MAXIMUM DRAMA
Starring KAY KAY MENON, web series Bambai Meri Jaan— which just released on Amazon Prime Video— is a family drama set against the backdrop of Mumbai’s underworld
It was late March 2020 with India in lockdown when Kay Kay Menon suddenly saw his social media handles spring to life. It was adulation pouring in for his work in the web series Special Ops which had back then released on Disney+ Hotstar. “Youngsters were messaging me saying ‘You have potential’,” says the 56-year-old actor with a smile. “They didn’t know of my existence [prior to it]. I can’t blame them as they hadn’t seen my films.” The Gen Z audience soon saw more of that ‘potential’ in acclaimed films like Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi,
Shaurya, Gulaal and Haider. After featuring in Raj & DK’s Farzi earlier this year, Menon will look to wow them again in Bambai Meri Jaan, also on Amazon Prime Video. He had much earlier made an impression on his millennial co-star Avinash Tiwary (Laila Majnu, Khakee: The Bihar Chapter) who plays the gangster son, Dara, to Menon’s police officer, Ismail, in Bambai Meri Jaan, a family drama set against the backdrop of Mumbai’s burgeoning underworld. “There is a certain intensity [to him] which manifests in this aura [he has],” says Tiwary, who was inspired by Menon’s work in Gulaal. “While shooting [Bambai Meri Jaan] this feeling of looking up to him, and the fear of not wanting to do wrong helped me create this relationship between Dara and Ismail.” Seated at the JW Marriott Hotel in Mumbai, the ‘aura’ is felt as Menon quietly listens to Tiwary’s fanboy talk. Menon is an anomaly in many ways. He studied physics, earned an MBA degree and worked in advertising before realising in his mid-20s that acting was his “swadharma”—his “calling”. Unlike many of his peers, Menon doesn’t have a manager or a publicist. “I like to live life on my own terms,” he says. “There’s a certain thing called instinct, when a third person comes and tries to convince you, it gets lost somewhere. I have ended up in situations where it’s not been a happy journey. For me, the moment the project is over, I am dispassionate about it. I don’t hang on to its fate.” With the proliferation of streaming platforms, Menon joins a niche, esteemed legion of 50-something actors like Suvinder Vicky (Kohrra), Manoj Bajpayee (The Family Man), and Pawan Malhotra (Tabbar) whose thespian careers have seen a renaissance. Experiencing the “transformative” powers of streaming has been both a blessing and a bane. With OTT platforms, “there are certain things from the past that come to haunt you or glorify you”, he says.
Going by the first three episodes of Bambai Meri Jaan,
Menon should rest easy. Based on S. Hussain Zaidi’s Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia, the show is a return to narratives about gangsters, which were a staple in Hindi cinema of the late 1990s and 2000s. Says Menon, “Films are limited by time; in series, you see the inner workings of the human being. You can feel and smell individuals in the story.” One can certainly feel for Ismail Kadri, the good cop who takes on forces mightier than him. Menon’s nuanced performance showcases Ismail’s moral dilemmas and his inner demons to evoke empathy for the character. It’s a meaty role that the young ones would say taps into his ‘potential’. ■