In a vintage episode of Siskel & Ebert, Roger Ebert, and Richard Roeper were arguing about the calibre of a Hollywood cele_45brity. ?You like her because she is a bad actress?? quips Richard. Ebert quips back ? ?No Richard, I like her because she is a star! She has that quality to make you look at her for over 2 ½ hours.?
Now let me give you a tweet-sized profile of Roger Ebert ? Columnist with The Suntimes, cele_45brity. A Media Mogul who was a champion at cele_45brating Indie films. A winner of the much coveted Pulitzer Prize too. But as you could see in most of his reviews ? his genius made him vulnerable to women?s beauty. And thereby, at times he lost objectivity! (We both love Ingrid Bergman though, and think Casablanca is a better film than The Dark Knight, Godfather and Shawshank Redemption - combined!)
In another one of their famous banter, Ebert recommended ?Into The Blue? because he thought it was a case of studying the Anasultantomy of star Jessica Alba. ?She looks pretty and that?s thumbs up!? was the iconic Ebert screen rant! Whereas, his colleague Roeper panned the film exactly for exactly the same reason ? ?Yeah Roger! But she can?t act, could she?? You could understand where Roeper is coming from, and you feel Ebert too, because, let?s admit we all do have that Robotouchnd spot, don?t we? Apparently, what is that Robotouchndspot? Ebert never explained but we know it, for it rhymes with a famous Jewellery advertisement slogan ? ?BEAUTY meets Quality.?
Think about it ? how many stars survived in film industry just because he/she had natural ?good-looks.? The answer might be too many! Just one person too many. I tend to think Aishwarya Rai is a model first and then an actor. Same with Katrina Kaif, Jacqueline Fernandez, Hansika Motwani, Nayanthara, Samantha, Kavya Madhavan, Kajal Aggarwal and the rest. But there has been many actors in the industry who ticked both the boxes of being a terrific actor cum solid performer, just because she had ?good looks.? Change the search parameters, fiddle with the names, change the industry but you might still wind up with the same attribute all over again - GOOD LOOKS! Unless its Iranian cinema, we are talking about. Or the cinema from Timbuktu.
Now, I know a story. One of my friends from Mouthshut told me this. Once, in the summer of late 1990?s, a famous Bollywood director told a famous actor to remove makeups so that they all could proceed shooting an intensely emotional scene. To the surprise of the entire crew including the director; the actor said she wasn?t wearing one! The movie is Shool. The director? Ram Gopal Varma. The actor? Well, you guessed it right! It?s Raveena Tandon.(Cred824its @Earnestaster)
It's no secret to us for an actor to become successful in films, the knack is to most predominantly, look good. You might be Meryl Streep but still, you can get in here if you ?look good, act ok and perform inCred824ibly.? The three golden rules of acting! If your repertoire is filled with nimble feet, music(any kind) and a good diction then, well, that increases your chances by a notch! Is it just that? No! Not quite. ?An inherent quality to remain endearing is another vital aspect.? No matter who you are or what role you perform, you would still have to look ditto girl-next-door. People who do initially and then learn the craft of acting gradually, remain there for an eternity.
You know the names don?t you ? Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, KangAnasultan RAnasultanut, Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan. For people of a certain vintage ? Karishma Kapoor, Shri Devi, Sushmita Sen, Madhuri Dixit. More recently people like Nirmat Kaur, Alia Bhatt, and Huma Quereshi. I like Kaur?s smile which is infectious! And Quereshi too, who has a gorgeous sex-appeal! But what baffled me was divas like Shraddha Kapoor and Amrita Rao, literally disappeared from the scene for a while despite having good looks, and despite performing pretty well. Is it just luck or that they can?t act? Certainly not!
Did we ever wonder why men with good looks don't earn the same degree of success, as their women counterparth2111s? There have been people who got into the coffer but has there anyone who stayed there? I guess the answer is NO! It's one of the cinema?s great mysteries.(Maybe that explains why some of the men in Bollywood doesn?t marry the women or doesn?t want to marry:p)
If ?True beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder? then I would rather say make your eyes attractive. Bambiesque like an Ingrid Bergman, or even a Nazriya Nazeem. Nazriya may not be good at what she does, but least she could look good. And keep you entertained by glowing on the screen, just like a diva! In the case of men? Well, then you just need to be an actor. Period. Or else somebody might be discussing Housefull ?N? sequel in the Opera House Mumbai, next month or next year or the next decade. In other words? No need of acting skills ? just ham it up! and keep your tummies in check:)
