A spicy claim just landed, and it’s setting the Bollywood vs South cinema debate on fire! Actor-writer MM Faruqui aka Lilliput has gone all in with his opinion, putting Shah Rukh Khan’s Zero side-by-side with Kamal Haasan’s Appu Raja. The verdict wasn’t exactly sugar-coated. According to him, Shah Rukh Khan’s dwarf act isn’t even close to touching Kamal Haasan’s legendary portrayal, in fact, he went as far as to say it’s “not even the dust on Kamal’s feet.”
Lilliput compares Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Haasan’s dwarf roles
In a chat with Red FM Podcasts, Lilliput broke it down: playing a dwarf isn’t just about camera tricks and shrinking frames. He explained, “Someone who is not blind will act like they are blind, but for a person who is not a dwarf, how will you act like a dwarf? Because dwarfs are normal, their hand movements are normal, they laugh and think like anyone else. They only look different. So, how will you act that out? You will make him look smaller technically.”
He threw shade at SRK’s screen image too. He said, “We know you are good-looking and cute, so our impression of what you are ends there. We are not looking at a dwarf, we are looking at a hero who has been made to look like a dwarf via visual effects.” Zero’s visual effects may have fooled the eyes, but not the brain. And as for the script? He wasn’t buying whatever it was trying to sell.
The Kamal Haasan Gold Standard
When it comes to playing a dwarf, Lilliput believes Kamal Haasan in Appu Raja is still the ultimate masterclass. He praised Kamal’s precision, from the way dwarfs carry their weight to the tiny yet telling details in their fingers, arms, and facial features.
He said, “You look at Appu Raja’s intelligence. Kamal Haasan picked out the details of the physicality of a dwarf person.” He elaborated, “Dwarfs are a little distorted, their fingers are smaller, a little thicker, their arms, face, and feet are different. So, when you are not able to leave an impact, then why are you making it? And how could you think that you would leave an impact?”
Making a shocking claim, he said, “Kamal ji ki aap copy kar rahe ho. Unke acting ki charno ki dhool bhi nahi ho aap” (You are copying Kamal ji when you are not even equal to the dirt on his feet).
SRK’s Redemption Arc
After Zero tanked, Shah Rukh hit pause on his film career, only to storm back with the 2023 hat-trick: Pathaan, Jawan, and Dunki. In true King Khan fashion, he capped it off by bagging his first-ever National Award for Best Actor for Jawan. Whether that silence the Zero critics? That’s a whole new debate waiting to happen.
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