The return of Aamir Khan

With one more period film due for release, Aamir Khan, the proverbial tortoise of Bollywood (with all due respects to him and his fans) is back in race.
Methodical that he is, I wonder if he planned his come-back strategy !

If my memory doesn't fail, I got an inkling of his arrival in Rahul theatre, when I saw the one-minute trailer of The Rising before the movie Swades set in motion. That trailer left the audience asking for more.

Few days later, as the new brand ambassador of Titan watches, Aamir appeared in his first non-coke TV commercial (conceptualized by Ogilvy & Mather). He stuck with the Mangal Pandey-look of curly locks and upturned moutache to deliver the message that Titan can go with any fashion style. Each time, I saw the Titan billboard at the University signal, I wondered if he is also conveying a personal message to his fans: Watch Out - My time is coming.

And these days as Manno Bhabhi, he continues to spread the thanda message of Coke. If you haven't seen it yet, watch Rediff's compilation of the ad.

His visibility on the small screen doesn't stop here. Recently NDTV telecasted his interview as part of their show 'Walk the Talk'. Today's print edition of Indian Express carries the text of that interview conducted by Shekhar Gupta. Ramanand, in his comments had given a reference to this interview, so I was glad to get hold of it.

What struck me most was his interpretation of Devdas as a character. After having seen Aamir play a winner in Lagaan, it would have been delightful to watch him play a loser in Devdas. We had a good inconclusive lunch table discussion on this. During snacks, the discussion veered towards Aamir's dream role - Karna from Mahabharat. While Aamir himself acknowledges that his height and build may act as a deterrent for the role, one of my friends had a good suggestion for Aamir - produce a mini-Mahabharat serial for kids and telecast it on one of the popular kids channel !