Cinema is a game of perception where actors spend years to build an image and then regret the shackles that come with it. Perhaps, Saif Ali Khan is going through the same phase. After playing second fiddle to Ajay Devgns and Akshay Kumars for the better part of 90s, he emerged as the symbol of urban cool with a series of romantic drama and comedy at the turn of new millennium. Suave and subtle, here again he started with multi-starrers but it was never in doubt that he would soon make this space entirely his own.
However, as the cool dudes gave way to earthy brats at the box office, Saif also felt the need to reinvent himself. When subtle attempts like “Aarakshan” went unnoticed, he went full throttle with “Bullett Raja” with Tigmanshu Dhulia, a director who didn’t belong to his camp. Though he denies he was trying to be Salman Khan in the film, it was a sort of homecoming for Saif who till then thrived on the NRIs and the urbane audience. This week he is taking his proclivity for experimentation one step forward with “Humshakals”, a Sajid Khan comedy where among other bizarre things he will be seen as a drag queen.
Tell him that he is trying to be versatile and Saif cuts in between to assert that he is versatile. “I have been in the industry for two decades and if I won’t experiment with my image now then when will I,” he asks.
Remind him that “Humshakals” already appears a pulp which critics love to dig their teeth into, and Saif responds, “I respect critics but I don’t live for them. I will like to appeal to as many people as possible.”
He says he knew what he was getting into when he signed “Humshakals”, where each of the three main characters is in a triple role. In fact Sajid Khan spills the beans that it was Saif who asked him to write something for him. (see box) But that was before Sajid delivered a disaster called “Himmatwala”. Saif hopes that people won’t watch “Humshakals” under the hangover of “Himmatwala”. “It is more like Sajid’s ‘Houseful’ films and let me tell you that both these films made more money than most of my films.”
He also underlines that slapstick is not easy. “If you become conscious of what you are doing you can easily make an ass of yourself. It was more difficult for me because Riteish (Deshmukh) and Ram Kapoor have worked in this kind of space before. I have not watched any of the films of the actors he has asked me to mimic.” By the way one of them happens to be his father-in-law Randhir Kapoor.
“There were times when I would say Sajid it is really getting ridiculous and he would come with names like Jim Carrey and Marx Brothers and I would go back to my work. You can’t really prepare for such films because often Sajid would say in the middle of the scene: mazaa nahin aa raha. Let’s try something different or in a different way,” he reminisces.
Critics have also noted that he doesn’t go the whole hog. Sources say that the role of Jimmy Shergill was cut in “Bullett Raja” to make more space for him and the script was flattened a bit to make it more palatable for the masses. Saif pauses for a second and then comes with, “I don’t know.” He often does it and then comes with a cogent reply. “People might think that I asked Tigmanshu to come into my space but I have always maintained that I wholeheartedly ventured into his space. Maybe he was trying to be in a different space. The idea was solid and it worked up to a point and then it became a neither here nor there kind of film. Isn’t it?” One likes to take his word because after all he was among the first stars to leave the safety of camps to work in rustic landscape with Vishal Bhardwaj in “Omkara”.
However, the road to masses doesn’t always go through hinterland. He tried it with “Agent Vinod” and it looked like a natural progression for him but somehow it didn’t click at the box office either. Saif agrees. “It was a powerful idea but somehow we failed somewhere in the execution. I still believe in the concept, though.” He promises to return into similar space with Kabir Khan’s “Phantom”.
One of the few stars in the industry ready to take criticism with an open mind, Saif says if the experiment doesn’t work he has the safety net of “Happy Ending”, his own production, to fall back on. “It is right up my alley as you would like to believe. It is about two best selling authors who fall in love with each other. It is a romantic comedy presented in a natural fashion.”
It seems his idea is to do all kind of films as an actor but when he will produce he will look for niche territory. “Not really. ‘Love Aaj Kal’ and ‘Cocktail’ were not niche but yes they were definitely urban in their sensibility. In ‘Go Goa Gone’ I worked for free. So while I will like to back different subjects for my love for cinema, I can’t do it all the time.”
On the personal front, Saif says he has put the brand Saifeena to a pause. “We have had enough of it. Now it is time to focus on work and thank god both of us have enough of it,” he signs off.
