Happy Birthday Amitabh Bachchan: 10 Underrated performances by Big B!

Amitabh Bachchan has spent a good 40 of 75 years of his age giving one outstanding performance after the other. While he is best remembered for films like Sholay, Deewar or Trishul, the work he did before Zanjeer and overnight superstardom has been stunning, albeit largely unrecognised. Here’s a look at 10 such performances that deserve to be dug out of anonymity.

Saat Hindustani

1969 : In his very first film, AB played Anwar, a  poet from Bihar who gets together with six other nationalists to liberate Goa from the Portuguese. The legendary intensity and the rugged rigour of emotions that won’t be polished or pushed aside, were evident in every frame where AB stood tall. KA 
Abbas, who directed AB in this underrated film, picked this actor to play one of the seven protagonists because he saw a certain fire in the Bachchan personality. Yeah, yeah, we know!

Bandhe Haath

1973 : A thief and a poet, Amitabh Bachchan then struggling for footspace in the speeding train of stardom were remarkably signed up by the mighty OP Ralhan for a double role. Mumtaz, the top heroine of those days, sportingly agreed to co-star with this “lanky brooding young man who spoke every line like poetry.” She had all the songs. He had all the 
intensity.

Ek Nazar

1972 : Again a poet!  This is the third pre-Zanjeer film where AB played a poet who falls in love with the tawaif played by Jaya Bhaduri. This is the second time that the two of them came together. Just before this film, Bachchan Senior and now his wife Jaya were seen together in the awful Bansi Birju. One could see a certain  fire burning between them even at this early stage. Laxmikant Pyarelal’s immortal songs like Patta Patta boota boota, Pehle Saat Baar and Hum Hi Karen Koi Soorat went a long way in igniting the Amitabh-Jaya chemistry.

Raaste Ka Pathar

1972 : Loosely adapted from Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, this is an oddity of a film. Uneven yet striking for the tense chemistry between AB and Shatrughan Sinha. SS plays AB’s boss, a married man in an affair with a hapless working girl (Neeta Khayani) whom AB secretly loves. Later, the same story became Yes Boss. Small world.

Pyar Ki Kahaani

1972 : Directed by Ravikant Nagaich who made mostly espionage thrillers, this remake of a hit Tamil film was a resounding flop. But if we go back to it, we see how skillfully controlled AB was in playing the working-class hero who rescues a friend (Anil Dhawan) from suicide and falls in love with a woman with a dubious past. This is the only film where AB and  Tanuja came together as a pair. They were quite a couple together!

Parwana

1972 : Absolutely the best performance by AB from his pre-Zanjeer days and still among his most unsung triumphs, AB plays a desperately in-love man who would go to any lengths, even murder, to get the girl he loves (Yogeeta Bali). But she prefers Navin Nishchol. There is no telling about tastes. Go back to this film to watch the sequences where AB plots the murder of his love’s father, Om Prakash. Chilling!

Sanjog

1972 : It’s not easy playing weak characters with such conviction. In this early film, AB starred as an indecisive man who dumps his wife Mala Sinha and remarries without telling the second wife (Aruna Irani) about the first one. The film has Mala Sinha in the author-backed role. But AB is dazzling in the scenes where he has to stand meekly as a lowly clerk in an office run by his abandoned wife. 
Gender equation deliciously tilted away from the man.

Reshma Aur Shera

1969 : In a brief role as Sunil Dutt’s speech-impaired brother Chotu, AB conveys so much of the anguish about the bloody feud that governs the lives of the two warring families who form the core of the film. It’s possible to have a solid presence even in a semi-cameo. AB proved  it with this one.

Gehri Chaal

1973 : Jeetendra played the hero to Hema Malini in this film, while AB was cast as her brother trying to protect the family name from a dark secret. This film came just before the release of Zanjeer and there are clear indications that the Angry Young Man was about to emerge from the shadows.

Saudagar

1972 : Fearless and unfettered by the demands of superstardom,  AB played a gur-seller who marries a widowed  gur-maker (Nutan) for monetary benefits. The low moral values of AB’s character did not diminish the impact of his towering performance. Though the focus was on the timeless Nutan, AB held his own with a powerful performance that left us hungering for more.