'Super Real' Is The New 'Bolly Cool' - Sushant Singh Rajput

Television actor-turned Film actor Sushant Singh Rajput on the first-look poster of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! cuts a fantastic picture, leaping across Howrah Bridge with larger-than-life swagger as only heroes do in films. That bit of over-the-top heroic, however, is contrasted by the stark realism about Sushant’s sartorial statement in the picture. 

Like the true Bhadralok of pre-Independence era that Byomkesh was, Sushant teams a dhoti (or dhuti as Bengalis call it) with socks and shoes, coat and antique watch, hair neatly oiled in place. 

The poster is more than just a publicity tool for the Dibakar Banerjee film. It defines the new-age Bollywood hero, smoothly leaping into larger-than-life glamour realm without losing touch with realistic packaging. 

Even five years ago an action hero of a mainstream Hindi thriller produced by Yash Raj Films would be deemed ‘uncool’ wearing a dhoti, so what if he belonged to pre-Independence Bengal. 

Stardom, Bollywood’s new generation seems to be learning fast, will no longer just be about picture perfect look, dapper style statement or rippling brawn — not unless a script demands it. 

The era of smartly-packaged, slyly-marketed charisma that snubs authenticity may actually end with Salman and Shah Rukh Khan. Going by their choice of films in store, filmdom’s new lot is realising that bit, too. 

Ranbir Kapoor is obviously the one who started it all for the current generation, varying his roles from the lovestruck chocolate hero in his debut Saawariya to the commitment- phobic youth of Wake Up Sid to the pragmatic salesman Rocket Singh and the cunning politician of Raajneeti in the very first phase of his career. Ranbir’s experiment with roles has continued. Even though it would be hard to define him as an offbeat hero, his roles have surely remained offbeat by Bollywood standards and his success as a star has rubbed off on newcomers. 

You find an Aamir Khan syndrome here of course, in this welcome attempt to mix believability with box-office ambition. But there is a shift in attitude from what Aamir does. In his entire commercial career so far, Aamir has judiciously avoided portraying inherent evil — unless you count Deepa Mehta’s very arty 1947: Earth.

NewGen heroes led by Ranbir however are taking the Aamir syndrome a step forward. Most among the new crop seem to relish portraying evil. Sidharth Malhotra’s title role act running high on psychotic edge in Mohit Suri’s Ek Villain or Varun Dhawan’s violent avenging youth in Sriram Raghavan’s upcoming Badlapur underlines as much. Arjun Kapoor started off on a sinister note in Ishaqzaade and Aurangzeb before setting out to prove he could do masala in Tevar. 

A few years ago Shah Rukh Khan had stated he was the last superstar of India. He obviously meant it would be difficult for Bollywood’s budding lot to match his larger-than-life glamour (he clearly never did foresee threat emerging from his very generation, by way of Salman Khan).SRK might have been wrong in reading the next generation. 

The new lot will not court superstardom with exaggerate glamour. They will make that tag synonymous with super-realism.