the movie was very well critically acclaimed but it fails to attract t masses......the film appears to drag at some places.......but even then film is taken in a realistic manner...........the performancesespecially bacchan n sanjaydutt(sad tat he got a short role)are simply superb......
The movie is excellent but not entertaining, it had all the elements of super duper hit but falls flat in amusing the masses but u can see it once for the great cinematography
With this movie, director Vidhu Vinod Chopra has embarked on a unique and bold trip. He has transposed an incident from the ancient Mahabharata involving the character Eklavya to a more contemporary period, this time involving a royal guard named Eklavya, played admirably by Amitabh Bachchan. In the process, Chopra has given us a modern interpretation of dharma, as opposed to the traditional concept delivered to us through our ancient Hindu scriptures. Chopra is at the helm of a brilliant technical team who have worked relentlessly to put up the most sumptuous visual treat to have come out of the Indian film industry in recent times. Whether, it be the cinematography of Nataraja Subramaniyam, the costumes of Subarna Ray Chaudhuri and Raghavendra Rathode, or the set designing of Nitin Desai, technically this movie is top notch. Acting wise, Bachchan and Saif are in their elements. Jimmy Shergill will surprise you, while Jackie Shroff and Boman Irani are efficient. However, despite the positives, the movie fails to hold the rapt attention of its audience. Although its running time is only 105 min. it loses pace at crucial moments and hence prevents the movie from being the masterpiece that it could have been with a tighter script and sharper editing. The background score is impressive but the one song included in the movie is uncalled for and seems forced. There are brilliant sequences, but they are interspersed by periods of dullness which rob the movie of its cutting edge. Overall, Eklavya should be watched and appreciated solely for attempting this bold and novel concept. However, its appeal at the box office will be limited and will lose steam after the first weekend.
I am a die hard Amitabh Fan so there was no reason that could stop me from seeing this movie. The self descriptive and impressive casting was another add on ..so i had a much bigger expectations from this Movie Package called Eklavya..It was gr8 to see Big B getting better than best as the time passes..and the story is also good but i feel that such a capable start cast was left unused.. weather it was a brilliant actor like Jackie shroff , Sanjay Dutt or saif ali khan ..or the impressive new comer Vidya Balan... what they were give was just 10 minutes . The running time of movie is just abt 1 hr 40 mins I wonder it was a Telefilm or what ? what made Vidhu to take 5 years for wriiting such a script ?It would have been much better if he had waited for another 5 hrs so that he could complete at least 2 and half hrs of movie ... such a extraordinary start cast could have been used in a much much better way .....I am not saying the movie is bad .. i would say it could have been 100 % better
I don't give four and half for this movie. In my view this is not a must see movie..which lacks proper presentation. This could be a better movie if the director follows traditional indian screenplay.There is no proper character establishment and the story is not much impressive, the climax is pathotic(dir wants his movie to end with all happies). And I feel the highlights of movie are actors performances and photography. We can watch a time this movie with out any bigger expectations(if u expect u must be dissappointed).
RE:RE:Eklavya not upto the expectations....
by goutam chakraborty on Feb 22, 2007 08:33 PM
ekalavya is not a simple movie. to understand the movie it is need to understand the inner meaning of it.
