Salman Khan has recently featured in as many memes as he has in iconic cinematic moments; his mic-dropping cameo in the blockbuster Pathaan, crudely counteracting the dance hook in ‘Naiyo Lagda’ that looks more like an awkward sit-up. In-between these highlights, he has also managed to anger the creative community, by claiming that streaming has begun to push the boundaries of decency and must therefore be reined in.
Salman resumes his prodigiously unique filmography this week with a typically over-the-top, shrill and noisy film that looks like a remake of any one of his previous roles. That, however, can’t be counted as flaw. For unlike his compatriots and fellow superstars Shah Rukh and Aamir, Salman has never quite dallied with creative failure, because he has also, stubbornly, never entertained the spectre of art. He makes what he likes, which, ironically also makes him critic-, flop- and possibly even PR-proof.
Has Khan not done good films? Of course, he has. Khamoshi, Maine Pyaar Kiya, the cult Andaz Apna Apna, and of course Hum Apke Hain Kaun, are all windows into the charm, if also the limited range of an actor, who has commodified cinema to bend it to his strengths. He has never been suspected of profundity, the kind of exclamatory craft that propels you to a level of greatness few have seen before, and yet he commands a popularity that is as beguiling as it is stolid. Both Aamir and Shah Rukh have, on the other hand, earned their mettle as actors, craftsmen before the celebrity that attaches itself to each. And yet, it’s Salman's stardom that, in retrospect, feels the most resolute, shouldered by the kind of wattage that has been earned, not necessarily by creating a sensorial vision but by embodying a kind of obdurate persona that lives outside the purview of social or artistic critique.
Salman has done it all. Seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. While he was Sooraj Barjatya’s poster boy of goodness on screen, he courted self-sabotaging antics off it. Compared to the other two Khans, Salman has lived a rollercoaster life, a dizzying yarn that beams theatricality unlike his many films, where he merely changes a moustache here or a wig there, to deliver predictably self-adulatory dialogue. He has been doing painfully obvious cinema for over a decade now, and yet it’s his value that though it might not compare to his peers, also never seems to diminish. Comparatively, both Aamir and Shah Rukh have in recent years suffered the ignominy of widespread rejection. At which point we must also consider the fact that as readers of cinema, it’s not merely Salman’s films, but also his somewhat affirming and toxic fandom that we need to understand.
The uniqueness of his popularity lies in the fact that he has come perilously close to ruining his reputation on countless occasions and has continued to flourish through pompous, unsubtle cinema still. Some stars, including both Aamir and Shah Rukh, feel the need to justify their pedigree with work that is both lovable and admirable. Salman, on the other hand, has dispassionately served cinema without ever being consumed by the desire to prove a point. He seems to want to jump from film to film, without concerning himself with the outer edges of whatever discourse has most recently rejected him. Maybe that is what emboldens his popularity, his self-image, that he has created in his own, unscrupulous ways. It’s not an image that everyone can summon love for, but whoever does, worships it come what may. This version of stardom is nothing if not absolute in every sense of the word.
Come to think of it, Salman has prefaced the high-decibel, strongman-led ‘pan-India’ blockbusters that are common these days. The mainstream, quite simply, has shifted. It never went away. Salman, on the other hand, has barely changed. Rarely has he submitted himself to the court of public opinion, in search of unanimous approval. While both Shah Rukh and Aamir have dallied with cable television, with high-brow programming (KBC and Satyamev Jayate), Salman has on the other hand, characteristically lent his voice to the tabloid-like world of Bigg Boss. There is quite simply no middle path, a quality that you can’t help but admire for its ruthless clarity.
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan neither echoes ingenuity nor does it suggest a late, artistic breakaway from the tried-and-tested Salman formula. If anything, it seems feels like a mix of Tere Naam and Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya, dialled up a few notches. The actor quite simply doesn’t task himself with reinvention, or even redemption. On the contrary, he saunters on, slowly, yes purposefully, his ageing abs still filling in for the acting chops he has never quite bothered to work upon. And yet, he was the most explosive segue in a wildly successful Shah Rukh Khan redemption mission. He returns this week to tread a familiar path that he so uniquely has carved for himself. A path that is above the transactional nature of celebrity and art. Because while the others have served, Salman is probably the only one who has in some sense of the word, ruled.
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