Quiet Riot

Clearly, Devgan’s making a lot of sense to a lot of people. There is sociologist Shiv Vishwanathan, well known for dissecting the most abiding myths and personae of Bollywood, who too is intrigued by the way Devgan "uses his eyes to emote". Respected media critic Sudheesh Pachauri appreciates the fact that Devgan’s "big eyes" can reflect both pain and tension. "After a long while, we now have a face in Bollywood that can express seriousness and gravity," he says.

That’s now. They didn’t exactly swoon over his face in the campus action film of the ’90s, Phool Aur Kaante. It was his fists that talked then, and they talked quite a lot. But somehow that famous still from his debut film, of Devgan astride two mobikes, is what uncannily projects his stature now: of straddling two different worlds, the mass as well as the classy, the thinking and the non-thinking, the nri and the small-town, men and women, teens and elderly. Let Adoor Gopalakrishnan write him off, but with two national awards sitting pretty on his shelf, Devgan’s India’s actor of the moment, the favourite flavour of the season.

And a pretty long one at that, given Bollywood’s recent track record. From Mahesh Bhatt’s Zakhm, through Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Ram Gopal Verma’s Company, Raj Kumar Santoshi’s The Legend of Bhagat Singh to Prakash Jha’s Gangaajal, he’s been on a roll. And the roles haven’t stopped coming, be it Mani Ratnam’s Yuva, Santoshi’s Khakee, Verma’s Ek and J.P. Dutta’s LOC. Now Rituparno Ghosh wants to do a project with him and Aparna Sen is all set to cast him in her new film about a hired killer and his prey.

Devgan admits feeling great. "The appreciation gives you more energy and makes you feel that much more responsible for the future," he says modestly, and ever the gentleman to blow smoke from his cigarette away from your face. That’s his endearing quality. He’s a star without the accompanying airs. "I believe in enjoying life and working without any insecurities," he admits freely. But get him to talk about himself, and all you get are a few monosyllables. And certainly nothing about his bubbly other half, Kajol, or his daughter Nysa. He’s content just doodling on paper instead.

So back it is to work again. What makes him choose the right roles and the right scripts all the time? Plain luck, he says. "I have been given a choice, how many of us are getting good roles anyways?" he asks. Anyhow, it’s not his own character that he really cares about in a film. "I see a film in totality," he says, "what it’s going to say". Devgan has also been lucky to find a set of directors who have been able to interpret and underline his personality well. "I see a film through the director, I choose films depending on his narration," he says.

Devgan’s a nice guy and nice guys usually don’t go too far. But he has. Despite being the quintessential underdog in Bollywood, the son of stuntman Veeru Devgan, not a blue-blooded heir of an aging screen god. With approximately Rs 2 crore as his price, today Devgan’s in the league of the Khans and Hrithik.

Even without their kind of looks. Tousled hair that could have been snipped by a streetside barber, a lean physique that could do with some steroids and protein supplements and an uneven denture that would be an orthodontist’s delight. He looks an ordinary guy and that’s his strength. "He’s the face of the common man," says Pachauri, "a face not synthetic but communicative." Vishwanathan thinks his irregular looks add to the normalcy of his characters: "He’s a normal guy who can also display heroism and idealism."

And so the comparisons begin. Pachauri sees in him a modern-day Guru Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Balraj Sahni. "After a long time we’ve found a real actor," he says. Seconds director Jha: "He can slip into any role easily." So he is light and restrained, intuitive and not too ponderous. Most of his portrayals are dark and brooding, but it’s not always revenge that’s on his mind. He can also be tolerant. As in a violent film like Gangaajal, where he questions violence itself. "He’s not a full-blown Angry Young Man," says Pachauri. "He’s more the crisis-ridden man of the 21st century." Devgan himself is growing weary of the "intensity" thrust on him and hopes to go for the more flippant now. "I’m not intense at all," he insists. "I have a great time on the sets, I play a lot of pranks."

Vishwanathan sees in him a representation of the New Global Supercool. "He is a mofussil man who can move on to a global platform by reinventing his style and himself," he says. Basically, a guy the viewer will never be in awe of. Coz he’s one of them. Says trade analyst Indu Mirani: "The middle class male identifies with him: if Ajay can get the girl, beat the society, so can I."