Netflix's 'Sacred Games' is Saif Ali Khan's attempt at finding a lost audience
For a few years now many critics and commentators have talked about the second golden age of television that we seem to be in the midst of. The history of any development, as Siddhartha Mukherjee suggested in The Gene: An Intimate History becomes far more illuminating if told through the transitions than the product itself. In this aspect, Saif Ali Khan perhaps offers a great insight into the journey of a leading man in Hindi films who suddenly loses his audience.
Career
In a career spanning 25 years, Khan has experienced the highs of a traditional Hindi film superstar, the uncertainty of a has-been, the grace of a trusty sidekick and the panache of a parallel or second-lead. As he, in a manner of speaking, becomes the first major mainstream Hindi film star to embrace the online streaming platform, he could very well be scripting a new phase for leading actors who find themselves at the end of the road, as they knew it.
Directed by Anurag Kashyap, Khan is currently playing Sartaj Singh, the lead in the first Indian Netflix Originals series based on Vikram Chandra’s book, Sacred Games, and with his last few films barely living up to even the conservative expectations attached, perhaps Khan might have finally found a niche to transition into.
The star system in Hindi films has clearly demarcated between the ones who have called the shots and the ones who were the second rung. For every Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor there were the likes of Rajendra Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, and Sunil Dutt.
Similarly for a Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Nargis, there was a Nimmi or a Shakila, a Saira Banu for an Asha Parekh. Later in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a Joy Mukherji, Shashi Kapoor or Jeetendra for a Dharmendra and Manoj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and an Amitabh Bachchan; a Zeenat Aman or a Rakhee for a Hema Malini and a Rekha.
More than anything else such setups come into play when it comes to deciding the sell-by date for stars. While the leading women rarely get more than a decade at the top, the top-half of the leading men, unlike the second-rung more often than not get to retain the slot for as long as they can manage.
Achievement
As someone who was never really amongst the top draw, the fact that Khan managed to be around for over two decades is a big achievement but with Chef (2017) and Rangoon (2017), his only two releases this year meeting the same lacklustre fate as Phantom (2015), Happy Ending (2014), Humshakals (2014) and Bullett Raja (2014), Khan indeed is in on the lookout for a resurrection.
The fate of Hindi film actors is intrinsically linked to the elements that constitute it. Here, image plays a significant part and therefore any change — be it audience demography or the kind of films being made or the manner in which they are made, too, impacts every actor’s basic existence.
At the turn of the century when Mohabattein (2000) saw Amitabh Bachchan transition into playing what was popularly considered to the "Amrish Puri" character, it sounded the death knell for an entire generation of actors including Kader Khan, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Mukesh Khanna and the likes. Similarly, it was the initiation of a newer generation of urban or upwardly mobile youth that saw Saif Ali Khan enjoy one of his best phases both on and off-screen in the early 2000s.
Persona
Here, with films like Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Kal Ho Na Ho, which were close to his real-life persona, Khan saw himself occupy the upper echelons of Hindi film star despite rarely giving a solo blockbuster. These films and public appearances such as talk shows or award functions that he hosted saw him connect with the mainstay of the cinema-going audience — the city-centric young. Barring an Omkara (2006) where he experimented with both his looks and character, most of his roles in this period are the same kind of character — Ek Hasina Thi (2004), Hum Tum (2004), Being Cyrus (2005), Salaam Namaste (2005) and Parineeta (2005).
In many ways, today, much like how Khan seems to be on the lookout for his lost audience, the kind of themes and subjects that he would probably excel at, too, in a way, are on the lookout for a platform.
With Netflix and Amazon taking over the traditional audience that a Saif Ali Khan would have appealed to, it is only natural for the actor to consider a Sacred Games. Earlier this year Vivek Oberoi, another actor who suddenly appeared to be at sea despite a great beginning, found himself a new home of sorts in the IPL-inspired Amazon original web series Inside Edge.
Even in the West the online streaming platform has given a new lease of life to many mainstream biggies such as Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), Naomi Watts (Gypsy), Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon (Big Little Lies) and Robert De Niro, who will make his TV debut on Amazon in a David O Russell directed crime series.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)