Why there's much more to Sunny Deol than the 'Dhai Kilo Ka Haath'!

Not many, not even the diehard Sunny Deol fans, know this. In 1999, Sunny gave London-based director Gurinder Chadha her first Bollywood break. The film, starring Sunny, Karisma  Kapoor , and Bobby Deol was called London, and was being shot in a start-to-finish stretch in London. Vishal Bhardwaj had composed some beautiful songs in Lataji’s voice.

But after a week’s shooting, Sunny and Gurinder had a massive showdown and the project  was called off. Sunny never forgave Gurinder for what he saw as a betrayal on both a professional and personal level.

One reason why Sunny Deol is so effective showing hurt on screen is the blows he has suffered in his real life. So many filmmakers whom Sunny gave a break to went to other actors after attaining success helming Sunny starrers. Sunny was hurt when Santoshi went to Ajay Devgn .

Worse still, heroines who gave their career’s biggest hits with him refused to work with him in his lean phase.

Sunny once told me, “I’ve had problems with established heroines. For reasons best known to them, they don’t want to work with me. It’s a fact. The top heroines turn me down whenever I ask them to work with me. They want to work with Shah Rukh, Salman and Hrithik. So it’s fine. I search for new heroines. The new girls do not ration dates. While working on a film, I don’t have to deal with my heroine’s tantrums when she’s a newcomer. Now if you give me  an A-lister co-star, I won’t be able to work with her. Mujhse unke nakhre nahin bardaasht honge (I won’t be able to tolerate  their tantrums). Also, I get a chance to give new talent to the film industry. So yeah, I’ll be seen with new co-stars in the future. There are lots of new talented and pretty girls in the industry. And trust me, these new girls won’t look mismatched with me. I am open to adapting myself to the changes around me."

When Sunny asked his once-close friend Amrita Singh to allow her daughter Sara to be launched with his son Karan, she apparently refused. The hurt must have been unimaginable. No wonder Sunny’s best performances are about hurt rather than mani-fist-ed hurt.

In Arjun (1985), two years after his debut in Betaab, Sunny Deol gave a remarkably restrained fine-tuned performance in this tautly-written Javed Akhtar script about a student who is waylaid and exploited by an evil politician ( Anupam Kher ). Rahul Rawail’s direction captured Deol in his most implosive avatar, creating sparks in the dark that ignite the screen even today. Sunny’s special lifelong  friend Dimple Kapadia played his love interest. The film has a handsome supporting cast and a powerhouse impact.

[caption id=“attachment_11475341” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Arjun[/caption]

Dacait (1987) was inspired by Raj Kapoor’s Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai and Nitin Bose’s Ganga Jumna. It is Deol’s most powerful social statement to date. It touched on caste discrimination and social inequality and how these fostered a rebellious generation. Deol was marvelously reined-in as the simple villager who transforms into a dreaded dacoit. The film featured two other powerhouse performances by Rakhee Gulzar as Sunny’s mother and Paresh Rawal as a corrupt cop. Gripping even today from first frame to last. Not a  box-office success, as it was found to be way too dark and tense.

[caption id=“attachment_11475361” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Dacait[/caption]

With J P Dutta’s Y_ateem_ (1988), a tale of an orphan who is almost seduced by his foster mother (Sujata Mehta), began Deol’s association with JP Dutta. Like Rahul Rawail, Dutta knew which emotions to tap in the introspective actor to make his personality erupt into a welter of angry protests. The film was underrated and rejected on release. Ishwar Bidri’s camerawork gave a physical shape to Deol’s anger.

Pankaj Parashar’s ebullient Chaalbaaz (1989) was a very rare comic outing for the ever-sullen Sunny, and that too in a female-centric film. Just for this once, Sunny didn’t mind taking a backseat, as the woman at the helm was the one and only Sridevi . Even Rajinikanth played second fiddle. Sunny and Rajni enjoyed encoring Sanjeev Kumar and Dharmendra’s roles from Seeta Aur Geeta. [caption id=“attachment_11475441” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] ChaalBaaz[/caption]

Ghayal (1990) I rate as the most important hit of Sunny Deol’s career, Ghayal began Deol’s association with director Rajkumar Santoshi. A blood-soaked vendetta tale, it starred Sunny as Ajay Mehra, who goes on a rampage when the villain Balwant Rai ( Amrish Puri ) kills Ajay’s brother (Raj Babbar). Not as astutely scripted as Arjun or Dacait, Ghayal, nonetheless, is the biggest hit of Sunny’s career. It took on Aamir Khan ’s hit Dil at the box-office and outdid its collections.

[caption id=“attachment_11475411” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Ghayal[/caption]

The very violent and influential cinema of N Chandra came to Sunny Deol after Chandra’s smaller but more impact-filled Ankush and Pratighaat. Chandra’s Narsimha cast Sunny as a drunken waylaid right-hand man to a tyrant politician in dark glasses mysteriously named Baapji (Om Puri). There were interesting conflicts running through the plot, though finally these conflicts didn’t work themselves out. Nonetheless an interesting performance by Deol.

[caption id=“attachment_11475471” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Narsimha[/caption]

The role of the sozzled lawyer who fights the rape victim(Meenakshi Sheshadri) ’s case in Rajkumar Saontishi’s Damini was inspired by Paul Newman in The Verdict. Deol, who has never touched a drop of alcohol in his life, took on extended cameo of tipsy lawyer in this Meenakshi Sheshadri vehicle because of his faith in the director. It paid off.

Sunny Deol’s biggest hit Gadar-Ek Prem Katha (2001) is also one of Hindi cinema’s most successful films of all times. A mammoth pre-Partition melodrama, where Sunny Deol sets off across the border to get his wife Ameesha Patel back from Pakistan, the film’s passionate patriotism made it one of the biggest box-office successes in the history of Bollywood. Gadar came on the same Friday as Aamir Khan’s historic Lagaan and actually made money in the long run (pun intended).

[caption id=“attachment_11475501” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Gadar- Ek Prem Katha[/caption]

My favourite Sunny Deol performance was in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Ghatak(1996). It featured him as a Varanasi-bred idealist who is confronted by monstrous corruption in the city when he has to migrate for the sake of his ailing father. The father-son sequences between Deol and Amrish Puri were masterly in their portrait of unexpressed devotion and love. Director Raj Santoshi offered this role to Sunny after Kamal Haasan was unable to do it.

[caption id=“attachment_11475521” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Ghatak[/caption]

With R Balki’s Chup, Sunny Deol has made a comeback of sorts. He has never looked better. And the hurt in his eyes is still intact.

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. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .