BackMinority report | Fat chances
Dancer Akshat Singh's soaring popularity shows why we will always love an earthy story
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He is plump, cherubic and eight years old, dances crazily, funnily and joyously, displays Bollywood-style bawdy pelvic thrusts and macho smirks, mixes entertaining acrobatics with headstands. Akshat Singh, a semi-finalist on Season 5 of the popular reality dance show India’s Got Talent, also claims to be a passionate fan of actor Salman Khan, choosing to dance only to Khan’s movie numbers.
The YouTube video that propelled him to global popularity, including a presence on the Ellen DeGeneres Show just last week (Akshat was flown to Los Angeles with his parents), shows him performing in a policeman’s uniform and aviators, like his screen idol in Dabangg.
Despite the comparison this kid from Kolkata is keen to draw with Salman Khan, little does he realize that he is an original—embodying a smattering of many of India’s current realities, unlike Khan.
Consider this: while Khan always exhibits his gym-sculpted body in films, Akshat happily calls himself motu (fat). He did that on the Ellen DeGeneres show, fondly patting his tummy and telling the American talk show host that he loved his food and it was like fuel for a machine.
Motu is how he referred to call himself when India’s Got Talent judge Malaika Arora spontaneously got up to match steps with him on the Munni Badnaam Hui number from Dabangg on the programme. While Akshat’s provocative dance moves suggest an adult reading in his little head of what’s popular, he is also learning to laugh at himself. It is an endearing strategy, like that of the plus-sized comedian Bharti, who makes a joke of herself and a living off that joke.
Akshat has a peculiar advantage. His weight doesn’t seem to even minutely hinder him from doing splits, headstands, cartwheels or other complicated body moves—he is obviously fit. If Bollywood dancing is such a roaring industry as well as an important idiom today in our society, its typical mix of modern, folk and uninhibited street-style dancing is something all its disciples must adhere to. Singh’s flexible body gives him entry to that club. At the same time, his cherubic, smiling demeanour gives him a special status in our minds. We are culturally fixated with the idea of the laddu Gopal (a name for Lord Krishna’s childhood avatar)—basically a fat (male) child who loves to eat, thus addressing at least one core issue of archetypal motherhood, the need to feed.
The rest of the world loves weight issues anyway, for different reasons perhaps. “There were other overweight kids on the show. So I felt at home," Akshat told website india.com about the Ellen DeGeneres show, inadvertently drawing attention to an insight that had gone missing in the many reports.
There are other earthy strains in this story. Especially one on how long-brewing parental dreams can get fast-track justice on a reality show. Akshat may be fulfilling his own dream of being a dancer, but he is also fulfilling that of his father, who confessed as much. Responding to a query by actor Kirron Kher, one of the judges, the father said that there were no reality shows in their days, so all they did was dream—something Akshat is able to actually live. Then father and son broke down—further charming the already impressed audience by sharing a moment many of us guard zealously in our hearts—private emotion waiting to burst. It was great television because it was real.
The only uneven part of this saga for me is Akshat’s love for performing in the Indian police uniform. A quirkily dancing fat policeman who flirts and winks voraciously is an enjoyable caricature as well as a signature for a performer as long as it doesn’t drag too much. In the world of childhood fantasies with so many other kids watching with envy and admiration, our country’s police uncles may need more sensitive stationing instead of one filled with buffoonery.
That’s also one of the reasons I am looking forward to Akshat’s styling in a forthcoming commercial, reportedly shot in a Mumbai studio for a Japanese snack maker. Slated to release in a day or so, Akshat (if the trailer is to be believed) wears the new flavour of the snack aptly called Curry and Salman Khan’s dance moves on his sleeve.
Just the beginning of a fat future?
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