Remembering Vinod Khanna on his birthday

Vinod Khanna  always got a raw deal from the film industry. Cut out to be a matinee idol from the word go—if you have seen him in his solo-hero outings like Inkaar, Lahu Ke Do Rang and Rihaee, one would know what it meant to unjustly cast him as a villain in his early films.

In his debut film Man Ka Meet in 1968 producer Sunil Dutt, in all his wisdom, cast his brother Som Dutt as the leading man, another newcomer Leena Chandavarkar as the leading lady and Vinod Khanna as the archvillain named in the film Pran, after the biggest screen villain of all times. Ironically Sunil Dutt’s bother Som was quickly forgotten. Vinod Khanna became a star, albeit in negative roles for one phase    his career where he would easily outshine the leading man: Dharmendra in Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Rajesh Khanna in Aan Milo Sajna and Jeetendra in Ek Bechara and Anokhi Adaa. In a film like Prakash Mehra’s Haath Ki Safaai, Vinod completely killed it as the villain in spite of a star-studded cast.

Then began another phase in Vinod’s career when he chose in all his misplaced bravado to play the second lead in a slew of Amitabh Bachchan starrers in the 1970s and 80s, beginning with Hera Pheri in 1976. When Vinod won and accepted Filmfare’s Best Supporting actor award he   acknowledged   his supporters and fans’ worst fears.

Manmohan Desai who directed the winning Amitabh-Vinod combination in Amar Akbar Anthony and Parvarish once told Firstpost, “Vinod was never a supporting actor in the Amitabh starrers. In my films he had a parallel role to Amitabh. Vinod is full hero material. He should have never accepted the Supporting Actor award.” When given a chance to play the solo male lead Vinod was dazzling in his virtuosity. In Imtihaan (where he is to this day remembered singing Kishore Kumar’s anthemic Ruk jana nahin tu kahin har ke) Vinod playing an upright lecturer in a college who mends the moral mayhem of his student (including the voluptuous Bindu) and Achanak (Gulzar’s songless film where Vinod was exceptional as a possessive husband) Vinod gave performances that should have put him on a pedestal.

Vinod went   through various phases in his life. His Rajneesh phase in the prime of his stardom when he upped and left Bollywood damaged his career. He had lost his mother and a close cousin almost simultaneously, and was battling metaphysical questions about life and death. He felt cut off and disconnected with everything and everybody. Rajneesh gave Vinod Khanna the solace he was seeking. And then one day he just left for Oregon, leaving behind angry producers with some incomplete films. He became the butt of ridicule in whispers around the film industry.

He came back some five years or so later and the film industry opened its arms to him once again. He did some substantial work but he needed to do more than just be a Hindi film actor. Inevitably he joined politics and was overwhelmed by the huge mandate he got. He gave himself wholeheartedly to politics, even became a Minister of State for External Affairs. But his heart was clearly not in politics. So where was his heart? Whether cinema or politics Vinod Khanna was always restless, searching for something right until the end.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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