Happy Birthday Amitabh Bachchan – Tribute

Abhishek Sharma pays tribute to the living legend Amitabh Bachchan on his 70th Birthday

Of all the matinee idols and silver screen sensations, if we’d have to pick one with greatness and popularity combined in his personality, it will be, by all standards of judgement, none other than the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.

Movie stars are often remembered for ages for their most famous characteristic dialogue or punch line. But when it comes to the superstar of the millenium  ‘Amitabh Bachchan’, there is an endless list of legendary Bollywood dialogues:

• ‘Aaj mere paas bangla hai, gaadi hai, paisa hai.. tumhare paas kya hai’
• ‘Aaj khush to bahut hoge tum…’
• ‘Rishte mein to hum tumhare baap lagte hain.. Naam hai Shahenshah’
• ‘Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai’
• ‘Moochein ho to Nathulal jaisi ho warna na ho’
• ‘Ye Police Station hai, tumhare baap ka ghar nahi.. seedhe tarah khade raho’
• ‘Hum jaha pe khade ho jaate hein, line wahin se shuru hoti hai’
• ‘I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English because English is a very funny language’
• ‘Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti?’
• ‘Pura naam, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, baap ka naam, Dinanath Chauhan, gaon Mandwa’
• ‘Main aur meri tanhaai — aksar ye baatein karte hai..’

Such was the euphoria of his superstardom that the biggest movie industry in the world was often referred to as a ‘One Man Industry’ for more than a decade. His legacy truly ruled over an era as he starred in maximum all time earners and was miles ahead of his competitors in terms of popularity and box-office pull.

For most of the readers who grew up watching the Khan’s and were not privileged enough to witness the Bachchan era (including me), there are some unbelievable never heard of facts. To recollect a few; his first 12 films didn’t do well at the box office, he was paid just Rs 1,00 for his first film as actor Saat Hindustani, 6 of his new films were running simultaneously in Mumbai, his flop films used to earn more than the hits of others, from number 1 to 10 its was only Amitabh Bachchan and the others came after that, he has acted in more than 20 films with the screen name of Vijay, news of his near-fatal accident in 1982 on the sets of Coolie brought the entire country to an absolute standstill etc.

This magical single man domination for such a long period of time was never seen before and most probably will never happen again. As an actor, it is very tough to choose which genre he was best at, as he was equally brilliant in action, comedy, romance or drama.

If Amitabh’s big screen histrionics were not enough, his phenomenal success as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati started the trend of all big stars moving towards the small screen. On his 70th birthday, Bachchan is continues to play major leading roles, a feat that is certainly rare enough in the annals of world cinema to be noteworthy.

Although Amitabh Bachchan’s prodigious stature is now (as it has always been) partly an optical illusion, it can’t be denied that in his sunset years he is looking mightier than ever. Frankly, this space is too small to write about this legendary personality.

Here’s wishing the ultimate megastar the best of happiness, health, joy and celebrations on his 70th Birthday.

By Abhishek Sharma