I am a die hard Amitabh Fan so there was no reason that could stop me from seeing this movie. The self descriptive and impressive casting was another add on ..so i had a much bigger expectations from this Movie Package called Eklavya..It was gr8 to see Big B getting better than best as the time passes..and the story is also good but i feel that such a capable start cast was left unused.. weather it was a brilliant actor like Jackie shroff , Sanjay Dutt or saif ali khan ..or the impressive new comer Vidya Balan... what they were give was just 10 minutes . The running time of movie is just abt 1 hr 40 mins I wonder it was a Telefilm or what ? what made Vidhu to take 5 years for wriiting such a script ?It would have been much better if he had waited for another 5 hrs so that he could complete at least 2 and half hrs of movie ... such a extraordinary start cast could have been used in a much much better way .....I am not saying the movie is bad .. i would say it could have been 100 % better
RE:Eklavya from my eyes
by S N on Feb 20, 2007 05:43 PM
It looks like Many people have not liked the movie because of the expectations. e.g Statements like 'It took 5 years to write Eklavya', 'I took one years to work on looks of stars' etc raised the expectations of veiwers. Add to that the Car gift..And media glorifying the whole event. Naturally the expectations went high..So people took some pain in booking the movie in advance and probably bought some expensive snacks while watching the movie in the happiness of watching it is first 2 days.. and eager to know what is all about.. and as natural human tendency when the movie didnt meet expectations of some people they retaliated back with thrashing the movie as bad... I feel the movie is good, but because of sky high expectations it fared poor I guess.. Mr. Chopra would have waited for a week to see response and then would have given statements...many of comments from viewrs were responses to the statements and media hype then about actual movie.. some people did liked the movie to some extent but couldn't justify their liking because of their expectations ... so lesson to be learnt is It is not all over till it is actually over...
RE:RE:Eklavya from my eyes
by dev gupta on Feb 20, 2007 11:25 PM
yes Mr. SN..u are right in one aspect ..after all its human nature to conclude ..but still it was too short ..and the characters could have been much viably used....anyways lets wait for BIG b's Nishab :) and fun is on the way with Honeymoon travels :)
Guys, what does this movie has which Vinod Chopra took 5 years to write. All baselss PR excercise. Giving Rolls Royce blah blah. Stop it rediff. On what basis u give 4 stars to Eklavaya. It needs -ve 1 star. Blackhole!!!
well, u r right, i agree that Amitabh waswasted in most of the movies he did uptill now. the real actor in him has just born because now he has decided to experiment with his roles. Branding of angry young man was so entrenched that directors could not risk experimenting. nobel prize committee has nothing to do with indian national awards but it establishes the fact that corruption and unfair treatment can be local as well as international. if nobelcommittee could not remain objective(given its international status) how can we expect national awards to be objective. i don't say evrytime they are biased but most of the times the deserving candidates were deprived of their deserved recognition. an example is saif ali khan. well i read it in one of AB's interviews that he doesn't believe in national awards..but he never refused any. it's true. and i also know about the apologies given by ppresident of nobel committee and how they compensated omission of gandhi by rewarding mandella. but fact remains that gandhi is the one big factor lacking in nobel prizes. see india, corruption is everywhere and yes life doesn't stop bcoz of that but then parameters for judgements and comparisons of talent do change accordingly. fid out how many national awards were given to sholay....?
RE:national awards
by Setu Madhavan on Feb 21, 2007 01:46 AM
Dheerendra,
I must readily accept that Sholay - in my opinion - deserved National awards in more than one category. Such an epochal movie comes once in several generations. What a stupendous effort from the Sippys - and every single person involved. If dubbed in all the major languages of the world, I am sure even today, it will draw crowds across the world. No single person towered or dominated the movie, yet each role pulled its weight, each frame added value to the film. Every actor / actress gave a stellar performance - from Amjad Khan, Sanjeev kumar, Dharam, Amitabh, Hema to Asrani and others. Though Dharam won Hema's heart, Amitabh won the hearts of viewers. His acting - especially his last scene - brought tears to people's eyes. Stupendous stuff!
Talking of awards, several renowned awards bring additional glory and recongnition to people and their work. Nelso Mandela and Amartya Sen are cases in point.
Then again there are some rare people - like Gandhi - whose achievements are so great that instead of Nobel prize bringing glory to Gandhi, Gandhi would have added glory to the Nobel prize. As accepted by the Nobel committe, and the world itself, it was Nobel's loss not Gandhi's.
Ditto with Sholay. I dont remember exactly, but I think some Satyajit Ray movie got a National Award that year, however I am not sure if Sholay was even nominated. Ironically, even Bollywood never thought much about Sholay when it first hit the theaters, till it lit fire to the imagination of movie goers, smouldered for a while, and then errupted with a thundering roar to set record collections and golden jubilees nationwide.
