Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:29:53
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 156.45 2.36%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,446.50 0.40%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.30 0.07%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.15 2.25%
Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  POLITICAL ANIMALS: Bubble path
BackBack

POLITICAL ANIMALS: Bubble path

Our boring, apolitical superstars

Don’t expect any controversy from Amitabh Bachchan because his outlook on everything including society and politics is soft, positive and apolitical. Premium
Don’t expect any controversy from Amitabh Bachchan because his outlook on everything including society and politics is soft, positive and apolitical.

After Thomas Friedman, Ramachandra Guha, Amartya Sen, Chris Patten, the Dalai Lama and APJ Abdul Kalam, Amitabh Bachchan will deliver The Penguin Annual Lecture. Bachchan’s speech, voice and diction can stir the most stubborn cynic, and his charisma never fails; so an audience beyond Delhi’s cognoscenti is perhaps assured. Who else from the world of cinema and entertainment can match his iconicity?

Lectures of this kind are usually an open field, and are often delivered without agenda or focus. But every lecturer brings his world view to the dais. Don’t expect any controversy from Bachchan because his outlook on everything including society and politics is soft, positive and apolitical. In a recent television interview, Bachchan said we should be proud of what we have achieved in 60 years, suggesting he thinks we are a healthy democracy. When he speaks in public, he appears impervious to all the big issues that affect us. Even on his own life and career, the gifted star has anodyne views. So it's only the indelible screen image, and the amazing ability to go on and on, that keep the Bachchan persona still abiding and saleable.

View Full Image
Robert De Niro

Recently, I watched an interview with Robert De Niro streamed live from THiNK 2013, Goa. Famous for being impenetrable in interviews, he gave half-hearted answers about his craft in his best movies—all of them at least 30 years old. His body language was indifferent. He was clearly not excited by questions about method acting that he has possibly already answered thousands of times, over many years. When the interview veered towards the Tribeca Film Festival, his pet project, there was a spark in his eyes, and he inched the microphone closer to his mouth. The Tribeca Film Festival has led to a re-imagining of this precinct in Manhattan after 9/11 and has become a cultural hub for New Yorkers. His defence of Obama and the Democrats, always a vocal supporter of the party, was unwavering. De Niro is, of course, just one of many Hollywood actors, and of many actors in other nations, who make being a political person sexy. Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Quentin Tarantino, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon—Hollywood has many. Ruffalo, whose public views on reproductive rights of women are well known, said in an interview to Salon.com this year, “My belief is that actors are artists and we do have a responsibility to the culture and to the people we are making movies about and to a certain level of honesty. That was part of my training as an actor. That went part and parcel with learning to project. It wasn’t alien to me and when you look through history, art and artists have always had a hand in political movements, in shifts in cultural thinking. It’s part of our cultural function."

Closer home, Bengali cinema has a few, including Aparna Sen, whose muscle against Mamata Banerjee’s wanton control over free speech is in the public speeches and demonstrations she has led to the heart of the city.

Mumbai’s stars are safe. Aamir Khan is silent for years, preparing for his roles or shooting, and then comes a few whimpers about human displacement or the girl child when his TV show is about air or a movie is about to release. Prakash Jha’s films exploit the most popular sentiments about our failed system in maudlin ways; his last, starring Bachchan, glorified weepy activism. Besides a few strong opinions on Twitter, Bachchan is the most diplomatic person in Bollywood. He does not pick his own favourite roles, let alone criticize them. He has always maintained he has done exactly what his director has told him to do, and that he contested elections as a gesture of his friendship with Rajiv Gandhi. The antithesis of a political animal, his iconicity is, in this sense, a wasted opportunity.

Political Animals is a fortnightly blog about the intersection of politics and art.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 13 Nov 2013, 03:40 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App