POPULAR actor Sunny Deol has scored one of this year’s biggest Bollywood successes with Gadar 2. The Hindi cinema hardman also made it 40 years in Bollywood recently and will celebrate his 67th birthday on October 19.
Eastern Eye decided to mark all the occasions by putting together a watchlist of his 12 best movies and performances, listed in chronological order.
Betaab
Betaab (1983): Although he became known as an action hero, the actor made a winning debut in this musical romance about two young lovers. He showed great screen presence opposite fellow debutante Amrita Singh in what would become the second highest grossing Bollywood movie released that year. It would be his first step towards a glittering 40-year career.
Sohni Mahiwal (1984): The actor made it two great romantic movies in a row with this musical adaptation of the famous story of star-crossed lovers. Poonam Dhillon played his love interest in the film that combined a historical romance with high drama and great songs. Although the Indo-Russian production became a success, it remains underrated and deserves more praise. Incidentally, the lead stars children Rajveer Deol and Paloma Dhillon just made their Bollywood debut in the newly released romance Dono.
Sohni Mahiwal
Arjun (1985): The actor found his niche as an action hero with this powerful drama. He took on the title role in the story of a young, educated but unemployed man, who fights back against wrongdoing and a corrupt system. The story and his intense screen presence made a strong connection with audiences, especially the disaffected youth. It would gain a best film nomination at the Filmfare Awards.
Tridev (1989): The full on action entertainer was a massive commercial success when it was released. Deol headed an impressive star cast that included Jackie Shroff, Naseeruddin Shah and Madhuri Dixit in this masala potboiler, which had everything from romance to action, revenge and violence. The escapist entertainer also had top tracks, powerful performances and a memorable villain.
Ghayal (1990): The first career-defining role of Deol’s career earned him multiple awards including a Filmfare best actor and a National Award. The action drama swept the Filmfare Awards including best director and best actor. He plays an honest man, who is pushed onto the wrong side of the law and fights back against the villains. His intensity was once again applauded in Rajkumar Santoshi’s directorial debut.
Ghayal
Damini (1993): Deol may have only had a supporting role in the cult feminist classic but stole the show with his explosive performance as the no nonsense lawyer, who takes on the case of a woman who is wronged. His dialogues like the iconic ‘tarikh pe tarikh’ became stuff of Bollywood legend in the powerful film. The Rajkumar Santoshi directed drama received multiple awards, which included a National and Filmfare award for Deol.
Darr (1993): Although the Yash Chopra directed classic is best remembered for Shah Rukh Khan’s star-making turn as the stalker, many people forget that Sunny Deol was the headline star and hero. The blockbuster hit about a woman terrorised by a deranged stalker became a worldwide hit and Deol’s presence added weight to proceedings. It had great songs and received multiple award nominations.
Ghatak (1996): The dream team of Deol and director Rajkumar Santoshi reunited for this successful action drama at a time when romance was ruling the Bollywood box office. The blockbuster hit saw him take on another role of a good man, who fights for the oppressed and takes the law into his own hands. Like his previous successes, the film combined eyecatching action with an explosive dialogue delivery.
Border
Border (1997):The epic JP Duttadirected war drama may have had a huge star cast, but Deol was very much the headline star and delivered a power-packed performance that earned him multiple best actor awards. The story set during the India-Pakistan war of 1971 showed the plight of soldiers on the frontline. It would become the highest grossing Bollywood film in India that year and is regarded as one of the finest army films made in Hindi cinema.
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001): Deol’s second career-defining role was in a partition-set drama, which clocked up record-breaking figures, despite being released on the same day as Oscar-nominated film Lagaan. The story of a Sikh truck driver falling in love with a Muslim woman separated from her Pakistan-bound family connected strongly with audiences. The sequel was released in 2023 and clocked up huge numbers, despite not being very good, because audiences wanted to see his character Tara Singh back in action.
Gadar: Ek Prem Kath
Apne (2007): A movie that perhaps doesn’t get the credit it deserves united the actor with his brother Bobby Deol and father Dharmendra on the big screen for the first time. The story of a disgraced boxer trying to train his son to glory has plenty of great moments and strong performances. The only weak aspects were the boxing scenes, but that didn’t take away the positives, including the emotional family drama elements.
Apne
Chup: Revenge of The Artist (2022): The critically acclaimed movie may not have done well at the box office, but it did get solid reviews and has found its audience on streaming sites. The multi-layered story of a serial killer murdering corrupt film critics put a unique spin on the Bollywood thriller formula. Deol plays the police officer hot on the killer’s trail and like all his previous movies, he made his presence felt.
The actor’s evolving style from youth to maturity getty images
Aamir Khan embracing vintage looks with classic charmgetty images
Bold and dramatic changes defining Aamir Khan’s careergetty images
From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
Aamir Khan’s blend of classic and contemporary fashiongetty images
Aamir Khan’s dedication to authentic character portrayals getty images
Cinematic milestones reflected in Aamir Khan’s on-screen imagegetty images
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5