Why can Aamir Khan make so many masterpieces?

There is such a magical actor. A series of movies he starred in are all hailed as masterpieces and have very high ratings on IMDB and Douban.

What’s even more incredible than this is that these movies also happen to be his country’s most famous movies in the world in recent years.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this actor is the representative of this country in the film industry.

Actually, everyone already knows by looking at today’s cover picture. The one we’re talking about here is the Indian superstar——

Aamir Khan

Last year’s "Wrestling" Bar! "Dad" has staged a miraculous counterattack since its release in China, with a Douban score of 9.1 and a box office of over 1 billion, completely conquering the domestic audience.

"Wrestle!" "Dad" stills

Now, Aamir Khan's new movie "Mysterious Superstar" will be released this week. Today, let me talk to you in detail about why Aamir Khan is so awesome.

The vast majority of domestic audiences’ understanding of Aamir Khan is due to his series of highly acclaimed works since the new century, including "The Color of Basati", "Stars on Earth", "Three Idiots", "Oh My God" and "Dangal".

Aamir Khan’s film masterpieces

The reason why these films have captured the hearts of global audiences is not only that they all have very skilled film narrative skills, but more importantly, they are all in Explore social issues that people care about.

These social problems include son preference, arranged marriage, medical corruption, education system, etc. Many of them have been common problems in Indian society for many years, so Indian audiences will naturally be particularly excited.

But in fact, these problems are not limited to Indian society. Many similar problems can also be found in other countries, such as China. This sense of social responsibility is missing especially in most of our domestic films. Therefore, we would like to give it more praise.

But Aamir Khan was not what he is today. Let’s talk about his early life first.

Aamir Khan in childhood

Aamir Khan was born in 1965 into a film family. "Caravan", one of the most famous Indian movies in the 1970s, may be the only Indian movie that many Chinese people have seen before watching Aamir Khan's movie. Tahir Hussain, the producer of "Caravan" is Aamir Khan's father, and Nasir Hussain, the director, is his uncle.

Aamir Khan, who grew up in such a family, became a child star at the age of 8. Later, in college, I decided to join the film industry.

He made his debut in the 1980s and became famous through a series of romance films - the most common and popular genre in Indian movies.

"Youth Idol" Amir Khan

At that time, Aamir Khan was an out-and-out youth idol. Almost all of the series of romance films he starred in were It is the same type of work that promotes "love supremacy".

Looking at the titles of these movies, you can roughly feel their themes: "Love Love Love", "Love", "Speaking of Hearts, Not Money", "Crazy for Love", "Love" "The Story of Love", "Love on the Journey", "Love is Stronger than Gold", "A Thin Thread of Love", "True Love Is Invincible", etc.

Among these works, there are both excellent and innovative works, as well as homogeneous works that are slightly clichéd.

During this period, he also acted in more serious realist works such as "Ashes to Ashes" and "Ghulam". But most of the time, he is just a pure and handsome idol.

The movie "Earth 1947"

Starting from "Earth 1947" in 1999, Aamir Khan's acting style began to undergo a significant change.

"Earth 1947" shows the division of India and Pakistan - a major historical issue that is very sensitive in India. This film is also considered to be the best film on this subject in India.

This is his first time to represent India in the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and during the filming of this film, Aamir Khan worked with an international shooting team for the first time, giving him the necessary Broader vision and goals.

Two years later, in 2001, "Once Upon a Time in India" made Aamir Khan truly recognized by the global audience.

The movie "Once Upon a Time in India"

"Once Upon a Time in India" uses the story of a cricket team to tell the story of the Indian people's resistance to colonization. This story of great national pride naturally ignited all Indian audiences and ushered in a flood of praise.

This film swept various film awards in India that year and was exported to Europe and the United States. It allowed European and American audiences to re-see the charm of Indian films and began to pay attention to the Bollywood film industry, which has been second only to Hollywood in terms of output for a long time.

"Once Upon a Time in India" also won an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film that year.

For contemporary Indian cinema, "Once Upon a Time in India" is an iconic milestone.

Since then, Aamir Khan has shot the series of well-known masterpieces mentioned above.

"The Color of Basati" tells the story of India's most famous revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad. The film still has a clear anti-colonial theme, and it is told using a play-within-a-play technique.

