

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Praise from critics may be important to the actor, but he has steered clear of alternative cinema. “I believe that if a producer is putting his money into a film, he should recover it and audiences should come to watch what I ‘ve done,” he reasons. Kapoor now straddles a happy world between films he believes in and business success. “I do a 1942… and a Virasat, and when people begin to think Anil Kapoor isn’t allowed to enjoy himself, I do a film like Gharwali Baharwali. I believe in breaking out, otherwise it would get too boring. I need to break the rhythm.”

He’s quick to defend the David Dhawan entertainer that raised a lot of heat, thanks to its polygamous theme. “That was hardly a controversy,” he laughs. “Controversy is Fire. Besides, it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously; it was entertaining. I enjoyed doing the film, though I did not believe in it.”

Ignoring the formula and following his heart, even as he remained within the boundaries of mainstream cinema, he sought both creative fulfilment and maturity as an actor. “People who know cinema say that I have become more relaxed,” he says. “They say I am not desperate anymore … when one is desperate to please, one is more external, more loud.” It is his personal satisfaction with his career, he feels, that is responsible for the change. “If I am satisfied internally, it will project in my work.”

Personally, too, he’s a far cry from the Anil Kapoor who was once called a loud-mouth by the film press, which delighted in referring to him as a man who specialised in himself. He refutes charge number two: “I have never taken myself too seriously. I have always believed that what people have liked are the characters I have played and not me, the person.”

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He does admit, though, that point number one holds good. “I was more brash in my youth,” he says. “I remember when I came back from the shooting of Joshile, I proclaimed passionately to the press that Shekhar Kapoor was the best director I had worked with,” he recalls with bemusement. “My other directors started giving me cold vibes. The undercurrent was: To hum bewaqoof lagte hain kya (do we strike you as stupid)?”

The older Kapoor is less judgmental, less likely to shoot his mouth off. In fact, he even managed to get out, “in a friendly manner”, of the role later played by Mukul Dev in Wajood. Directed as it was by N Chandra, who gave him the role of Munna in the superhit Tezaab, it was a tough film to refuse. “But I told him it may not be good for my career, and there were no ill-feelings on either side.” Just when you are giving him full points in diplomacy, he adds as an afterthought: “Have you seen Wajood?” He answers for himself: “I believe they’re all looking like lunatics.” A big, black shoe with silver zips had just been put into a huge mouth.