He has been the angry young man, the genial older man, the don, the passionate lover, the competent comic and much more; he has sold us balm, noodles and numerous other products. He has beamed at us from the TV screen countless times – Amitabh Bachchan is arguably India’s most beloved actor; his age doing nothing to diminish is tremendous mass appeal. Everyone has a favourite Amitabh movie (or 100), and picking just a few is a tall ask, but we’ve attempted it none-the-less!
Sholay
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He is laconic, sarcastic, heroic, intense, selfless and funny in this career defining movie. People who don’t like Sholay mostly disliked it because Amitabh dies in the end.
Anand
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He was quietly emotive and so beautifully understated in this film; a perfect foil to the gregarious Anand played by Rajesh Khanna. The movie offered early hints to the versatility of the star.
Chupke Chupke
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Everything about this movie was pitch perfect – the lovable characters, the sweet story, the beautiful music and Amitabh Bachchan showing us that he could pull off comedy as effortlessly as he did action and romance.
Satte Pe Satta
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Here he was the doting eldest brother, the ham-handed suitor and also did a very creditable job as his own doppelganger Babu in the film.
Don
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Where on the one hand he played the country bumpkin to perfection, he was the cool, suave and sophisticated ‘international don’ with equal ease.
Kabhie Kabhie
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It was a tossup between this and Silsila; I think this was the better role because of how well he balanced the role of the young man Amit and the older, more mature version in the film.
Paa
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One may not have liked the film itself; may have thought that the man was physically too large for the role, but it is undeniable that the carried off the role with such ease, such élan and inhabited a 12 year old’s body so believably that one had to re-acknowledge the fact that this is one of the country’s finest ever actors.
Black
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For Bollywood this was a very different, very hat-ke film. The casting had to be that of an actor of caliber; for Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Amitabh Bachchan may have been a foregone conclusion.
Author: Reena Daruwalla
