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One ‘two’ many: ‘Replacement therapy’ in double roles

en Bollywood News One ‘two’ many: ‘Replacement therapy’ in double roles

Arjun Kapoor portrays two characters Ajay and Vishal with seasoned expertise in his latest film, Aurangzeb. And it is just his second film!

One ‘two’ many: ‘Replacement therapy’ in double roles

His producer Aditya Chopra decided to put money on him, relying on Arjun making a mark in an ensemble cast of seasoned performers. As Arjun stated, "Sometimes it takes an external force to make you realize your true potential. For me, Adi (Aditya Chopra) was that force."

Arjun Kapoor plays Vishal, a simple lad from Nainital persuaded by the cops to impersonate the look-alike hot-headed son, Ajay, of a gangster. Ajay has been kept in a secret hideout by the police and Vishal in his place will help get information and evidence against Ajay's father and his gang.

By convention, dual roles have usually stood for contrasting characters - whether in physical attributes like age or complexion or in temperament and morals. A cinematic device used usually for drama but sometimes also for comedy, it often ends up - in the case of similar-looking individuals - with one replacing the other either for a purpose or due to circumstances.

Shatrughan Sinha's Kalicharan (1976) and Amitabh Bachchan's Don (1978) were classic examples of the second man being replaced for a special purpose. In the former, Sinha One is an upright officer killed by a gang, and Sinha Two the convict who resembles him trained to take his place and get on the trail of his killers, in the process adopting the policeman's two orphaned children. In the latter, Bachchan Two is a street performer who impersonates a famous don who has been killed by an officer, and infiltrates the don's gang to nail them.

In Haseena Maan Jayegi (1969), two look-alike college mates (Shashi Kapoor), one a gray character, woo the heroine (Babita). The bad one tries to replace the good Kapoor at the time of their wedding by kidnapping the groom, only to find himself kidnapped by his own cronies instead! Later, both become soldiers and while one is presumed dead during the war, there are strong indications to suspect that the bad guy is now pretending to be the 'husband' who has come back from the border areas.

Saccha Jhutha (1970) saw a country bumpkin being used by a criminal outfit to be their leader's 'front' at respectable events or whenever an alibi is needed because the two (Rajesh Khanna) look alike. In Hum Dono (1961), both the look-alikes are army officers (Dev Anand). They meet and bond and at one point, one of them has to break the news of the other's death to the latter's old mother and a wife who may die of the shock as she has a heart ailment.

In Raj Khosla's Mera Saaya (1966), the husband mourns the death of his young wife (Sadhana) only to find a new woman enter his life, who looks her spitting image and calls herself his wife, 'proving' it by knowing the smallest, most intimate details about him!


Amol Palekar's Oscar-nominated Paheli (2005) was based on a eighth-century story set in the regressive Rajasthan of those times. It had a ghost who fell in love with a newlywed bride when her palanquin passed his haunt.

The ghost had the power to take on any human form and when the boorish and money-obsessed husband leaves her the day after the wedding to live in a far-off town to make money, the ghost, who is the epitome of a love struck spouse, pretends to be the husband who has come back. The story used the device to convey the message of equality in marriage. Creating two distinct characters with people looking identical to the mole is a great challenge and Shah Rukh Khan's performance, definitely ranked among his best. So did most of the other portrayals in this list.

The record for an early dual role is held by Hrithik Roshan, who accomplished this effortlessly in his first-ever lead film, Kaho Naa...Pyaar Hai (2000). Here, the look-alike dude living abroad is brought to India to avenge the first one's murder, taking advantage of the fact that his body was never found.

In Rowdy Rathore (2012), a small-time conman finds his life threatened inexplicably by strange attackers. And a six-year old girl calls him her father. The mystery is solved when he comes to know that he is the exact 'duplicate' of an ace police officer working on a case.

In the 1969 Humsaya, a Chinese soldier (Joy Mukerji) is killed and an Indian look-alike sent in his place to gather vital information, which leads to a moral quandary when the Indian encounters the dead soldier's widow who naturally mistakes him for her husband. In Yakeen the same year, Dharmendra, a secret agent, has to deal with a deadly enemy look-alike.

While most of these above examples were of unconnected people looking alike (it is said that real life is stranger than such dual role fiction and abounds in such cases), we also have twins featuring in dual role dramas. The classics here began with Dilip Kumar's Ram Aur Shyam (based on plots from foreign classics), moving on to Hema Malini's Seeta Aur Geeta, Sridevi's Chaalbaaz and Anil Kapoor's Kishen Kanhaiya with some more lesser examples. Here the tough one takes the place of the mild one to teach the 'baddies' a lesson!


Mark Twain's The Prince And The Pauper, a story of identical twins exchanging places after being separated at birth gave rise to the 1968 golden jubilee hit Raja Aur Runk starring child actor and later top Marathi actor-filmmaker Mahesh Kothare.

Taking it further, Walt Disney's The Parent Trap, saw identical twins bringing divorced parents together by exchanging places. This plot was best employed in the 1968 Do Kaliyan (featuring Baby Sonia aka Neetu Singh) and later rehashed in two unsuccessful films, Pyar Ke Kaabil (1986) with Baby Bulbul and Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001) wherein Kajol essayed the adult versions of the twins.

This 'replacement therapy' is the commonest device in dual roles, followed by the parent-offspring dramatic clash, best seen in Amitabh Bachchan's Adalat (1977), Desh Premee (1982) and Aakhree Raasta (1986) and Jaya Prada's Sanjog (1989). Sometimes the two 'doubles' never 'meet' on screen (like the two Rajesh Khanna's in Aradhana). We also have the unique kinds of double essays, like Reena Roy playing the elder and younger sisters in Ladies Tailor (1981) and one of the two Dharmendra's playing a retarded man who later turns into a ghost in the amusing Ghazab (1982).

Helped by ever-evolving technical expertise whenever the 'twain' have to meet, shake hands, hug or even fight, the dual role is a priceless boon for filmmakers, because the audiences not only love watching two stars for the price of one but get the ultimate satisfaction by seeing one beloved actor confronting the other.

Hindi cinema will continue to have its share of double-trouble, the surefire formula for success, regardless of generational changes in the audience.

More Pages: Aurangzeb Box Office Collection , Aurangzeb Movie Review


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