A BINDIEWOOD COLUMN
By Rachel Astarte Piccione

The scene: A rainy night in New York City. The Dream Hotel. In a room the size of a studio apartment -- adorned with promotional film posters and a large projection screen -- rows of folding chairs spill over with restless locals: members of the press, industry representatives, lucky stragglers... There is not a buzz in the air, there is a breathless anticipation. Commotion. Nervous talking. An announcement is made. The room hushes. Through the doors and onto the platform walks a tall, distinguished man in a black suit. In silence, he seats himself at a stage left chair and brings a slow hand to his face to smooth his silver-haired chin. There’s only one reason this man has rolled into our little town: to promote his new film, “Ek Ajnabee” -- “A Stranger.”

But this man was no stranger. This was Amitabh Bachchan, India’s most respected and revered actor/producer. He’s known by everyone: “AB.” “The Big B.” His name is synonymous with Bollywood. His very presence is a mysterious salve on souls, whether he’s live or onscreen. I was once on a date with a man who was in a bad mood. I asked if there was anything I could do to make him feel better. He asked if I had a DVD of “Sholay.” I assured him I did. “We can keep talking. You can even turn down the volume,” he said apologetically, “I just need it in the background. AB’s the best.”

However well-known he is to the movie-going public, in “Ek Ajnabee,” Amitabh Bachchan is Suryaveer Singh, an ex-commando hired by a former colleague, Shekhar (played by the smoldering Arjun Rampal), to act as body guard for the rich little girl of an Indian industrialist based in Thailand. Singh is The Stranger. The not-so-sleepy town is Bangkok. Switch out Singh for The Man In Black, and Bangkok for a dusty U.S. Western town, and you see the archetypical equation balancing out perfectly. (It’s interesting to note, in fact, that the nightclub Shekhar runs is located on Bangkok’s Cowboy Street.)

From both The Man In Black and Suryaveer Singh, we feel a sense of forced solitude. Each is a man who has seen and felt too much to trust anyone beyond himself. And what respect does pay that self? He drowns it and its past pain in alcohol. The soul grows cold, hardens. He doesn’t think of death coming; it sits next to him every day.

But The Stranger cannot be a hero if he remains a stranger. He must somehow get involved, invest in the lives of others, and ultimately face his own demons. For Suryaveer Singh, these demons involve the inadvertent killing of two children while on a commando mission. His assignment to protect little Anamika (Baby Rucha Vaidya) is karmically fitting, especially as she is kidnapped under his care. Now our hearts swell. Now we are behind Singh. We need to see him haul himself through his own pain and redeem himself. Why?

Because if he can, so can we.

This is the magic of The Stranger archetype. All of us have aspects of our character of which we are not proud. Some of us even fantasize about leaving everything behind and starting a new life in a new place with a new name. Ultimately, “The Stranger” is a symbol of hope, of spiritual rebirth. And it is universal.

Does that make “Ek Ajnabee” some new breed of crossover film? An Indian film shot in Thailand, promoted in New York... Not according to Amitabh Bachchan. “I don’t think crossover is really a very relevant term. Films...have a universal language. I don’t think we [Indians] deliberately make films to attract overseas audiences but...if there are people in other parts of the world that enjoy our cinema, we welcome them with open arms.”

Perhaps Mr. Bachchan has given us the key. When stories are told that speak to the human condition, it is irrelevant where the film is located, from which country it is released, or even which culture it spotlights. Eastwood’s familiar Man In Black is this man in black, sitting in a press conference on the other side of the world from his home, reminding us though his art and his own life that we are not strangers.

Top Image: Clint Eastwood
Bottom Image: Amitabh Bachan in Ek Ajnabi