Lessons from the Prime of Amitabh Bachchan
by on 4 Sep 2009
Nobody does it like Amitabh Bachchan did it.
Just watch these videos from his prime and you’ll begin to get a hint of it. For those of us too young to have seen enough of him in his heydays, there’s a reason that Bachchan captivated an entire generation and still endures. Below are three Bachchan characteristics I strongly suggest everybody cultivate:
A languorous bum shake
Watch Amitabh Bachchan shake his bum while he leans on his stick in ‘My Name is Anthony Gonzalves’. This is not the practiced, thousand time rehearsed, dazzling bum shake of Hrithik Roshan, or the effortful, exercising, muscled ass movements of Salman or Akshay. This is languor; this is the charming, gliding, characteristic languor of Amitabh Bachchan.
A lanky & honest awkwardness
Watch him cycle his long, lanky legs while he sits on the red steps in front of the ridiculous party egg in ‘My Name is Anthony Gonzalves’. He cycles oddly as his suit trousers flip flap about his skinny legs. Now watch him shimmy up and down the steps in casual dance, gliding up and down. His extra-long limbs give him that necessary twinge of honest awkwardness that shines through.
Anywhere impishness
This guy could be the worker in a blue over-all, the cowboy hitching a ride, the rowdy guy in a cheap bar, the guy whiling away his time on the street. He’s not like the boy actors of today who look out of place except in candy colored clothing on a brightly colored college set or a sparkly disco. He has that street smart, anywhere man bravado. Check out Bachchan’s head shake, cigarette in mouth, in “Jumma Chumma De De.”
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