Stills from "The Color of Bassati"

The protagonists in the play are a group of dissolute and confused teenagers who awakened their own passions by participating in the filming of a documentary about these revolutionary ancestors. Responsibility and responsibility.

Outside of the movie, a large number of young Indians also began to pay attention to and join social movements because of this movie.

Aamir Khan himself began to promote changes in Indian society in his life.

He joined the ranks of protesters and volunteered for the refugees. Through non-governmental organizations, we support the "Educate India" program and encourage more college students to teach locally.

He also used his public influence to call on more Indian people to exercise their right to vote and participate in fair politics.

Later in 2012, Aamir Khan produced and hosted the TV talk show "The Truth", which is a household name in India. I believe many friends have heard of this program.

The method used in "Truth Interviews" is to use interviews with experts and officials, and use rigorous charts and data to deeply explore various complex Indian social issues.

Some of these issues have been mentioned in Aamir Khan's movies, but they are obviously not as specific as those discussed in "The Truth". There are many more that the movie cannot touch, and the show also presents them one by one.

These sharp and sensitive topics include but are not limited to: caste system, combating rape, child sexual assault, and political corruption. If you mention any one of them, it may "trigger a red line" in Indian society, but Aamir Khan dares to speak out.

It is precisely because of this extraordinary sense of social responsibility and courage that this program quickly aroused a huge response in Indian society after it came out, and it continues to this day.

After the episode about child sexual abuse was broadcast, Aamir Khan was invited to testify in Congress and successfully got the Indian Congress to pass the Child Protection Bill.

Later, he also appeared on the cover of Time magazine and became India's most watched movie star.

In fact, Aamir Khan's influence in India has far exceeded the scope of movies.

Of course, his new films always do well in India.

2008's "Death Unknown" was the first Indian film to cross 1 billion rupees at the box office. A year later, this record was broken by "Three Idiots" starring himself. Later, "My God", starring him, sold over 100 million US dollars worldwide, which is a box office legend. As for "Dangal!" Dad", everyone is already familiar with it.

Stills from "Death Unknown"

His films still explore social topics of great practical significance.

Both "Stars on Earth" and "Three Idiots" criticized India's decadent and dull education system. "Wrestle!" "Dad" criticizes the long-standing inequality between men and women. "My God" even satirizes narrow religious views in a "transgressive" way.

These movies can always touch the pain in the hearts of Indian audiences, and often also make overseas audiences, including China, have a strong reaction.

The reason why Aamir Khan can maintain such high-quality output for such a long time does not actually have any special tricks. The way he succeeds in making movies is actually the same as those of outstanding filmmakers around the world. He follows the basic rules of film production.

The first thing is to pay attention to the script.

Before taking on a movie, he will review the script extremely rigorously. If there is not a script that satisfies him, no matter how big-name a director or how high the salary is, he will be turned away.

After deciding to shoot a movie, Aamir Khan will ask himself to concentrate on it wholeheartedly.

The first requirement is to never cross-play, that is, not to take on another play before finishing this play. Compared with the big-name stars in China who jump between several crews, they can judge the difference.

When acting, he makes himself the character in the film from appearance to heart. This is what we know as method acting.

Since its birth in the 1950s, Method acting has been adopted by a large number of outstanding actors. For example, Robert De Niro gained weight while filming "Raging Bull", or Christian Bale's shocking weight loss while filming "The Machinist".

Method performance is not that new, but not many people can use it personally.

While filming "Dangal!" When he was a father, Aamir Khan was able to gain 50 pounds in more than a year, and then quickly lose back to his original weight in 5 months. Such a "spring man"-like performance will still be amazing.

It is these old-fashioned but practical concepts that laid the foundation for his success.

A fact that many domestic audiences do not understand is that Aamir Khan is not actually the most popular movie star in India in recent years. Shah Rukh Khan, who has the "King", has always been better than him in this regard. A little bit of Aamir Khan (a little bit of Shah Rukh Khan like Indian Tom Cruise).

However, over the years, when talking about Indian movies around the world, the first thing people think of is always Aamir Khan.

The ever-changing screen images he plays represent India, but they are far from limited to India.

It is his firm belief, extraordinary courage, old-school film shooting methods and strong sense of social responsibility that make him and his films truly go global.

Select 10 people in the comments to give away movie tickets to watch Aamir Khan's new movie "Mysterious Superstar".

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GN

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