Much Ado About Massey: A New Rising

It was not until this post that I have had to make a revelation- that I have been an avid viewer of the TV soap opera that was Balika Vadhu much before it acquired its cult following. I have always deliberately stayed away from being subjugated to regular substandard and stereotypical fare that is daily soaps on Hindi GECs. However, I made an exception for this show for the sheer theme of child marriage and the protagonist’s journey as a Rajasthani child bride in a high-class, wealthy and influential household run by a crafty and feisty matriarch. It helped that substantial roles were given to very good actors including Surekha Siri, Anoop Soni and Smita Bansal. 

Usually, most soaps that drag on (and this one did for quite some time) lose their edge after they have made their point. So how much could you milk the backdrop of child marriage and how it is really harmful for all the evils the victim has to bear as a result? This one did go on and on for quite a credible while until it resorted to a time leap, again another ploy used by most soaps to add freshness and new twists to the sagging plot. After having borne the highs and lows of all the characters and their individual trajectories, out came a fresh crop of young and blooming brigade of actors who would achieve due fame and fortune with the passage of time thanks to their ability to hold their own amidst the already established ones. We all know of how the likes of Sushant Vyas, Pratyusha Banerjee and Siddharth Shukla attained instant stardom after being launched on this by then megashow. But one character managed to propel his career forward without being principal to the plot and that is the unassuming Vikram Massey who played Shyam- a village boy enamoured by the pure charm of a child widow who had lost her will to live and love after the untimely demise of her husband. Unlike the dramatic and overdone Romeo-like lovers, Shyam’s character was subdued, sobre and unusually mature for his age- just the kind of resolute support the nubile and vulnerable child widow needed during this time. And Vikrant managed to bring such earnestness and fortitude to his role, that he won the vote of the powerful matriarchal household the widow belonged to as well as the audience’s favour in no time.

In an ad with Alia Bhatt for Cornetto icecream

Vikrant has become a familiar face since then with several ads and TV appearances in ‘Yeh Hai Aashiqui’, ‘Qubool Hai’ and others. Like most actors who are eager to bite in to meatier parts to explore their potential, this budding star decided to toughen up his act and venture in to Hindi films. Not an easy path for TV actors and rarely so for character actors, Vikrant managed to grab significant if not major parts in films like Lootera where he played consort to Ranvir Singh’s crook character. We also saw him essay the role of a rich boy turned pining lover in Dil Dhadakne Do in a miniscule role amidst a stellar star cast where even a known actor like Rahul Bose got very little screen time. And recently, he is being called the only silver

In an ad with Shahid Kapur for Samsung mobile

lining in the dark cloud that is the film ‘Half Girlfriend’. Considering it stars star kids Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor who are many films old and have a fair background for delivering hits earlier, this is saying a lot. Also because even though I haven’t seen the film, I am sure he must have not got the best lines or ahem...even a quarter of the girlfriend in the end. (Don’t blame me, it’s the term that gives one bad ideas).

With Ranvir Singh in Lootera

If you are to look at the glorious history of character actors and I remember writing about this at length at an earlier occasion, it is not the length of your role but what you make of it that determines your success. Time and again, versatile actors like Om Puri, Kader Khan, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher and Paresh Rawal have proved this to us. So much that scripts are written keeping them in mind and their roles are lengthened in order to give more weightage to them as the audience seems to want more of them in every film they star in. They have the tendency to become inseperable parts of the whole film, in spite of the disarming presence of your favourite hearthrob, the charming lure of the lead actress or the light-hearted banter of the staple comic sidekick. Often, we even recall their roles in a film as much as the lead character because of the impact they leave on us.

Think Sanjeev Kumar in Sholay, Mohnish Behl in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (one of the most famous dialogues in Maine Pyar Kiya are courtesy a lecherous him saying, “Ek ladka aur ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte.”), Reema Lagoo or Alok Nath in Maine Pyar Kiya, Nawazuddin Siddique in Bajrangi Bhaijaan or Deepak Dobriyal in the Tanu Weds Manu series.

It is even more applaud-worthy when such character actors then begin to claim fair share of their role in building a film’s narrative. Vikrant is of course young and has a long way to go but his next film does make us believe that he is in for the long haul. Come June 2, we will see him as Shutu in Konkona Sen Sharma’s directorial debut film, ‘Death in the Gunj’. Giving him company will be actors like Tanuja, Om Puri, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin among others and if his past repertoire of acting is anything to go by, he might just leave us impressed yet again with his sincere performance.

It is great that filmmakers are pushing the envelope when it comes to layering characters with more complexity, greyness and purpose. It makes room for actors like Massey to prove their mettle in an industry that only reveres a handful and remembers a chosen few.