NO FRILL, JUST SKILL

Much like his father, Aamir, Junaid Khan prefers to let his acting do the talking

- REYA MEHROTRA

The 1980s were an uncertain period in Indian cinema. The anger of the 1970s 'Angry Young Man' had fizzled out, and filmmakers did not know what to replace it with. Some of them continued to churn out films of vengeance and violence half-heartedly, only to face the wrath of audiences. Finally, it was a few star kids like Sanjay Dutt and Sunny Deol who gave the film industry a much-needed facelift. Both were launched as romance heroes in the films Rocky (1981) and Betaab (1983). But the romance of the 1980s really came of age with two other youngsters-Aamir Khan in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya (1989). The Angry Young Man's gunshots had been drowned out by Aamir's guitar as he sang 'Papa Kehte Hain' to an adoring Juhi Chawla.

Years later, many things have changed, but what has not? Star kids being launched through love stories, like Janhvi Kapoor in Dhadak (2018), Ananya Panday in Student of the Year 2 (2019), Suhana Khan, Agastya Nanda and Khushi Kapoor in The Archies (2023). Even as Aamir set the ball rolling with Qayamat, it took his son Junaid to break with this tradition. Junaid did not debut with romance, instead going for the hard-hitting crime drama Maharaj, based on true events.

In it, he plays Karsandas Mulji, a 19th-century journalist who exposes how the religious leader Jadunathji Maharaj sexually abused the wives and daughters of his devotees. This resulted in the Maharaj Libel Case of 1861, when Maharaj filed a libel suit against Mulji. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Mulji.