History Bollywood style: The Three Khans

The Three Khans, written by Kaveree Bamzai, published by Westland books publications is priced at Rs.599. A compelling narrative of the careers of Bollywood’s three Khans — major figures of the Hindi film industry Ramachandra Guha is one of few historians to have considered with any degree of seriousness the role of Hindi cinema in keeping India’s chaotic diversity together. Kaveree Bamzai’s engaging book extends Guha’s basic premise by examining the creation of a shared cultural space, even as it compellingly traces the journey of Bollywood’s three Khans — Aamir, Shahrukh and Salman — major figures in the Hindi film industry and a globalising India. Not only has Hindi cinema produced a shared vocabulary of visual aesthetics, music and aspirations, but its evolving ideas of heroism are embodied in the person of male protagonists who have given form to the deepest desires of a generation. Bamzai cites scholarly studies on subjects of politics, economy and culture, deftly marshalling her resources as she negotiates the complex political terrain of recent history from 1980 to the present, foregrounding the three Khans as they emerge from these times and go on to redefine stardom, each in his own unique fashion. That Hindi films are an accurate guide to the nation’s changing political contours is a thesis made conclusively in several studies. Stars double up as characters in films and as embodiments of the most desirable political qualities current for the times. If Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were distilled expressions of Nehruvian socialism and secularism, Rajesh Khanna represented the romanticism of the 1960s. The rise of the brooding, angry hero Amitabh Bachchan’s persona reflects the angst of India’s troubled 1970-90 era. In the mid-eighties, Bamzai engagingly writes, a beleaguered nation rediscovered youth and aspirational desire in prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Political and economic reforms resulted in the technology boom that changed the shape of business and communication, and marked the heady beginnings of conspicuous consumption in sync with globalisation. The films of Shahrukh, Aamir and Salman during these years define expectations of the times, as well as the imminent disappointment and eventual lost sheen of these promises. Woven into the narratives of several characters enacted by these stars is the subterranean story of the times told through the unfolding events of their films. Though the three Khans are assessed collectively, their individual careers even as they correspond to the same timeline, trace different graphs of success and celebration. Aamir Khan was the first to acquire fame in his uncle Mansoor Khan’s production Qayamat se Qayamat Tak (1988). This film, argues Bamzai, subtly redefined gender dynamics through its portrayal of a younger and softer hero who is the object of desire of its ‘innocent yet determined’ heroine. Salman Khan whose first hit came with Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), a movie that correlated blatant consumerism with the Hindu joint family, carried the burden of awareness that the other Bandra boy Aamir, whom he had met occasionally, was already a star. Distant from both these two…