Posts filed under 'Entertainment'
Kaun banega conpati
He is a true-blue superstar, a national rage and an international celebrity, intellectually vibrant, and usually a paragon of classic perfection.
He said that politics least interested him. He said that he only respected and lauded what his ‘big brothers’ were doing for the state of Uttar Pradesh.
He was only returning favors done for past indebtedness and financial problems in which his close friends had bailed him out through their charitable purse-strings.
The harassment to those ordinary citizens by the state government who had objected to some disproportionate and atrociously huge land deals granted to him by the impoverished state of Uttar Pradesh had nothing to do with him, personally speaking.
When Amar Singh slapped an organizer for giving him a seat behind the front-rows, a supposedly modest down-to-earth distinguished man was curiously silent.
He also once stood next to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s burning pyre, helping his young son Rahul with the ceremonial rituals, as a country mourned the young assassinated leader.
I grew up in the bygone era of 1969-74 when Rajesh Khanna’s standard mannerisms and romantic gestures had young girls swooning side to side with the consistency of a never-stopping pendulum.
That’s the time I first ran to the Chambers dictionary to learn the exact meaning of the word, ‘phenomenon’.
Then came the Angry Young Man, best manifested by a relentless honest cop in Zanjeer. The rest is history.
In between there was the vulnerable possessive friend in Namak Haraam, an egotistical husband in Abhimaan, an intrepid cool dude with a sensitive heart in Sholay and the irrepressible dock worker on a personal mission in Deewaaar.
Several commercial blockbusters followed like Kabhie Kabhie, Trishul, Amar Akbar Anthony and Chupke Chupke.
That Amitabh Bachchan was a masterful entertainer, a natural Natwarlal, with a deep baritone voice and histrionic skills, which could leave anyone spell-bound, was beyond dispute.
But what made Amitabh Bachchan more of an everlasting icon than some of his more illustrious co-actors and colleagues had nothing to do with his cinematic brilliance alone.
It was to do with a nasty punch in his belly during the shooting of Coolie, a typical Manmohan Desai madcap trash.
Thanks to the only TV channel the country had, the government owned Doordarshan broadcasting regular bulletins on Bachchan’s regular pulse beat, Breach Candy overnight became a tourist destination.
An anxious nation fervently prayed for Bachchan’s recovery, making the lanky tall man from Allahabad our first real Bollywood hero into a national obsession.
Mrs Indira Gandhi, then India’s prime minister left her official engagements to visit the ailing actor, as she valued his eminently revered parents and their close family bondage.
In my opinion, that was the day the real super-hero was born in India. A mass entertainer battling a grievous threat to his life, was given a special legitimacy by India’s first family.
Bachchan became a bigger household name, and captured the national imagination like no other.
2006. I saw the so-called “non-political involvement” of Amitabh Bachchan a few days ago in a long lengthy commercial advertisement for the beleaguered state of Uttar Pradesh.
It was such a farcical exposition pregnant with fraudulent excesses on the achievements of the state, I almost choked.
I wonder how much of taxpayers’ money has been blatantly misused for such gross political propaganda by the government of UP with Assembly elections coming ominously close.
Does Bachchan honestly believe that he can treat us Indians as such gullible fools that we will subscribe involuntarily to all his celluloid tricks?
I am particularly angered as the advertisement is a gross misinterpretation , and totally at odds with ground home-truths.
Uttar Pradesh, which frankly has become India’s dark state thanks to rampant crime, total lawlessness (the recent defecation of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statute and the subsequent rioting in India germinated in Kanpur), rising unemployment, bureaucratic inefficiencies and political corruption (both political heavy-weights Mayawati and “friend” Mulayam Singh Yadav are facing daunting personal charges for amassing massive wealth) is being shown as India’s El Dorado, a virtual heaven- on-earth, with a happiness index that will put a Sooraj Barjatya film to acute shame.
Now we all know that Mr Bachchan and even his little baby have been variously provided with many ornamental positions in UP, but this is carrying the Brand Ambassador tag to coarse band-baaja levels.
It’s grotesque and completely distorted, and insults the common man’s intelligence. It surely is a big con job, and makes the India Shining campaign look like Mahatma Gandhi’s My Experiments With Truth by comparison.
