That Moment When Talent Explodes On Screen

It happens like magic. That precise moment when a star is born . The  shot where Kareena Kapoor splashes water on her face  and Abhishek scolds  her for wasting water in Refugee. That  moment when Rishi Kapoor sees Dimple Kapadia(then  all of 15)  in a miniskirt and polkadot top in  topshot from staircase landing  of his bungalow  in Bobby.

And when  Kartik Aryan in Pyaar Ka  Punchnaama  rattles  off that  ‘Problem’ monologue  about what women  want(“Maang bharna  and  phir zindagi bhar bhar maang  poori karte rahna”)  a star is born. Remembering that moment  when ‘It’ happened   director Luv Ranjan told me, “That monologue was carefully planned. Kartik  improvised a  little  and we went along. There was  no cut  .The entire thing was  done  in one take.Again in  the sequel we  incorporated Kartik’s  monologue  because that was  USP of the Punchnaama franchise…it’s destiny, really.”

 Indeed  it is. There were  other two heroes in  Pyaar Ka Punchnaama : Divyendu Sharma  and  Raayo Bakhirta . It was Kartik who was chosen for stardom by destiny. Talking  about that  IT moment in  his Rangeela, Ram Gopal Varma told me,  “The minute  Urmila (Matondkar) came on camera singing the title song, the  audience  in theatres across the country went wild.  Stardom is  like a collective  endorsement on an actor’s connectivity.Sometimes  it takes  time.”

 Ramu is  right.It tookAmitabh  Bachchan  12 films before he got to Zanjeer.  The  difference between Zanjeer and  the  rest  of  Mr B’s  films that came  before is this:  the IT quality  was  missing  in  the  previous films.

That  “It’ quality was completely  missing in Sridevi in her first film Solva Saawan. But  it  was  very much there in her second  film Himmatwala. Shammi Kapoor  would have been  just another  struggler  wading through flop  after  flop until Nasir Hussain’s Dil Deke Dekho happened to him.

Sometimes the  ‘IT’ factor  explodes on screen immediately. Shah  Rukh Khan was a star the minute he  was seen on screen  singing Koi na  koi  chahiye on a  mo’bike. Rajesh Khanna became  the most successful  star of all times the  minute he  serenaded Sharmila Tagore  with  Mere sapnon ki rani  kab aayegi tu in Aradhana.

 Interestingly  the  romantic vibes in Aradhana were  totally fabricated. Sharmila  and Rajesh shot for this,the most romantic song of Hindi cinema, separately.

 Kartik Aaryan  still gets requests  for the  ‘What Women Want’ monologue from his fans. It’s that  IT  moment which binds him to his  fans forever.