At 50, Aamir Khan is better off than Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna

Aficionados, observers, critics and commentators of cinema love to compare actors across generations. More so when a big one such as Aamir Khan, who turns 50 today, hits an important milestone the urge to contrast them with the other greats at a similar time in their lives is almost inevitable. Aamir Khan has spent more than half his life, twenty-seven years to be precise, in front of the camera and in that time has created few of the most enduring images as well as characters in contemporary Indian cinema. At an age where his illustrious predecessors such as Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna looked at sea, Aamir, ironically enough, seems to be getting more relevant both as an icon and a superstar with each passing year. 

At the age of 50, Amitabh Bachchan did Khuda Gawah (1992) where he aged from a version of sorts of his popular angry young man to an old man. This was also one of his earliest "playing his age" roles following which the megastar went into a half a decade long self-imposed exile. The last of his trilogy with Mukul Anand, Khuda Gawah along with the earlier two - Agneepath (1990) and Hum (1991) - might have exonerated Bachchan from the ill memory of Toofan (1989) and Jaadugar (1989) but it did seem like the end of the road at least as a leading man in the classical sense of Hindi cinema. Comparatively Rajesh Khanna, the other big star, was almost out of the business by the time he celebrated his fiftieth birthday. The original superstar of Hindi cinema, Rajesh Khanna had joined active politics a year before he turned fifty and while he continued to act nothing during that era stood out. Khanna was way past his prime and had enjoyed his last big hit in Swarg (1990) where, even though top-billed, he was the "character" artiste. Amongst the first generation of Hindi cinema superstars it was Dev Anand who was still going strong as a leading man at 50 with Shareef Budmash (1973), Chupa Rustum (1973) and Heera Panna (1973) as opposed to Raj Kapoor, who didn’t have a release the year he turned 50 and Dilip Kumar, who had Dastaan (1972) and the barely remembered Anokha Milan (1972). Raj Kapoor had given up playing the leading man with Mera Naam Joker (1970) even before he turned fifty and had already started his second innings by playing father to his own son, Randhir, in Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971). 

Of the traits that maketh an actor a star, the one that truly stands apart is the uncanny ability to be a throwback on the predecessors without being burdened by the past. Aamir Khan would perhaps be the first amongst the stars who broke this tradition in a controlled manner. A few of his earlier roles such as Dil (1990) and Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin (1991) possess a Dev Anand hangover, especially in the comic scenes, but unlike Shah Rukh Khan, who happily filled the Amitabh Bachchan-Rajesh Khanna- Dilip Kumar space and Salman Khan, who eased himself into the Shammi Kapoor mode, Aamir hasn’t been so conspicuous to model his filmography on someone. Yet one can’t help but see a certain sense of concerted effortlessness in the choices that Aamir Khan makes not only with his roles but also the manner in which he engages with the world. He was one of the first actors to refuse awards that were handed out by film glossies, one of the first to do one film at a time, one of the first to exhaust the writers or directors before saying yes and one of the first to dedicate every single minute of his existence to a role film after signing on the dotted line and also the one who started the 100-crore trend with Ghajini (2008). The passage of time made him opt for roles that rarely pushed the envelope and challenged him as an actor and playing a safe rebel has resulted in a certain sense of restrained that one wouldn’t have expected from him. After all he was someone who could follow up a Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) with a Raakh (1989) or happily infuse life in a character such as Dil Navaz or the Ice Candy Man in 1947 Earth (1998) or manage to make a political statement such as Sarfarosh (1999) within the realm of commercial Hindi cinema. 

The bigger a brand Aamir Khan became, the finer the line between making a statement and being overtly politically correct got. For a while now his intensions notwithstanding, his image has taken a beating. His statement on the recent AIB Roast, which ideally should have been looked as a point of view, was seen as being duplicitous considering he was someone who produced a film like Delhi Belly (2011). His immensely successful TV show Satyamev Jayate has also, in a way, contributed to his political correctitude. His critics feel that Aamir’s presence and his conscious correctness casts a shadow of doubt over the entire show that is premised in exposing and debating over corrective action of society’s ills. But on a larger note while one can question the degree of the so-called manufactured texture, there is little doubt that Aamir is putting his stardom to good use. The manner in which Satyamev Jayate has resounded with not only the common people but also administrators and even politicians, in fact, the then CM of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot promised to book the people involved in rampant female foeticide in the state that an episode highlighted, rises over Aamir being accused of not being truly genuine. 

By comparison the current stars such as the Khans or even Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgan seem to have it better in the late 40s-early 50s age group. Even when compared to the generation of big stars between Amitabh Bachchan-Rajesh Khanna and them they fare better than both Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt. While it was only Anil Kapoor who came close to being the "superstar" amongst his generation, he was relegated to a Darna Zaroori Hai (2006) and Humko Deewana Kar Gaye (2006) the year he turned fifty. In his fiftieth year Sanjay Dutt had four releases - Aladin (2009), All the Best: Fun Begins (2009), Blue (2009), Luck (2009) – but could always fallback on the Munna Bhai franchise. Even internationally most iconic actors come to a crossroads of sorts when they hit 50 and take a while in figuring out the road ahead. At fifty Al Pacino reprised his most famous role for the last time in The Godfather III (1990) and tried his hand at playing an unlikely character in Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990), Robert De Niro on the other played a lonely middle-aged cop in Mad Dog and Glory (1993) and two contrasting fathers in This Boy’s Life (1993) and in A Bronx Tale (1993), which he directed as well. Incidentally the one that Aamir is most often compared to, Tom Hanks, played an unlikely hero in The Da Vinci Code (2006) the year he turned 50. 

The time that Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand turned 50 there was already a Rajesh Khanna who has changed the game and an Amitabh Bachchan who was poised to change it all over again. The year that Amitabh Bachchan turned 50 there were many including Aamir Khan and a debutant called Shah Rukh Khan [Deewana (1992)] who had ushered in a new phase but the fact that the year when Aamir and the other two Khans enter their 50s there seems to be no one as big as them when it comes to box-office or being a brand. This somewhere says it all. In the last decade almost every single Aamir Khan film with the exception of The Rising: The Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005) has been an event but save Dhobi Ghat (2010) there hasn’t been enough that challenged the actor within the star. Perhaps now is the time for the dormant actor to take the wheel and from the sound of it Aamir’s next release Dangal where he a wrestler and father to four girls seems just what the fans were hoping for.