The Best Vijay Played by Amitabh Bachachan

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The Best Vijay Played by Amitabh Bachchan

?Yesterday, I was watching another episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC as it is popularly known. Immediately I began thinking about his movies and the number of times he had played a character named Vijay. It brought me back to my favourite question: Which was the best Vijay played by Mr Amitabh Bachchan? Not in terms of portrayal but in terms of character.?A quick Google search revealed that Amitabh’s character went by the name Vijay in more than 20 movies.

?While I cannot claim to have seen all the movies in which the superstar was named Vijay, I am choosing four that I feel are relevant. They are Deewaar, Trishul, Shakti and Kala Patthar. Deewaar for reinforcing the persona of the angry young man created by Salim –Javed in Zanjeer,?Trishul for a standout performance, Shakti for being pitted against another legend Dilip Kumar and Kaala Patthar for reasons that I shall spell out later.??

?There are obvious similarities in the Vijay of Deewaar and Shakti.?In both movies, he is taking on the system. Indeed, in both these movies his professional career as a criminal is shaped by his personal angst. In Deewaar, his father a respected union leader barters away the rights of the workers that he represents in order to save the life of his family held hostage by the factory owner.?His unfortunate father unable to face himself or the wrath of the workers runs away and Vijay in turn has to live with the mortification of a tattoo in his arm which declares that his father is a thief. An act by irritated workers.

?This in turn fuels anger in Vijay’s mind against his father and is one of the driving forces for him turning smuggler. In Shakti his father Dilip Kumar refuses to release a smuggler when Vijay is kidnapped by Amrish Puri. Vijay nevertheless manages to escape but he develops a deep contempt for the law to which his father is wedded to. He is also never able to get over the feeling of betrayal as by his father?This again impels him to turn criminal.?

?Now the father in Deewaar deserves sympathy for being caught between the devil and the deep sea but not censure. Clearly Vijay was wrong. The father in Shakti is worthy of the highest admiration for putting duty before family. While the son’s anger is understandable there is absolutely no case for becoming a criminal.

?In Trishul, Vijay is clearly on stronger ground. A child born out of wedlock he is brought up by his troubled mother as she is deserted by her lover in favour of a rich girl. Vijay clearly seeks revenge for his mother’s suffering by trying to destroy his father’s business empire. While there are shades of grey to his character like when he tries to disrupt the romance of his step brother Shashi Kapoor (named Ravi, what else?) with a ravishing Sheetal (Hema Malini), he redeems himself by returning his father’s property and by finally winning over his entire family including his father to his side.

?While all the three were powerful characterizations, two of them Deewaar and Shakti had one thing in common: The fight was primarily with the environment and this was born out of personal angst.??And?a false sense of grouse against the father. Trishul of course was more a case of a son seeking justice for his late mother. And revenge for his own illegitimacy.?

?This is where I believe that the Vijay of Kaala Patthar stands out. Consider the circumstances. He is the captain of a ship caught in a storm and instead of doing his duty by putting the lives of passengers before his own, he opts for personal safety by fleeing the scene. He is disgraced, and dismissed from service. What is more his own parents ask him leave the house.?Enough grounds to embitter a man and cause him to turn criminal. This is where the twist in the character comes in.?Far from turning against the world he acknowledges his own weakness and is ashamed of it. He hides in a remote village and works as a coal mine worker in near sub human conditions. The workers there face death every day in the course of their duty.?He is drawn to their cause and has run ins on their behalf with the mine owner played by a really nasty Prem Chopra. Along the way he finds love in Raakhee. Finally, redemption comes when he rescues workers trapped in the coal mine which is being flooded. He has the option of remaining safely on the ground but much against the advice of all, he goes down into the mine to rescue the miners.??He finally succeeds in regaining respect in his own eyes and the icing on the cake is being welcomed warmly by his parents when he comes back to safety.??

?Truly the story of a man’s triumph over himself. Can anything be more heroic??or positive?

?PS: I had shared this in my personal blog some years back.

Editorial credit for Image: Denis Makarenko / Shutterstock.com

?(The Author is Vice President, Corporate Communications, HDFC Bank. The views expressed are personal)

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