On a sad note, for me it meant, my long time idol Rajesh khanna had to finally take a bow out of my imagination, making way for Amitabh. However even today, I have a special place for the Rajesh-Mumtaz jodi (Rajesh-Mumtaz-Kishore Kumar combination rather) in my mind.
Thank you for brining out the Sholay-National Award and Gandhi-Nobel analogy.
Ironically even Filmfare missed out on Sholay - and eventually made up several years later with some lifetime award (basically 'hume maaf kijiye - ab pachta rahen hai' award) or something.
It may sound bizzare to recollect this now, but the Emergency declared in the country ended up changing the ending of the movie (and i suspect even the initial reception Sholay received). While the Sippy's wanted Sanjeev Kumar to kill Gabbar Singh, it was not considered a politically correct message - the authorities feared that would encourage people to take on evil themselves (what they actually feared was the commom man would get excited and join leaders like Jai Prakash Narayan and revolt against Emergency). Finally a compromise was reached where Sanjeev Kumar muzzles Gabbar with his shoe but the law enforcement authorities (police) handle the rest! Sounds stupid, impossible even now. I am not in the least suggesting that Sholay may have missed out only because of the Emergency atmosphere. No. I agree that Sholay deserved the awards. It was a great - the greatest actually - moment of Indian Cinematic brilliance that went unrewarded.
That said, Sholay offers no fig leaf to cover Amitabh's shameful roles these days. This is NOT a criticism of Amitabh's potential - we already know his potential - but a criticism of stupid unimaginative script and direction that is sacrificing this talent in the most abhorrent manner.
From his end Amitabh is not helping his cause by signing such movies. Another disaster that he has signed up for is 'Nishabd'!
I am sure when Nishabd bombs and I reappear on this board to say that I know Amitabh is the best, but this pathetic movie is disgusting, let me instead go and watch a meaningful Mohanlal movie in Malayalam - because I understand Malayalam and can enjoy it, every one will say, "Dekho phir aa gaya sala Madrasi bakwas karne".
I will appreciate exactly what I like. I dont like most of Rajnikant movies - even if he is the highest paid star in India, and his movies consistently gross higher than Bollywoood movies. It still doesnt impress me. Most of his movies are like typical Bollywood masala movies. Thats my opinion. However I like Kamal Hassan's movies in Tamil.
Sachin Tendulkar is my favorite cricketer (Fortunately, not Dravid, else everyone would say, "Sala madrasi hai is liye bolta hai ki Dravid achcha hai"). However, if Sachin comes to the pitch and keeps getting out 'hit wicket' every time for duck, on a consistent basis, would I still keep saying, "Sachin is God, I can never stop supporting him?".
What I mean when I say "Amitabh the Star is the biggest enemy of Amitabh the actor" is this. Now a director is either too scared or enamoured of Amit to ask him to make him fit into the role. For example - a silly example actually - Amitabh feels uncomfortable about coming on screen without a beard. I suspect he is shy about his facial wrinkles showing, so he has used the Sean Connery (james bond) formula - grow a beard. I just hoped that he also followed Sean Connery in choosing sensible scripts as well. Sean Connery has cut down on his movies (Hunt for Red October comes to mind), but each script he chooses does fantastic justice to his age and talent. Sean likes his beard, but is not averse to sacrifice that for a role.
Ab misaal ke liye 'Major Saab' leejiye. Without going into the script - which was very ordinary anyway - the ROLE required that he be clean shaven. An army major does NOT sport a beard. Unless he is portrayed as a Sikh Officer in which case he would need to have a turban! Small detail, but goes to show you that Amitabh the Star (and his likes and dislikes) are honored at the expense of the Role. It is the role that is the real star not the actor!
In this regard, Amitabh is the victim of his own success! Directors are too scared to differ with him. So the selling points of his movies - irrespective of role / script - become, Amitabh's baritone voice (that lately is being exta emphasised needlessly) and Amitabh himself.
People say dont compare Amitabh with Mohanlal or any other actor. But let me compare anyway. I agree Mohanlal does NOT match Amitabh's screen presence. That is my opinion. Mohanlal does NOT have the deep baritone in his voice that Amitabh has. My opinion again. But to Mohanlal's defence let me tell you that when he acts, the role is king, not Mohanlal.
