My wife, who teaches Marketing in a Management school, and I, often end up having some absorbing discussions on brand positioning. Most of the times, these discussions end up in disagreements with each of us holding our separate views but recently we both tended to agree on a theory floated by her.
She believes that the key factor which is instrumental in the continued success of Big B is that he epitomizes the traditional Indian patriarch to the core.
I think I would agree with her on that. Come to think of it, Bachchan introduced aggression and violence as ingrained personality traits of the Hindi film hero at a time when our own fathers and grandfathers, belonging to the betrayed, educated middle class, were most agitated by the conditions prevailing in the country in the early 70s.
Not everybody could choose or embrace the violent route but via Bachchan, they vicariously lived the joy of bashing away the ills that irked them day in and day out. So right at the start, Bachchan managed a sentimental connect with the average disillusioned middle class whose hero he became.
When a subsequent generation came into being, they inherited their parents' adoration of the actor. However, in my opinion, much of Amitabh's success went beyond his films. They went into what he came across in his personal life.
For instance, the average, ambitious, traditional (yet modern) Indian male is supposed to know the difference between the women he chooses to date and the one he wants to be his children's mother.
Bachchan knew that difference, both prior to his marriage with Jaya and supposedly even post that. Such a man is supposed to immerse himself in work for the good of the family and expected to be “there for his wife”, not necessarily in the most romantic sense.
The average, ambitious, traditional (yet modern) Indian male is supposed to be a dutiful son (almost in the Shravan Kumar mode) and an immensely doting and caring father. Bachchan managed to be both with great finesse. According to a lady called Susmita Dasgupta, who has done her PHd on Big B , Jaya and he were 'ideologically apart' – and that was the cause of friction between them. But so what? Bachchan's marriage stood the test of time and that’s what matters more in the Indian context.
He still managed to give Abhishek and Shweta the best possible upbringing. Besides, a perceived extra marital association is anyway a boon to the chauvinist mindset, which we have to confess, we all have in us in some measure.
As times changed, the anger of the 70s metamorphosed into business-driven pragmatism in the decades to follow. Being 'politically correct' became more important than ever before as also the pivotal key to success in almost all professions.
But wasn't Bachchan the first to teach us this 'mantra' way back in the 70s? After all, look at this irony- while his on-screen antics gave mirth to a generation battling the suppression resulting out of Emergency, he was all along extremely close to the Gandhi family responsible for this suppression.
Bachchan, thus, in as much as he himself embodies power, has also been very conscious in choosing the powerful people he likes to associate with.
This ‘Careful proximity to power, while being politically correct from all sides..’ is something that has stood him in good stead almost all his life. And isn’t that what our parents, who have lived all their lives zealously living up to the ideology they believed in, advise us to be now?
While Bachchan’s contemporaries faded away, it was this pragmatic acumen that had him reinvent himself and saw him start his career almost afresh in the year 2000.
While the image of the traditional Indian patriarch only got strengthened in Bachchan’s second innings as actor through movies like Mohabbatein, Baghbaan, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam and some others which did not do particularly well, on the personal front Bachchan started getting seen more with ‘younger brother’ Amar Singh and on pilgrimages. Bachchan is religious and has a firm belief in astrology. Therefore, while he was fine with his son getting married to Aishwarya, given the attendant astrological impediments in the match, he labored all the more to have them exorcized.
So does one attribute Abhishek’s and Shweta’s successful marriages to Bachchan’s grooming and his firm belief in the permanence of marriage? After all, the Indian mindset considers your children’s successful marriage no less your achievement. No Indian parent wants to bear the trauma of his child’s failed married life in the twilight of his life. And here again, Bachchan comes across a clear winner.
Last year when Aishwarya gave birth to Aaradhya, Bachchan was the one who held the baby in his arms when Aishwarya walked out of the hospital. Seeing his involvement with Shweta’s kids, one feels sure he will make a terrific hands-on grandpa to Aaradhya as well. Like a traditional grandpa, he has made sure that Aaradhya is well concealed from the media’s and the junta’s nazar.
And should Bachchan be alive when Aaradhya has to choose her career, methinks she will choose not to become an actor.
Big B’s super success thus, especially in his second innings, which is what the younger generation instantly recalls of him, is largely due to the image of the traditional Indian patriarch he has managed to cultivate so diligently. An average teenager would probably like to be someone like him when he turns 70.
Hats off to you, Mr. Bachchan, for establishing a connection as strong as you have, across generations!
May you live long enough to see Aaradhya’s child and inspire yet another generation!
(Tuhin A Sinha is an Indian author of 'The Edge of Desire', 'Of Love and Politics', 'That Thing Called Love' and '22 Yards')
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