1. Jhund is a rarity in Mr. Bachchan’s career. For a change, he plays a real-life character. In most of his films barring Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar where he played a character modeled on Bal Thackeray, Mr. Bachchan has played seething simmering sometimes smirking larger-than-life fictional characters. I am not counting the umpteenth occasions when he has played himself in cameo roles in Pet Pyaar Aur Paap, Kaun Jeeta Kaun Hara, Jalwa, Chashme Buddoor, Hero Hiralal, Biwi No.1, Ramji Londonwaley, the Marathi film Akka, and the Kannada film Amrithadhare.
2. In Jhund Mr. B plays Vijay Barse, a legendary figure among street children of Nagpur, Vijay Barse motivated underprivileged kids to play football. Interestingly, the name Vijay follows Mr. Bachchan even into his first TrueBlue-biopic. The megastar-actor par excellence spent a large part of his life playing the character of the Angry Young Man Vijay written by Salim-Javed for deathless classics such as Zanjeer, Deewaar, Shakti, Sholay, and Trishul.
3. Director Nagraj Manjule whose stunning Marathi film Sairat set new box-office records in Marathi cinema, is a huge Amitabh Bachchan fan. He has watched each one of the Bachchan classics 10-12 times. In his heydays, Manjule would even tuck(or rather, untuck) his shirt like Mr. B In Deewaar. However, on the sets it is a isn’t a fan directing the iconic superstar(remember Puri Jagannadh and his weirdly-spelled Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap?). Rather than play the fanboy, Manjule gets another classic ‘Vijay’ performance out of his hero.
4. Jhund began shooting in December 2018. It was hit by several problems. The original producers backed out. It was only when T Series and Bhushan Kumar stepped in that the project finally took off. After two years of determined abstinence from the OTT platform, Jhund is finally going where it belongs: on the big screen.
5. In the interim, director Nagaraj Manjule gave a stunning performance as a pedophile in the disturbing Marathi film The Silence. It isn’t a role that most actors, no matter how dedicated would like to touch. But Nagaraj Manjule has never shied away from going where the angels fear to tread. He is a rebel, one with a cause. The plight of the underprivileged and disempowered sections of society concerns Manjule’s cinema deeply.
6. Sairat and before that, Fandry remain two of the most significant Marathi films on caste discrimination, directed by Nagraj Manjule. The Sairat co-stars Akash Thosar and Rinku Rajguru also play significant roles in Jhund. But make no mistake: this is an out-and-out one-man show powered by the greatest star-actor India has known. Yup, Vijay is back.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He's been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
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