Kartik Aaryan’s uniformed look as a pilot in Hansal Mehta’s Captain India has caught the nation’s attention. My niece, not known to fawn like a fan over Bollywood stars, can’t stop raving about how “cool Kartik looks in uniform”
Somehow, Bollywood actors have always aspired to get into uniforms - the cops’ uniform being the most favourite. But they seldom do. I remember one superstar, who refused to get into uniform. And that was Dev Anand. Apparently, he told director Prakash Mehra he would rather play a plain-clothes cop. Mehra politely refused. There ended the khaki debate for Dev Anand.
Since then, not many actors have donned the uniform. None looked as dapper as Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana. His co-star Sharmila Tagore remembers how girls in the theatre would literally swoon when ‘Kaka’ strode across the air base like the son of Hindustan that he was.
A similar alchemy can be seen happening between Kartik Aaryan and the audience. “The uniform suits him. He seems to feel a genuine pride in playing a professional ,” says veteran actress Asha Parekh who cannot recall her leading men playing professionals in her movies.
“They were always singing, dancing, playing pranks.Very few of my films had the hero , or the heroine for that matter, actually holding a regular job, or getting into a uniform," she adds.
Another screen queen Hema Malini recalls Dharmendra playing a naval officer in a 1970 film Tum Haseen Main Jawan. “I remember it because it was our first film together. He looked handsome in a uniform. That apart the heroes were given very vague jobs to do, like looking after their ancestral property, or being a dacoit or something.”
Dharmendra, when asked to recall films where he was in a uniform laughs, “Well, I was more or less jobless in Sholay, unless you think being a hired mercenary as a job. I have played a cop in a number of films like Kartavya. And I think I played an investigative journalist in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi and an engineer in Satyakam. Otherwise most of the time I played social outcasts too larger-than-life to be a normal job holder."
Times have changed. Being a full-fledged aiyaash (hedonist) is no longer the hero’s job. Kartik has two forthcoming films - where he plays a television journalist (Dhamaka) and a pilot (Captain India).
It’s time more of our leading men played professionals rather than emotional drifters aimlessly wooing the heroine, desperately seeking a reason to be considered a hero.
Image source: Instagram/Kartikaryan