Uttam Kumar and comedy films like Mouchak

Uttam Kumar and comedy films like Mouchak.

Uttam Kumar, the most versatile superstar of Bengali films became one man industry in the 70s. Viewers were not that bothered about who was his heroine in the film or the co-actors or actresses. The moment the name of Uttam Kumar flashed in the silver screen the viewers knew that he had the potentiality of pulling on the film alone.

Arun Kumar Chatterji, better known as Uttam Kumar acted in Arobindo Mukherjee’s film Mouhak in 1975. Aurobindo Mukherjee had experimented with Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterji in the films Nishipadda and Dhanni Meye. In Mouchak, Uttam Kumar was the elder brother of Ranjit Mullick who got a job outside Kolkata.

When he came to his workplace, he found that right from the CEO of the company to the different officers, people were looking for qualified men to get married to their daughters. Even the house that was rented to Ranjit Mullick was in the vicinity of all these persons who wanted to keep him in close watch and convince him to marry their daughters.

The situation became so worst that Uttam Kumar had to come to that place and artificially campaign about the bad character of Ranjit Mullick. He told all the officers that Ranjit Mullick was a drunkard, gambler and anti-social. Even after that the fathers of these girls never stopped coming to his house and convincing him about marrying their daughters.

At the end of the film Ranjit Mullick entered into an affair with Mithu Mukherjee, and after the acceptance of her both from Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterji, the marriage was solemnized. The film showed the crude reality of fathers of unmarried daughters in Bengal in the mid-70s who generally were in need of qualified bachelors to get their daughters married to them.

Even the lips given by Uttam Kumar in Manna Dey’s songs like “Jodi jagai madhai”, “ebar mole suto hobo”, “paglagarod kothay ache”, etc., was equally brilliant.

Uttam Kumar died almost 29 years back. Bengali films these days get lot of sponsorship and technical development had taken place in the film industry. Yet the vacuum created by superstar Uttam Kumar neither had been filled up, nor can be filled up by anyone else. Comedy films like Mouchak should be restored to show the contribution of Uttam Kumar in those types of films.

Boman Irani's indispensability in bollywood films.

Boman Irani’s indispensability in bollywood films.

Viewers of bollywood films for the last 15 years used to consider Anupam Kher, Kader Khan, Paresh Rawal or Amrish Puri as the indispensable actors without whom most of the films would have remained incompleted. Boman Irani joined that elite list after showing his acting skills during the last 5 years.

Boman Irani did not stick to any regular style of acting. In every film he altered his mannerisms according to the requirement of the stories. He played the role of considerate father of Hrithik Roshan in the film Lakshya. He showed the personality of a middle-class father and also the concerns relating to sending the only son to armed forces.

His performance was totally different in the film Munnabhai MBBS. He played the role of the Principal of the Medical College, where Sanjay Dutt came to study medical science. He showed the concerns relating to allowing a student to continue in the college with fake certificates. His daughter never wanted Sanjay Dutt to leave the college as his unconventional style of entertaining patients had helped them to recover, but Boman Irani showed his uprightness in dealing with Munnabhai in the film.

He had shown his comedy skills to perfection in the film No Entry and Lage Raho Munnabhai. In one of them he played the role of politician, while in the other film he played the role of cunning promoter. The performance had both villainish style and comedy style embedded in them. While these films did extremely well, Boman Irani’s performance in flop films were also appreciated by the audience. The best example could be Yuvvraaj. He played the role of the father of Katrina Kaif, who never wanted to get his daughter married to Salman Khan. But at the end of the film he realized the family bond between the three brothers Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Zaid Khan and changed his decision.

Boman Irani was sublime as a villain in the film Don. Shahrukh Khan and Boman Irani tried to play games against one another and expand their control over the underworld as such in South East Asia. He never let the audience know about his identity till the end of the film. Hi performance had hardly any mannerisms as tried to maintain his composure opposite veteran actor Om Puri who also was sublime in the film.

The viewers expect the talent actor to experiment with himself even more in bollywood films to be made in future.