Hollywood showers praise on Big B for 'The Great Gatsby'

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has just made his debut in Hollywood by his short role in The Great Gatsby. He has won over his critics with the very first film and critics who are known to be difficult to please are welcoming the Bollywood superstar with open arms to Hollywood.
Bachchan was contacted by Baz Luhrman when he came to India to play a role in his upcoming film The Great Gatsby. The film is based on the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Leonardo DiCaprio was playing the lead role in the film. Bachchan had agreed readily. He was cast as Meyer Wolfsheim – a Jewish gambler who plays an important role in the life of Nick Carraway – the main character. Bachchan has himself tweeted that it is a small role. “I play Meyer Wolfsheim for about a few seconds... by the time you look down on your popcorn to pick another morsel, I'd be gone from the film...he, he...kinda short service... But with giants of Hollywood - Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire,” he wrote.
But critics in Hollywood have not failed to recognize his talent even in such a short appearance. Scott Foundas is the chief film critic of Variety magazine. He writes,  “By far the liveliest work in the film comes from two actors with only a few minutes of screen time between them: the lithe, long-limbed newcomer Elizabeth Debicki as gabby golf pro Jordan Baker, and, in a single scene that marks his belated Hollywood debut, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan as the flamboyant Jewish gambler, Meyer Wolfsheim.”
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter is also full of praises. He says that the film ‘feels vibrantly alive while remaining quite faithful to the spirit, if not the letter or the tone, of its source’. He does wonder why someone so tall was cast in the role of Meyer Wolfsheim. David Denby of The New Yorker tries to explain it saying, “The director, perhaps not wishing to be accused of anti-Semitism, cast the distinguished Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan as the Jewish gangster.”
Bachchan was already overwhelmed by the rousing cheers of his fans when the film premiered in New York. The cheering was such that the police though Leonardo had arrived. Describing the experience as emotional and fantastic, Bachchan tweeted, "I really have no words to express my gratitude to all of you that cheered in virtual world, and on the streets of NYC... indebted." Now even the critics have joined the fans to acknowledge the talents of our very own Bollywood superstar.