Has playing patriotic roles in Airlift, Baby, Rustom paid off big time for Akshay Kumar?

Today Akshay Kumar has achieved something none of the ruling Khans have managed – win a National Award for the Best Actor. He got this accolade for his performance in the strictly average period courtroom drama – Rustom. To be honest, I am not quite happy with the movie or the performance for which the National Awards jury, headed by Priyadarshan, chose to award Akshay Kumar. Rustom was not his best performance in his career (which can go for Oh My God, Baby). But yeah, it was definitely one of his most ‘patriotic’ roles.

We all know that patriotism is something Akshay Kumar is wearing proudly on his sleeves. In the beginning, patriotism was mostly restricted to his movies and roles, like Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon, Holiday, Baby, Airlift and Rustom, before it slowly seeped into his off-screen persona. Not a bad thing per se. What’s wrong with loving our country and screaming about it from the rooftops? Akshay Kumar has been quite vocal about Uri Attacks, Bangalore molestation case and his initiative for Bharat Ke Veer App, and we are quite proud of what he has said and done. Especially the app, as it allows every citizen to help the kin of slain soldiers financially. These initiatives are really cool, and there is no denying that.  He is even digging toilets these days!

But when Akki tries to overplay the patriotic angle in his recent movies, we have a problem. Why did a movie based on the Nanavati case (Rustom) had to bring in forced patriotism when the real case had nothing to do with it? Jolly LLB 2 had Akshay Kumar screaming about desh ke baare mein socho, I wondered if they would play the national anthem again after that scene. Wanting to release his movie on a Republic or an Independence Day weekend is another annoying trait we are seeing, so much that producers of his upcoming movie have made it sound like those weekends are his birthright. Now his upcoming movie, Toilet – Ek Prem Katha is funded and approved by the government and is based on the concept of PM’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. So we can expect more jingoism in there.

But the tactic worked, didn’t it? Akshay Kumar has received a National Award for his performance in Rustom, a performance every Bollywood ceremony had ignored. So it shows that either none of the award ceremonies have the capability to judge the right performances or that the National Award had nothing to do with his performance, but more to do with the fact that he is being seen as the most ‘patriotic’ actor in the country. Just see that topmost still from, incidentally, Rustom, and you know what I am talking about.

There is also the observation the like Academy Awards love to award performances in biopics, even the National Awards has a soft corner for patriotic and nationalist performances like Kamal Haasan in Indian, Ajay Devgn in Zakhm and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, and Anil Kapoor in Pukar.

Akshay Kumar and his fans may be happy, but as a film lover, I am disappointed that they didn’t use the correct yardstick to give him an award. There were far better performances this year, even in Bollywood itself, like Manoj Bajpayee in Aligarh, Aamir Khan in Dangal, and even Randeep Hooda for Sarbjit. Akshay Kumar has done nothing exemplary in Rustom to get this honour, over these three actors.

Anyway, that’s just my humble opinion and I am sure many Akki fans are already telling me…

The deed is done. Akshay Kumar is now a National Award winner joining the likes of Amitabh Bachchan (Agneepath, Black, Piku, Paa), Saif Ali Khan (Hum Tum), Anil Kapoor (Pukar), Irrfan Khan (Paan Singh Tomar) in Bollywood who previously won Best Actor. So congrats to the actor and the team of Rustom, and to his many fans.

BTW,  someone please change the nationality of the actor from Canada to India in his Wikipedia page. Doesn’t go well with his patriotic fervour!