"Papa kehte hain bada naam karega!" -Debutant Aamir Khan singing in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak " Mere hisaab se, agar is desh ke baap nahi sudhrenge, ye desh nahi sudhrega!" - Aamir Khan, six years later, in Andaz Apna Apna. In transit from the masala genre to the romance genre, Bollywood saw crestfallen dadas and grandiose dads (in negative roles); and why not, charity and villainy, both begin at home. The masculine, patriarchal and authoritarian father figure of the '90s has come under the radar of contemporary feminist studies. But this article has nothing to do with academic critiques of a Tribhuvan Das from Chaalbaaz or a Saxena from Kaho Naa...Pyar Hai. We all know that they were inherently bad dads. Their trademark antagonisms aside, this article is a showcase of two of the most memorable fathers Bollywood has ever seen: Bauji (Amrish Puri) from DDLJ and Thakur sahab (Sanjeev Kumar) from Sholay. Two doppelgangers, two decades apart. Image source: San