For example he recently acted in a movie that portrayed him as a Keralite Army officer in Kashmire. To get into the character of the role Mohanlal (and the crew) went and lived in a kashmire Army base, learnt a smattering of Hindi - mixing English and Hindi like a typical Army officer - and more importantly the hair cut was that of an Army Officer on phillum star!
When Tom Hanks plays a Russian refugee lost in an Airport without visa for months, what we see on screen is not Tom, but a bumbling refugee. The refugee doesnot have to be shown in clean cut suits and freshly gelled hair - because the role demands it. Tom may be a mulit million dollar star, but in the movie he is a pauper and needs to be portrayed as one.
This discipline is what Bollywood lacks. I remember Sanjay Dutt portraying an Army officer in the 90s when real long hair (particularly behind the head) was popular. So there he is with an Army officer's cap on and his long hair reached well below his shoulder line! When Tom Cruise (Top Gun) or Tom Hanks (Saving private Ryan) essay such roles they are the role, they stop being stars.
How can we keep talking about Bollywood reaching international standards when we lack basic professionalism and discipline that Hollywood has. How can the cast of 'Guru' boast that they are the first Bollywood movie to be released abroad and then the stars themselves show up 4 hours late in Canada for the premier of their own movie - keeping everyone waiting!! Because in Bollywood the more an actor keeps others waiting, the bigger star he is. I must admit that Amitji is an exception to this and he has always been know to be very strict about time and punctuality - unless due to unavoidable circumstances.
Bollywood actors / actresses that go studios in the South admit a big culture shock. Irrespective of how big an actor is, he or she comes on time, every time! I dont like Rajnikant, but what I like about him is no natak nakhra and andaaz of a big star when he enters the studio. No one knows when he comes and goes. Ditto with Mohanlal and many others. Ultimately it is not the STARS but Actors and ROLES that make the movie.
To reiterate, Sholay is a unique phenomenon - unmatched and unlike anything I have seen since or before. Amitabh is my favorite actor, but that alone cannot make his films suprehits - I wish that alone could.
In the meanwhile i shall enjoy other movies from Hollywood, Bollywood and other regional industries because i understand those languages.
well, mohanlal, kamal hasan, mithun and all other who have got national awards are very good actors. no doubt!!!!. but the point is how unbiased these awards are? they are influenced by regionalism, politics and everyother disease. amitabh has won three and even he doesn't believe in national awards. If gandhi could not get nobel for peace then what authencity these national wards have??? nothing!!
RE:national awards
by Setu Madhavan on Feb 20, 2007 02:55 AM
Dheerendra,
Does the Nobel prize committe select and declare India's National Film Awards? What have National Film Awards got to do with the Nobel prize committee?
Tum bhi yaar gazab ki waqalat karte ho!
And just so you may sleep better tonight the president of the Nobel committe publicly apologized a few years ago about not awarding Gandhi the much deserved Nobel for peace.
(For the interested, there are many theories as to why he was not awarded the prize. My understanding is that though he was nominated 6 years preceding his death in 1948, under pressure from UK it was not given to him. So much so that in 1948 the year he died they decided to not give it to anyone else - so as to not look completely stupid, which history regards them as being anyway. England feared that giving Gandhi the Nobel for Peace would accentuate the misdeeds of the British who along with Americans were repackaging themselves as saviours of human race from Hitler. Moreover Churchill alwasy wanted to be remembered by history as a great leader and Gandhi's unmatchable aura became an unmanageable thorn by his side).
Because Gandhi was denied a Nobel for Peace should we stop all forms of awards and prizes? Life can not come to a standstill because of Gandhi's nobel or because there may never be a truly unbiased prize.
Among the plethora of awards for movies in India the National Awards are the most reputed -because they have consistently picked eminent performances. Filmfare awards, in a stark contrast, are the most discredited - to the point that they are believed to come with a price tag! In a climate when every TV manufacturer or pan bidi company distributes a annual phillum award, the National awards held with minimum fanfare have carved a reputable niche for themselves.
