That's No Shooting Star

EXPECT no movie-star flamboyance from Ajay Devgan. He's dynamite at the box-office all right, but, off-screen, he exudes none of the fizz and crackle that go with his stengun-toting, fire-spewing tough guy persona. Laid-back and soft-spoken, he doesn't smother you with a torrent of words. Nor with a flurry of I-know-best gestures. But ask him about his craft, the way he sizes up a role and interprets characters, or simply about the dynamics of showbiz in general, and he opens up like a lucidly written book. As you turn each page, you get a better insight into the mind of a performer aware of his art, one who invests his work with an equal measure of studied deliberation and natural flair.

That's precisely what he did recently in Mahesh Bhatt's Zakhm, a well-intentioned but over-dramatised tribute to the syncretic beliefs of the director's late mother. Devgan, who built his early acting career around the hackneyed image of a macho action hero, was by far the best thing about the film: thoroughly convincing and utterly believable. His heart led him to the role of a filmmaker who loses his mother in the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots in Mumbai and his mind helped him flesh it out. He did it all for free.

The actor was in the hotel shower after a hard day's shoot in Chennai early last year when Bhatt called him and offered him Zakhm. A brief elucidation of the film's thematic kernel was enough. He grabbed the part. 'Zakhm wouldn't have happened without Ajay. His presence made the project viable,' concedes Bhatt. That, indeed, is what sets Devgan apart: he does not shy away from tapping his clout to greenlight projects that he believes in, even if they are fraught with risk. Ask Govind Nihalani, who has cast him in his first commercial venture, Takshak. Or Prakash Jha, who is directing the star and his wife-to-be Kajol in Dil Kya Kare, a Devgan Entertainment production.

'Ajay is clued into every aspect of filmmaking,' says Manisha Koirala, leading lady of Kachche Dhaage, Devgan's latest release. 'I'm sure he'll make a first-rate director some day.' Another Kachche Dhaage co-star, Saif Ali Khan, echoes the assessment: 'I learnt a lot from the unwavering focus he brought to his role. His approach is very mental.' Hard to believe about an actor who still insists that limb-threatening stunt sequences are his forte? Not anymore.

Zakhm didn't make waves at the box-office, but the payoff for Devgan was significant. The film helped him shrug off the non-actor tag. On January 16, at a ceremony in Mumbai's Andheri Sports Complex, he walked away with the Screen-Videocon Best Actor award, the first major prize of his career. While critics and co-workers who know his worth say it certainly won't be the last, awards are rarely on Devgan's mind when he picks a film. 'When I choose a project,' he says, 'I take everything into account-the script, the role, the director, the crew, and particularly the producer, for he is the man who determines how the film will be finally packaged and sold.'

Devgan is a Bollywood star of the new millennium-quality-conscious, pragmatic, absolutely clear about what he wants. Not for him the dry dogma of commercial ratiocination, nor any art-for-art's-sake claptrap. 'The basic idea is to make good, sensible, meaningful films that also strike a chord with the masses,' Devgan explains. 'For one needs money to continue doing good work.'

A consistent box-office performer, Devgan made big bucks with his early films-the lucrative Mumbai territory usually being part of his remuneration-but memorable work rarely came his way. Son of successful action director Veeru Devgan, the dark, slightly-built, plain-looking young man heralded his arrival with a bang in 1991 with Phool Aur Kaante. But for several years producers kept him pinned down to roles that exploited the stuntman in him, not the actor; these were roles that strengthened the larger-than-life image of an angst-ridden social misfit that was reminiscent of the Amitabh Bachchan persona of the '70s, but rarely quite as effective.

The result: a splotchy career patch that saw a string of reasonably successful but eminently forgettable films-Hulchul, Dilwale, Haqeeqat, Vijaypath, Itihaas. Films that sent his price soaring well beyond Rs 1 crore a project, but did little justice to his talent. He could have sat back and watched his bank balance swell. He didn't. His powerful performance in Bhatt's Najaayaz ('95), a film in which Devgan, playing the illegitimate son of an underworld don, managed to hold his own against Naseeruddin Shah, helped. People sat up and took notice of the brooding eyes, the ability to convey simmering anger with a remarkable economy, the willingness to experiment with character hues-attributes no one, perhaps not even the actor himself, had hitherto quite recognised._'An actor must avoid the image trap at all cost,' he says. 'If you're made to do the same role repeatedly, you tend to lose interest.'

'Constantly exposed to world-class fare on satellite TV and in movie halls, Indian audiences are a lot more demanding today,' says Devgan. 'They won't accept muck anymore. In the past, even a bad film could do well at the box-office if it had good music or a strong cast. Not anymore.' A thinking actor, Devgan has learnt his lessons quickly. If the year 1998 cemented his position in Bollywood-Major Saab got talked about until its release, if not after it, the French Kiss-inspired love story, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (his first home production) proved that he could make the cut as a loverboy too, and Zakhm, like Najayaz, showed how terribly underrated he was as an actor-1999 could well be Devgan's year all the way.

With a series of big releases scheduled this year, Devgan seems to be primed for greatness. He's the only actor who could match the unstoppable Khan brigade-Shahrukh, Salman and Aamir. 'An actor should experiment with all genres-action, comedy, drama,' he says. 'Fortunately for us all, better scripts are being written, better characters being created.' This year, the actor, who, in Nihalani's words, 'shows exceptional courage when it comes to experimentation' is going out of his way to corner some of the meatiest roles on offer.

Kachche Dhaage, directed by former Bhatt assistant, Milan Luthria, has just been released. Though located within the mainstream formula, the character Devgan plays in the film-a volatile Muslim youth living life on the edge-is inves-ted with subtle shades unusual for a film that is pitched as 'an action-packed drama with a strong emotional base'. Says scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali: 'The character is richly layered, there are several sub-texts to it.' This is only the beginning of the year. Besides Nihalani's and Jha's films, lined up for release in 1999 is Veeru Devgan's maiden directorial venture Hindustan Ki Kasam, another home production that casts Devgan in the typical masala action hero mould alongside Amitabh Bachchan, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's love triangle, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which pits Devgan opposite Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai.

And coming up is the biggest venture of them all-Devgan's marriage to Kajol at the end of a four-year courtship. The wedding is slated for February 24. A top-draw actor who has improved with each passing year, a natural born actress who has left all competition way behind: it's a marriage scripted in heaven. But quite typically, it won't be a star-studded affair, but a quiet, private wedding attended only by family members and close friends. It's in the inner substance, not in the external show, that this marriage of minds will seek to exist. Much in the manner in which their careers have done.