Anil Kapoor has tightened his knuckles and loaded his rifle yet again. His new film, Suresh Triveni’s Subedaar, is all set to premiere on Prime Video India this Thursday on March 5. It’s a hark back to the seminal action films Anil did back in the 1980s, all the way till S Shankar’s Bollywood directorial debut Nayak: A Real Hero in 2001.“When I started my career I felt the biggest disadvantage for me was my surname Kapoor’. I decided that I will do what no other Kapoor is doing. I decided I will not do ‘Kapooriyat’,” Anil said at the International Film Festival of India back in 2019. His father, Surinder Kapoor, a production controller, was a distant cousin of film and theatre stalwart Prithviraj Kapoor.His distant cousins Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, and Shashi Kapoor had already become top stars by the time Anil stepped foot into the film industry in the late 1970s. So, the choice was clear: either follow in their footsteps or carve his own identity. He didn’t have the towering personality of uncle Prithviraj or the directorial chops of Raj Kapoor. He could neither shimmy like Shammi Kapoor or slug it out relentlessly from one set to another like the early career of Shashi Kapoor.“The films which all the Kapoors do, they are excellent in them. Nobody can do what they do on screen. The films Prithviraj Kapoor sahab, Raj Kapoor sahab made, the work Shammi uncle has done, the choices Shashi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor made and now what Ranbir is doing, it all comes naturally to them,” Anil said at IFFI. Rishi Kapoor, technically his nephew but four years older than him, had also made a memorable breakthrough in Hindi cinema with Raj Kapoor’s 1973 young romance Bobby.So, Anil chose a path less travelled by, particularly in the Kapoor family: parallel cinema. While Shashi Kapoor did his fair bit on that front — producing and starring in Shyam Benegal’s Junoon (1978) and Kalyug (1981) — he gave up on acting after the death of his wife Jennifer Kendall in 1984. Hence, the stage was set for Anil Kapoor, who never wanted to be a star like his distant cousins, but aspired to be known as an actor first.“I knew I didn’t have that charm. So, I decided to go the thinking way and create my own path. I started doing serious films and character roles. At that time being filmy was looked down upon,” said Anil at IFFI. “When I sleep I never dream of becoming a star. I see characters in my dream. I never wanted money, big houses or stardom,” he added. But as they say, stardom was written in Anil’s stars.Unlike Rishi Kapoor, Anil never bothered himself with securing a dream debut like Bobby. He worked his way up, doing small parts in Umesh Mehra’s 1979 family drama Hamare Tumhare and Bapu’s Hum Paanch (1980), with Sanjeev Kumar in the lead, Lekh Tandon’s Ek Baar Kaho (1980), with Navin Nischol in the lead, and Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti (1982), with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role.Story continues below this ad Anil Kapoor in Shakti.Language wasn’t a constraint for Anil, as he even made a couple of inroads into South Indian cinema. Even before the first wave of pan-India films post the success of K Balachander’s 1981 romance Ek Duuje Ke Liye, starring Kamal Haasan, Anil played the lead role in Bapu’s 1980 Telugu film Vamsa Vruksham. However, that film failed to make any dent on either pop culture or at the box office.That didn’t deter Anil from signing another South Indian film, Pallavi Anu Pallavi in Kannada, which was also Mani Ratnam’s directorial debut. An average grosser with critical acclaim, it helped Anil team up with Bapu yet again in what turned out to be his maiden solo lead in Hindi cinema — Woh Saat Din (1983), in a remake of the director’s earlier Telugu version Radha Kalyanam (1981). Anil Kapoor in Woh Saat Din.The film fetched Anil enough eyeballs, but it was produced by his father and elder brother Boney Kapoor. Anil’s true commercial litmus test came in the form of Yash Chopra’s 1984 action film Mashaal. He played a supporting role in the movie written by Javed Akhtar, but held his own in front of a legend like Dilip Kumar.His seething intensity fetched Anil more action films like Raj N Sippy’s Andar Baahar (1984) and Rajiv Rai’s 1985 directorial debut Yudh, which debuted his memorable catchphrase “Jhakaas!”. But the watershed moment came with his powerful portrayal of a lawyer in Subhash Ghai’s Meri Jung (1985). He followed it up with similar films like Feroz Khan’s Janbaaz (1986) and Ghai’s Karma (1986), while not completely divorcing the parallel/middle-of-the-road actor within him, by also sliding in Basu Chatterjee’s comedy Chameli Ki Shaadi within the same year.Story continues below this ad Anil Kapoor in Meri Jung.It so happened that Anil’s entry into Hindi cinema coincided with the fading of the parallel cinema movement. The VHS (Video Home System) gave a boost to piracy, as the conventional audience for parallel cinema chose to stay back at home and consume films within the comforts of their homes. Action films and South Indian remakes took over in order to cater to the lowest common denominator. But Anil remained that rare action star who also slid in a tender vulnerability that made his machoism even more palatable.Anil invoked exactly this range and gamut of emotions in probably his most career-defining role yet — Shekhar Kapur’s Mr. India (1987). Since then, he’s balanced a Tezaab (1988) and a Ram Lakhan (1989) with an Eeshwar and a Parinda in the same year. Or a Lamhe (1991) with a Beta (1992). Or even a 1942: A Love Story (1994) with a Trimurti (1995). Or a Gen-Z favourite Judaai (1997) with a nuanced turn in Priyadarshan’s Virasat, which released just months after. Anil Kapoor in Mr India.Even as younger stars like the three Khans began taking over, challenging the stardom of Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor somehow held his ground without any dramatic falls. It was probably the parallel cinema actor in him that made him read the room in time and embrace his second innings before his seniors. That’s why he made his mark even in supporting roles in films like Salman Khan-starrer Biwi No. 1 and Akshaye Khanna-starrer Taal in 1999.Anil, however, didn’t let the action/drama star in him take a beating either. He delivered probably two of his most memorable performances with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Pukar (2000) and Nayak (2001). Since then, he’s stolen the show in comedy (No Entry, Welcome), in drama (Slumdog Millionaire, Animal), and even action (Shootout at Wadala, Malang, AK vs AK, Thar). He has also embraced his age, on the insistence of his son Harshvardhan Kapoor, with memorable parts in family dramas like Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019), and Jug Jugg Jeeyo.Story continues below this adAlso Read: Virat Kohli spotted taking a stroll with Akaay in London in a rare public appearance. WatchBut if you felt a nagging dearth of Anil Kapoor getting his hands dirty like he did in Mashaal and Meri Jung or even AK vs AK and Thar, Subedaar should come as a long-awaited prize. In the past five years, we’ve either seen him react to his son’s relentless bloodshed in Animal or bark orders at subordinates in Fighter and War 2. But if the trailer of Subedaar is anything to go by, we’d see him not only unleash the latent action star, but also bring that parallel-cinema nuance and restraint to a landscape in dire need of saving from a saturation of vacant action spectacles.