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He was 32 then. Now, at the age of 67, he stills lords over the film industry, more often than not as the protagonist, playing roles written specifically with him in mind.

Rewind to the 1970s, a time when the shahenshah of Bollywood played the angry young man to phenomenal perfection and earned himself laurels from far and wide. As a role that whetted the dramatic fancy of India’s excitable audiences with its overstated machismo and ruggedness, it was tailor-made for celluloid conquest.

And soon enough, the man with his lanky looks and baritone became the superstar and came to be recognised as the one-man industry. This three-DVD collection of some action-packed scenes and songs from his films traces his rise, fall and, importantly, his magical – and sometimes seemingly inexplicable – resurrection. As the green leather-jacketed Anthony or the chic Great Gambler, Bachchan’s rough ride was smooth, punctuated now and then by comic relief. This compilation has action sequences (Satte Pe Satta), some light comedy (Chupke Chupke) and romance (Ek Nazar). Sure there are some sensitive flashbacks, like from Alaap, and Anand, but one misses many of his commendable performances, among them in Kabhie Kabhie, Coolie, Abhimaan, and most notably Sholay to mention a few. Instead, one is made to watch almost a fourth of Amar Akbar Anthony broken up into seven longish scenes (it does seem Shemaroo is overly concerned about the secular atmosphere in the country). There are also some glimpses from the more recent films, Baghban, Family and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.

So much for the ‘electrifying’ scenes packed in all of two DVDs. The third one has some 26 ‘super-hit’ songs from his films ranging from ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves’, ‘Anhonee Ko Honee Kar De’ (Amar Akbar Anthony), ‘Patta Patta Boota Boota’ (Ek Nazar), ‘Meri Makhna’, ‘Main Yahan Tum Wahan’ (Baghban), ‘Aadmi Jo Kehta Hai’ (Majboor), to name some. Here again there is an overdose of Amar Akbar Anthony? You miss out on pretty songs from some of his better known films such as Abhiman, Kabhi Kabhie and Sharaabi etc. The song selection has been pretty poor and to call them all superhits would be a real misnomer.

All in all an entertaining retrospective, albeit incomplete and lop-sided.

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