What made you feel that Amitabh doesnt believe in national awards? Did he say so. Did he refuse any of the National awards / or any awards he got?
There is no doubt that Amitabh is a great star, even a great actor, in the top league. It is not his fault that Bollywood directors / producers keep coming with laughable scripts tailor made for consumption of autoriskhaw drivers.
Irrespective of Amitji's talents how can he get awards if all Bollywood makes him do is 'Shava shava' and 'Dil tera sona', or 'dishoom dishoom'.
RE:national awards
by Setu Madhavan on Feb 20, 2007 02:59 AM
Dheerendra,
Does the Nobel prize committe select and declare India's National Film Awards? What have National Film Awards got to do with the Nobel prize committee?
Tum bhi yaar gazab ki waqalat karte ho!
And just so you may sleep better tonight the president of the Nobel committe publicly apologized a few years ago about not awarding Gandhi the much deserved Nobel for peace.
(For the interested, there are many theories as to why he was not awarded the prize. My uderstanding is that though he was nominated 6 years preceding his death in 1948, under pressure from UK it was not given to him. So much so that in 1948 the year he died they decided to not give it to anyone else - so as to not look completely stupid, which history regards them as being anyway. England feared that giving Gandhi the Nobel for Peace would accentuate the misdeeds of the British who along with Americans were repackaging themselves as saviours of human race from Hitler. Moreover Churchill alwasy wanted to be remembered by history as a great leader and Gandhi's unmatchable aura became an unmanageable thorn by his side).
Because Gandhi was denied a Nobel for Peace should we stop all forms of awards and prizes? Life can not come to a standstill because of Gandhi's nobel or because there may never be a truly unbiased prize.
Among the plethora of awards for movies in India the National Awards are the most reputed -because they have consistently picked eminent performances. Filmfare awards, in a stark contrast, are the most discredited - to the point that they are believed to come with a price tag!
In a climate when every TV manufacturer or pan bidi company distributes a annual phillum award, the National awards held with minimum fanfare have carved a reputable niche for themselves.
What made you feel that Amitabh doesnt believe in national awards? Did he say so. Did he refuse any of the National awards / or any awards he got?
There is no doubt that Amitabh is a great star, even a great actor, in the top league. It is not his fault that Bollywood directors / producers keep coming with laughable scripts tailor made for consumption of autoriskhaw drivers.
Irrespective of Amitji's talents how can he get awards if all Bollywood makes him do is 'Shava shava' and 'Dil tera sona', or 'dishoom dishoom'.
RE:national awards
by dheerendra pathak on Feb 20, 2007 04:21 AM
well, u r right, i agree that amitabh was wasted in most of the movies he did uptill now. the real actor in him has just born because now he has decided to experiment with his roles. Branding of angry young man was so entrenched that directors could not risk experimenting. nobel prize committee has nothing to do with indian national awards but its establishes the fact that corruption and unfair treatment can be local as well as international. if nebel committee could not remain objective(given its international status) how can we expect national awards to be objective. i don't deny that evrytime they are biased but most of the times the deserving candidates were deprived of their deserved recognition. an example is saif ali khan. well i read it in one of AB's interviews that i don't believe in national awards......but he never refused any. it's true. and i also know about the apologies given by ppresident of nobel committee and how they compensated omission of gandhi by rewarding mandella. but fact remains that gandhi is the one big factor lacking in nobel prizes. see india, corruption is everywhere and yes life doesn't stop bcoz of that but then parameters for judgements and comparisons of talent do change accordingly. fid out how many national awards were given to sholay....?
RE:RE:national awards
by Jigesha Shah on Feb 20, 2007 06:25 AM
Sethuji, it seems that you're on a total rampage... I wonder seriously where you get all of your knowledge from. You never did reply to me whether you used the HIndi-Malaylam/English dictionary or not... or whether you use Wikipedia for your source of information. Lol.
Why are you so against Amitabh Bachchan anyway? And why do you call him your favorite star or whatever if you can't support him or stand for him?
