The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Abhishek Bachchan follows in Big B's footsteps

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Abhishek Bachchan follows in Big B's footsteps

Sudhish Kamath

Junior Bachchan has clicked when portraying angry young man

CHENNAI: Just for a moment, let's try and imagine a world without the Bachchans, let alone this season in Bollywood.

And now think of the most popular elements that have ruled our diet of entertainment. It's becoming simply impossible not to find them in it.

In Sholay, the Big B had people cry buckets, defined friendship and created a fad out of denims. More than two decades later, with KBC, he revealed his colonial designs as he shifted base into your living room and took over television sets.

As Sameer Nair, head honcho of STAR, said then: "It was not a comeback because he had never really gone out of public life. In spite of his Mrityudaata phase, people never really lost sight of him. Because throughout the nineties, he dominated films on TV. A lot of TV channels used a staple of his films to boost their popularity. So, he was never really out of market, he was always seen and in public eye."

It's an entirely different generation today when the names Amitabh Bachchan appear on the big screen these days. A generation which was not even born when the icon made films run for months and one, for years.

It's almost to cater to this segment, it does seem like God created Bachchan Junior, just for the generation today to get a feel of the angry younger man.

Ram Gopal Varma reportedly said that Abhishek Bachchan was miscast in those NRI-feel good roles. He does seem to have a point if you consider that the Junior Bachchan's contemporary angry young man portrayals seem to have worked.

First, with Mani Ratnam's `Yuva,' the angry young man who gets lured into the wrong side of the law. Then, with `Dhoom,' he was the angry young cop out to chase fast smooth criminals to the end of the world.

With Shaad Ali's `Bunty aur Babli,' he echoed the voice of a generation that aspired for more, the one that was desperate for a shortcut to success. With `Sarkar,' he's firmly established that he's his father's son, in more ways than one.

The son is shining. The Bachchans are making hay.

But then, who's complaining?

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