May Day! May Day! It’s here! Khanna-o-Rama 2010. The week of all things Khanna that you didn’t even know you needed until you heard about it and realized that your life could really do with a shot or two of Khanna power. The power of hotness.
Bollywood is a family business. Not only do they all intermarry, but successive generations are more likely to follow in the older’s footsteps than not. Producers raise actors, actors marry writers, writers give birth to directors in an endless cycle that makes trivia buffs do a little dance of joy.
The Khannas – Alpha Vinod, Beta 1 Akshaye and Beta 2 Rahul – are a delightful little oddity in this mix. Whereas most star sons carry their lineage self-consciously on their shoulders, the Khannas make the least fuss about it that I have seen. The fact that they barely do any press might have something to do with it (even though the same characteristic hasn’t stopped the Deol brothers from genuflecting with regularity at the altar of their father) but I think there’s more to it. Like a strong sense of individuality and the fact that they don’t seem to have grown up in a conservative family environment a la the rest of the Bolly Brat Brigade. But that’s their personal business.
From a purely cinematic POV, fact is, it’s hard to look at the Beta Khannas and remember Alpha Khanna. Sunny Deol, Abhishek Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan (hell, even Puru Raajkumar) all share a remarkable resemblance with their famous fathers. The Beta Khannas, on the other hand, barely look like each other, much less their parent.
Alpha Khanna smoldered. Akshaye sulks. If Rahul tries very hard, he looks puzzled. When Alpha Khanna gritted his teeth and sneered, panties dropped across India or so I hear. When Akshaye sneers, Paresh Rawal or Arshad Warsi pop up to complete the comic scene. When Rahul sneers, the girl runs off with another boy. Alpha was most terrifying when he smiled – you felt he was either smiling through a sucking chest wound or else he was an unpredictable drunk. My mother, your mother and mothers everywhere go “awww” when sweet little Akshaye-poo smiles. As for Rahul – he looks like he’s inviting you for some illegal-type sexy times with that grin.
And look at their careers: Alpha spent a considerable part of his life playing dacoit, both good and bad, and even did it with a mooch! The only thing Akshaye and Rahul have ever looted on screen with their smooth-as-a-baby’s-bum cheeks is your cash and your girl.
So as you can imagine, it’s not easy to come up with a satisfactory playlist for this family. There are so many and still so few. Where do we begin and where do we stop? Also, Beta Rahul isn’t exactly prolific. So I thought I’d do a Papa Khanna post and follow it up with a Beta Khanna post. Let me know your recommendations! And do click on the badge to your right for more posts related to Khanna-o-Rama!
Meanwhile, here’s what I’m talking about:
Scene Stealer
This is really a Sridevi-Rishi Kapoor movie but third wheel Vinod Khanna and his lost love (Juhi Chawla in the shortest ever two scenes / one song role) have a much more interesting story. Playing the dignified third wheel who always walks off with the audience sympathy if not the girl is something Alpha Khanna perfected over his career.
Things Not to Do
Do not feed the hotness grass. Things to Do – I think he’s got that part nailed.
In Tights
Forget the Betas, I’d like to see anyone pull that outfit off. I’m not sure he does it 
Shake a Leg
So how do we feel about Moushimi Chatterjee? I read her interviews and I come away charmed because she’s so open and honest in a totally non-skeevy way about her life. And then I see her in a movie and half the time I want to bash her head in with a cricket bat. But she makes sense with the Alpha. It’s like they balance each other out. And she was totally adorable as the crazy mom of Beta 2 in Bollywood/Hollywood.
So Tortured
Sob! Come to momma!
INDIEQUILL 