I agree with Dheerendra that all awards are biased in some way or the other. Why else would a movie like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna be nominated for the Filmfare Awards?
RE:RE:national awards
by Setu Madhavan on Feb 20, 2007 11:43 PM
Dheerendra,
I must readily accept that Sholay - in my opinion - deserved National awards in more than one category. Such an epochal movie comes once in several generations. What a stupendous effort from the Sippys - and every single person involved. If dubbed in all the major languages of the world, I am sure even today, it will draw crowds across the world. No single person towered or dominated the movie, yet each role pulled its weight, each frame added value to the film. Every actor / actress gave a stellar performance - from Amjad Khan, Sanjeev kumar, Dharam, Amitabh, Hema to Asrani and others. Though Dharam won Hema's heart, Amitabh won the hearts of viewers. His acting - especially his last scene - brought tears to people's eyes. Stupendous stuff!
Talking of awards, several renowned awards bring additional glory and recongnition to people and their work. Nelso Mandela and Amartya Sen are cases in point.
Then again there are some rare people - like Gandhi - whose achievements are so great that instead of Nobel prize bringing glory to Gandhi, Gandhi would have added glory to the Nobel prize. As accepted by the Nobel committe, and the world itself, it was Nobel's loss not Gandhi's.
Ditto with Sholay. I dont remember exactly, but I think some Satyajit Ray movie got a National Award that year, however I am not sure if Sholay was even nominated. Ironically, even Bollywood never thought much about Sholay when it first hit the theaters, till it lit fire to the imagination of movie goers, smouldered for a while, and then errupted with a thundering roar to set record collections and golden jubilees nationwide.
On a sad note, for me it meant, my long time idol Rajesh khanna had to finally take a bow out of my imagination, making way for Amitabh. However even today, I have a special place for the Rajesh-Mumtaz jodi (Rajesh-Mumtaz-Kishore Kumar combination rather) in my mind.
Thank you for brining out the Sholay-National Award and Gandhi-Nobel analogy.
Ironically even Filmfare missed out on Sholay - and eventually made up several years later with some lifetime award (basically 'hume maaf kijiye - ab pachta rahen hai' award) or something.
It may sound bizzare to recollect this now, but the Emergency declared in the country ended up changing the ending of the movie (and i suspect even the initial reception Sholay received). While the Sippy's wanted Sanjeev Kumar to kill Gabbar Singh, it was not considered a politically correct message - the authorities feared that would encourage people to take on evil themselves (what they actually feared was the commom man would get excited and join leaders like Jai Prakash Narayan and revolt against Emergency). Finally a compromise was reached where Sanjeev Kumar muzzles Gabbar with his shoe but the law enforcement authorities (police) handle the rest! Sounds stupid, impossible even now. I am not in the least suggesting that Sholay may have missed out only because of the Emergency atmosphere. No. I agree that Sholay deserved the awards. It was a great - the greatest actually - moment of Indian Cinematic brilliance that went unrewarded.
That said, Sholay offers no fig leaf to cover Amitabh's shameful roles these days. This is NOT a criticism of Amitabh's potential - we already know his potential - but a criticism of stupid unimaginative script and direction that is sacrificing this talent in the most abhorrent manner.
From his end Amitabh is not helping his cause by signing such movies. Another disaster that he has signed up for is 'Nishabd'!
I am sure when Nishabd bombs and I reappear on this board to say that I know Amitabh is the best, but this pathetic movie is disgusting, let me instead go and watch a meaningful Mohanlal movie in Malayalam - because I understand Malayalam and can enjoy it, every one will say, "Dekho phir aa gaya sala Madrasi bakwas karne".
I will appreciate exactly what I like. I dont like most of Rajnikant movies - even if he is the highest paid star in India, and his movies consistently gross higher than Bollywoood movies. It still doesnt impress me. Most of his movies are like typical Bollywood masala movies. Thats my opinion. However I like Kamal Hassan's movies in Tamil.
