Power

After a really long time, yesterday I had a nice lazy weekend at home. Zapping through television, I happen to chance upon Shakti, a box-office dud delivered by the evergreen superstar Amitabh Bachchan, in his only role with the Indian Marlon Brando, Dilip Kumar. While most of my generation (including me) preferred Amitabh's performance, the critics handed out the Filmfare Award for the Best Actor to Dilip Kumar (back then, Filmfare actually awarded acting rather than box-office performance).

Shakti is possibly the most under-rated film of Indian cinema history, directed by its most under-rated director Ramesh Sippy. Sippy 's Sholay, released in 1975, was his third directorial venture (after Andaz and Seeta aur Geeta). While the first two were also good movies in their own right, Sholay turned out to be a cult-classic, the Indian cinematic milestone possibly comparable to Gone with the Wind for Hollywood (which came a lot earlier in the life-cycle of the American film industry).

However, for Sippy, Sholay became a burden forever. His next, Shaan in 1980 was quite entertaining. Saagar (1986) was a superb movie with all the necessary Bollywood formula. Both me and Sippy (as admitted by him in a Filmfare interview) have still not managed to fathom its box-office failure. In fact, post Saagar, Sippy completely degenerated in cinema, only succeeding on television through Buniyaad.

In between Shaan and Saagar came Shakti (1982). Shakti is a relatively simple plot by Salim-Javed, revolving around three primary characters. The story about the tussle between a father (Dilip Kumar), a principled police officer, whose obstinate sticking to his morals and professional ethics first pushes away, and then destroys his only son (Amitabh). Caught in between her hubby's uprightness and the love for her son is the mother (Rakhi Gulzar, who for most of her career played Amitabh's love interest). These three are supported by a brilliant support cast, led by Smita Patil and Amrish Puri (of the distinct baritone that plays a crucial role in the movie's climax).

Shakti does not cater to the masses. In fact, as Sippy himself admitted, he realised that he was making a rather heavy movie, and thought of injecting an item-number (Amitabh could have easily lost his way further, from a singing to a dancing girl). Thankfully, he refrained. Unlike Sholay or Deewar (the two defining Amitabh movies), there were not even enough memorable dialogues.

The magic lies in the no-fuss acting, and the novel-like interplay of human personalities. I felt a strong empathy for each character. Dilip Kumar looks impractical when he gets stuck on the rightness of the law (after all, if the legal system is so right, then Gandhi was a scoundrel). Yet, his character is modeled on the Heroes of our epics. In Ramayana, Vibheeshana, in spite of his constant ridicule in colloquial Hindi, was awarded with a kingdom, because he made the right decision. On the other hand, Karna has been glorified (I have a theory that Amitabh's anti-hero is modeled on him), yet is an out-and-out villain in Vyasa's Mahabharata.

In Shakti, Amitabh (again as Vijay) is even more justified in choosing his career than Deewar. His father was offensive, and insufficiently communicative, at critical times. And Rakhi looks rightfully confused - she knows her husband is right, but cannot see Amitabh going to seeds.

Performancewise, there are some of the most awesome goosebumps raising moments. The scene where Amitabh consoles Dilip after his mother's death is possibly his best quite moment on screen. And the legendary climax has apparently inspired Michael Mann, with a strong resemblance to the showdown between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Heat.

The strongest indication of Shakti's brilliance is that since, for me at least, no movie has managed to better the two key aspects of the flick: the honest cop who loses it all for his principles (Shool, Gangajal; have not seen Ardh Satya so will refrain), and the father-son clash (Apharan, Gandhi My Father). In fact, the nation-defining story of Mohandas vs Harilal is a shadow of the clash between Ashwini and Vijay.