Atlas shrugs

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Let's start this post from an unlikely angle. Years ago, Sylvester Stallone wrote and acted in Rocky which, by the way, won an Oscar for Best Picture. (If you're counting at home, that's Sylvester Stallone movies: 1 Oscar, Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin movies: 0 Oscars).

Apart from providing fodder for 5 additional Rocky stories as well as countless rags-to-riches sports movies, Rocky popularized a pose, one that was immortalized in Philadelphia with a statue of the same. Here's the pose at the end of the short video (the extremely recognizable and cool Rocky theme music is an added bonus as you watch this training montage).




For many years now, while watching Hindi movies, I keep having flashbacks to that iconic image from Rocky. That's because our heroes adopt a similar pose when they want to welcome the heroine into the safety of their embrace. It's one where the stand with their feet apart, slightly off-kilter, gently leaning backwards, arms spread to their widest extent, palms facing up - suggesting an invitation to advance as well as a call to prayer in one go.

Shah Rukh Khan is the fellow I most associate with this pose. He may have done it in earlier songs or movies, but I believe it first caught the attention of his adoring fans in this song, but having worked on his art form, he finally perfected it by the time Mohabattein rolled around:



When SRK does something, can Salman Khan be far behind? He spends a lot of time botching perfectly decent songs with his "dancing" but once in a while he adopts a sombre persona and spreads his wings, so to speak. Like so:



Aamir Khan is not shy about being hatke in his choice of roles and stories, so when he does the pose he does it one-handed at a time, just to be different...well, see for yourself:



Carrying the torch forward for the next generation, here's Ranbir Kapoor taking it to new levels (or should I say breadths?).