Amitabh is not just a real superstar but also a very good actor.I beg to differ with those who say that he is not a good actor or lacks versatility.
It depends lot on director how he comes to use the potential and to what extent he comes to add new dimensions in it.The problem with Amitabh is that for a very long period he had to work with mediocre directors,who were solely interested in ”dhishum dhishum”(fights) and ”pyar mohabbat”(romance) type orientations.He got few opportunities to show his true potential.
I don’t think there is dearth of movies that,to an extent,have done justice to his acting sensibilities.He is a terrific actor and for that U need to watch Reshma Aur Shera, Deewar, Anand,Sharaabi, Abhimaan,Mai Azaad Hu,Sarkar,Dev,Black,Cheeni Kum and Nishabd,to name a few, to witness various shades of his acting,his versatility.
Kamal Hassan who is hailed as great actor for his versatility in South is a flop actor in the whole northern belt(read mainstream belt).Flop in a sense that his versatility failed to leave a desired impact on Hindi viewers because few directors had the ability to present his versatility in presentable way in the Hindi belt or rightly the ’national belt’ for the southern actors.That’s why barring films like Sadma,Ek Duje Ke Liye and Hindustani we have not seen anybody daring explore his versatility for Hindi viewers.
In nutshell,whether an actor is great or not has lot do with what type of directors he had to wok with.An actor may have great acting skills but we need a proper platform to add new dimensions in his acting skills.It’s really unfortunate that Amitabh had to spend a lot of his time with less talented directors. However,it’s a remarkable achievement that he managed to leave an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of viewers even via movies made by mediocre directors.His ‘flop’ movies managed to pulled huge crowd to the theaters more than the hit movies released at the same time!! That’s is perhaps unparalleled.
