Aamir Khan turns 60: Six scenes to celebrate with 

Aamir Khan's iconic moments in Indian cinema, from intense dramas to light-hearted comedies, showcase his versatile acting prowess.

Just like that… Aamir Khan is 60. One of the biggest stars of Indian cinema, Khan — a producer’s son who learned to combine commerce and craft, with his films conquering far-off territories including China — has committed several memorable moments to screen. He broke out as a boyishly handsome romantic lead, but soon displayed serious acting firepower—the simmering eyes, the hurt intensity, a way with humour that lodged in the heart. Khan’s films recommend themselves: he is the thinking man’s superstar, his choices a mark of worthy, wholesome, illuminating entertainment (not looking at you, Dhoom 3). His recent films, Thugs of Hindustan and Laal Singh Chaddha, failed to create magic at the box-office, but those are but bumps in a long and thrilling road so far. 

On the actor’s birthday, here are six essential Aamir Khan moments to celebrate with —

Made in 1989, Raakh is a shadowy, Taxi Driver-tinged noir that marked Khan’s debut. It is a scruffy, unusual yet wholly characteristic start for the cinephile-star. Playing a young man named, well, Aamir, the actor ably mapped his character’s descent into vengeance and despair after his girlfriend’s rape. Khan, his face streaked with blood, is a breathless ghost of a man in a brutal, bristling chase through Mumbai’s streets. 

A remake of On The Waterfront, Ghulam found Khan channeling both Brando and Rocky Balboa. He played a street thug and boxer who, after years of subservience, stands up to a burly hoodlum. The film featured the iconically dangerous scene of Khan sprinting towards an onrushing train. But its legacy is ‘Aati Kya Khandala’ and Khan ever-so-coolly dousing a match on his tongue. 

The shirts, the shirts. Ram Gopal Varma’s masterly Mumbai musical gave Khan his best tapori wardrobe. Khan plays a working class zero, a streetsmart tout named Munna who falls for an aspiring actress. A love triangle of aspiration and class, the film’s most enduring scene is a comic one: Munna at a fancy restaurant with Mili, driving the deadpan waiter nuts. “Kya thakela jagah hai (what a deadbeat joint),” Munna, dressed in the brightest of yellow shirts, shrugs.

Cricket films are a dime a dozen, but none in the last 24 years has managed to touch the high cap of Lagaan. It all leads up to one sweltering over in the heat. Time slows. The past flashes by. Khan invests himself in the high-wire tension of the finale, a million hopes hanging in the air and creasing his brow as he strikes the ball. It’s the pauses, the looks, the palpitating brilliance of it all that make Lagaan so infinitely engrossing even today. 

As broad and brash as the actor himself, Rang De Basanti has several sublime Aamir Khan moments. Our pick, here, is a quiet scene where DJ opens his heart to Sue. He explains why he still hangs around on campus. His vulnerability is beautifully sold by Khan: in the outer world, he confesses, he has no relevance or cred. “Too many DJs have disappeared in the crowd,” he says wistfully. The film is a call-to-arms fantasy, draped in patriotic fervour, but this scene speaks to a more disenchanted age.