Sachin Tendulkar is my favorite cricketer (Fortunately, not Dravid, else everyone would say, "Sala madrasi hai is liye bolta hai ki Dravid achcha hai"). However, if Sachin comes to the pitch and keeps getting out 'hit wicket' every time for duck, on a consistent basis, would I still keep saying, "Sachin is God, I can never stop supporting him?".
What I mean when I say "Amitabh the Star is the biggest enemy of Amitabh the actor" is this. Now a director is either too scared or enamoured of Amit to ask him to make him fit into the role. For example - a silly example actually - Amitabh feels uncomfortable about coming on screen without a beard. I suspect he is shy about his facial wrinkles showing, so he has used the Sean Connery (james bond) formula - grow a beard. I just hoped that he also followed Sean Connery in choosing sensible scripts as well. Sean Connery has cut down on his movies (Hunt for Red October comes to mind), but each script he chooses does fantastic justice to his age and talent. Sean likes his beard, but is not averse to sacrifice that for a role.
Ab misaal ke liye 'Major Saab' leejiye. Without going into the script - which was very ordinary anyway - the ROLE required that he be clean shaven. An army major does NOT sport a beard. Unless he is portrayed as a Sikh Officer in which case he would need to have a turban! Small detail, but goes to show you that Amitabh the Star (and his likes and dislikes) are honored at the expense of the Role. It is the role that is the real star not the actor!
In this regard, Amitabh is the victim of his own success! Directors are too scared to differ with him. So the selling points of his movies - irrespective of role / script - become, Amitabh's baritone voice (that lately is being exta emphasised needlessly) and Amitabh himself.
People say dont compare Amitabh with Mohanlal or any other actor. But let me compare anyway. I agree Mohanlal does NOT match Amitabh's screen presence. That is my opinion. Mohanlal does NOT have the deep baritone in his voice that Amitabh has. My opinion again. But to Mohanlal's defence let me tell you that when he acts, the role is king, not Mohanlal.
For example he recently acted in a movie that portrayed him as a Keralite Army officer in Kashmire. To get into the character of the role Mohanlal (and the crew) went and lived in a kashmire Army base, learnt a smattering of Hindi - mixing English and Hindi like a typical Army officer - and more importantly the hair cut was that of an Army Officer on phillum star!
When Tom Hanks plays a Russian refugee lost in an Airport without visa for months, what we see on screen is not Tom, but a bumbling refugee. The refugee doesnot have to be shown in clean cut suits and freshly gelled hair - because the role demands it. Tom may be a mulit million dollar star, but in the movie he is a pauper and needs to be portrayed as one.
This discipline is what Bollywood lacks. I remember Sanjay Dutt portraying an Army officer in the 90s when real long hair (particularly behind the head) was popular. So there he is with an Army officer's cap on and his long hair reached well below his shoulder line! When Tom Cruise (Top Gun) or Tom Hanks (Saving private Ryan) essay such roles they are the role, they stop being stars.
How can we keep talking about Bollywood reaching international standards when we lack basic professionalism and discipline that Hollywood has. How can the cast of 'Guru' boast that they are the first Bollywood movie to be released abroad and then the stars themselves show up 4 hours late in Canada for the premier of their own movie - keeping everyone waiting!! Because in Bollywood the more an actor keeps others waiting, the bigger star he is. I must admit that Amitji is an exception to this and he has always been know to be very strict about time and punctuality - unless due to unavoidable circumstances.
Bollywood actors / actresses that go studios in the South admit a big culture shock. Irrespective of how big an actor is, he or she comes on time, every time! I dont like Rajnikant, but what I like about him is no natak nakhra and andaaz of a big star when he enters the studio. No one knows when he comes and goes. Ditto with Mohanlal and many others. Ultimately it is not the STARS but Actors and ROLES that make the movie.
To reiterate, Sholay is a unique phenomenon - unmatched and unlike anything I have seen since or before. Amitabh is my favorite actor, but that alone cannot make his films suprehits - I wish that alone could.
In the meanwhile i shall enjoy other movies from Hollywood, Bollywood and other regional industries because i understand those languages.
