Even though I believe that all Abhishek Bachchan needs to revive his career is a good director, I also believe that if he would not have been Amitabh Bachchan’s son, he wouldn’t have gotten as many chances as he has. And if he would have gotten those chances, they wouldn’t have certainly been big budget projects.
Having said that, I would also like to reinstate the fact that just because he is Amitabh Bachchan’s son, his struggles are public. His humiliation and trolling is public. If in place of Abhishek Bachchan, it would have been a commoner, his struggles would have been silent. He wouldn’t have been criticised, judged, trolled, or humiliated so harshly. For him, only success would have been loud. Pros and Cons of being an insider and an outsider.
Why am I writing this article? What’s its motive?
I do not know why but every time Abhishek Bachchan is criticised or slammed for a flop, my heart sinks. And then I sit back and wonder why an actor who was once the apple of everyone’s eye suddenly hit rock bottom? What went wrong? There was a phase when he was loved, even by the audience, wasn’t he?
As an audience, when I see him perform and feel that no, he is not the same actor we loved in Yuva, I analyse his performances. Here is my analysis:
Before we move ahead with the analysis, I would like to clarify that I am not an expert or an actor to analyse other actor’s performances, but I am the audience, and I can tell what I am not liking in someone’s performance. Sometimes, experts can’t help you, only a third person can as he observes and judges you from a distance without being emotionally attached to you or your craft. So yes, this article is clearly from the audience point of view.
When I see Abhishek Bachchan playing any character, may it be Dhoom 3’s ACP Jai Dixit, Bluffmaster’s Roy Kapoor, Breathe’s Dr Avinash Sabarwal, or the latest, The Big Bull’s Hemant Shah; he looks the same. No, I am not talking about his physical appearance. I am talking about him getting into the skin of the character. Whichever character he plays, I see Abhishek Bachchan there. I do not see Abhishek Bachchan becoming Hemant Shah or ACP Jai Dixit. That, and that is the only issue. Actors need to become the characters that they play.
Why did we love Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992? Because he became Harshad Mehta. He did not just change his physical appearance but he even changed his body language. His confidence as well as his restlessness, both looked so real. We do not know Harshad Mehta but for us, from here on, Harshad Mehta would be much similar to Pratik Gandhi, not physically but characteristically.
Let’s have a look at another example here: Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. The script and direction was, undoubtedly, excellent. But so were the performances. Monisha for us is Rupali Ganguly, Maya cannot be anyone else other than Ratna Pathak Shah, no other actor would look as cute as Satish Shah as Indravadan Sarabhai, there wouldn’t be a replacement for Sahil, and there just cannot be another Rosesh. Now why did I take Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’s example here? Because the entire cast of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai is renowned. We didn’t accept them as Indravadan, Monisha, Maya, Sahil, and Rosesh because they were newbies and hence convincing us that they are those characters was easier. All the actors bring along solid experience and a massive body of work along. Still, they will forever be known as Maya Sarabhai, Indravan Sarabhai, and so on.
How did this happen? Because they became their characters. They got way too deep into the skin of these characters. They lived with those characters. And this is exactly why people are rejecting the nepo kids today. Since they are getting it easy, they are not working on one skill that is most required to become an actor, and that is ACTING.
All Abhishek Bachchan needs to do is stop being Abhishek Bachchan and start becoming the character. The good news is, he has it in him. It’s just that he needs to keep Abhishek Bachchan aside for a while and have a heart-to-heart conversation with the actor within him.