Does Amitabh Bachchan's second innings define his unique legacy?

Kolkata: As the Big B turns 80 today, there is truthfully precious little to write afresh about his bigness. Although, I increasingly feel that his second innings as a wise old man overshadows the iconic magnetism of the angry young man. 

What helps this argument slightly further is the holistic destruction of his self-worth as well as net worth as his 20th-century career crumbled, propelled by some terrible productions and the fiasco of ABCL. 

The latter led to abject financial ruin and it was widely predicted that not just his professional career but his existence at large was on the verge of conclusion. 

An inadvertent rescue mission orchestrated by KBC led to a resurgence of his fortunes in every sense, and he smartly rebooted himself in Hollywood mode, embracing and not denying the territorial realities of age. 

Now, this is exceptional from a Bollywood perspective definitely, as no one else has ever been able to stage such a colossal comeback, curating a compelling line extension. 

Rajesh Khanna flopped miserably in spite of sporadic bursts like Avtaar while Dev Anand’s attempts to turn Benjamin Button were comical and tragic in tandem. 

Madhuri Dixit has been trying gamely for many years now while most of her peers chose gracious retirement instead of pursuing the reinvention game. 

Even RD Burman, after his rejection, never quite succeeded in regaining his form, and this pattern is true for most characters of the industry. 

Only the late Sridevi and Rishi Kapoor seemed to be deftly managing a suitable transition but the highest forces had other plans, and Shahrukh Khan is going through the horrors as we speak.

But back to Big B as he is the birthday boy, and to refocus on his astonishing comeback, worthy of HBR case study on brands.

What happened fortuitously in KBC was the opportunity to perform as himself and not an enforced youngster as dictated by myopic directors, hungry for replication of nostalgic stereotypes. 

Even more importantly, an entire generation of fans, glued to TV sets, got excited by this value-added avtaar, thus setting a firm foundation for the movies to follow. 

Mohabattein happened in 2000, followed closely by Baghbaan, Ankhen, Black, Paa, Piku, Badlaa and so many more, over the last twenty years. 

In this phase, there was no feeble attempt to demonstrate the intense ferocity of yore, instead, he applied his thespian assets to more scalable applications. 

As a logical outcome, the physicality of anger in Deewar and Zanjeer quickly moved on to emotional intensity in his later efforts while the natural comic timing of Chupke Chupke and Namak Halal helped shape the light-hearted ingredients of recent profiles. 

There was clearly no attempt to defy age as he incubated the genre of a ‘character hero’, the secondary character actor of yore now elevated to a pole position in the movie’s plot. 

Yet offering sufficient leeway for the ‘youth icons’ like Shahrukh, Hrithik, Ranbir and others to retain their limelight, with little or no overlap at any juncture. 

The latest evidence of this celluloid cohabitation is indeed in Brahmastra, where he performed like Sachin Tendulkar under Dhoni’s captaincy, decisive but never overpowering. 

Perhaps he was plain lucky because if there was no KBC, the cinemagoers would have been stuck in the 1970s timezone and Big B would not have been accepted as a mature luminary, defining the GPS of screenplays. 

What may have played a part role is his education and, in fact, erudition, which gave him the courage to shed the illusion of artificially engineered youth, which led to the downfall of his nearest peers. 

Or maybe, he simply did not have any other feasible option, as the aforesaid avenues were clearly sandbagged, with the advent of a formidable set of new age heroes, fitter and more contemporary. 

Quite like his latest effort on screen, Big B still remains the Brahmastra for producers seeking both profits and acclaim, as well as a comforting and inspirational partner for the heroes of our time.