Bachchan is a personification of the ultimate in doublespeak.
After confirming his total disdain from the “cesspool of Indian politics”, he now literally courts the Lucknow durbar as it’s loyal patron.
Jaya Bachchan has entered the Rajya Sabha with overt support from Samajwadi Party, and as a quid pro quo for his livewire presence on political platforms (literally) Bachchan has been allegedly offered several generous endowments courtesy the ruling party.
He now sings false hosannas about a state of which his family was once an integral part.
He is entitled to his personal political ideologies, but this ridiculous exhibitionism is in poor taste.
But, of course, Bachchan is not interested in politics, he says with undisguised humility, hands folded, a synthetic smile across the French beard.
Just like the “wretched media” which he conveniently boycotted when it personally suited him years ago, which today has become his “dial-a-lifeline”.
All he tells us is that one Mr Amar Singh and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav are the real panacea for solving the country’s innumerable ills.
Sad indeed!
Bachchan could have been better off repaying his old debts in EMIs; instead, I think he preferred to sell his soul.
(Sanjay Jha launched CricketNext.com, now a part of Web 18 family, and maintains a regular blog on IBNLive.com, the website of CNN-IBN. The views are expressed are his own and do not reflect the views of the channel or the website)
Courtesy : www.ibnlive.com
Add comment June 18, 2009
The Dawn of SRK
As the sinister laugh of the sadistic Don hit the surround sound at Inox multiplex theatre in Bombay last Friday night, at the end of 17 reels of high octane adventure, the casual disdain in that majestic, cocky mocking laugh carried the sarcastic twinge which only an imperial monarch can naturally summon. Farhan Akhtar’s remake of the Amitabh Bachchan popular entertainer of the late 70s (I refuse to call it a classic and all the other exaggerated eulogies) is pure undiluted entertainment, a modern-day rehash in a contemporary format of the yesteryear thriller. It also marks the fire-cracker coronation of perhaps Indian cinema’s last true-blue superstar, Shah Rukh Khan.
The film reviews have been expectedly unkind; after all it is politically correct to state that the original is sacrosanct, and diplomatically appropriate to state that Amitabh Bachchan is simply incomparable. On both counts, however, the new avatar strikes a deadly blow; while still retaining the core flavour, it completely alters the formula-like familiar storyline with a dramatic last-minute twist . Compare the almost ridiculous climax of the Bachchan film ( it was even juvenile for 1978 cinema standards ) where the coveted cassette containing incriminating material was tossed around like a tennis ball even as a bunch of bumbling buffoons battled for it . In Akhtar’s version, the dangerous Don gets the ultimate tribute; he smartly outwits the camouflaged double-crossers, literally having the last laugh in the climactic shot. And Shah Rukh Khan packs such manic energy and robust ruthlessness in his role with his trademark panache, that the audience completely forgets
the poor innocent lovable country bumpkin Vijay (SRK’s look-alike in a brief, endearing cameo) who has been quietly vanquished .To me, that is where Farhan scores a brilliant hat-trick, by upstaging the original script with a daring about-turn, and making the whole comparison debate virtually redundant . The evil incarnate is resurrected here, and he looks even more menacing post-his dare-devil revival. In the old Don, simple Simon Vijay replaced the international criminal Don; in the re-made version the cold-blooded irrepressible maverick substitutes the innocuous yokel. Even Stevens. A sequel looks inevitable.
Frankly speaking, Kareena Kapoor sizzles in a seductive dance number, oozing sufficient oomph to momentarily derail the suave Don himself. Give me KK over Helen Ji, any day. Priyanka Chopra sports a lissome sensuous body, emerging like a visual fantasy from the blue waters, her chocolate colored skin like a luminous afterglow. Subtle sexuality, captured with a lazy camera reluctant to shift focus – well Done, Farhan, Boman Irani, Isha Kopikkar, Arjun Ramphal, Om Puri and the rest of the pack play their individual odd bits with the required passionate relish, irrespective of screen time. Clearly, the Don crew was having an enthusiastic blast.
But finally, Farhan Akhtar’s real genius lies in making a critical differentiator. In the 1978 version Amitabh Bachchan was remembered as Vijay, the good hearted bloke who took a big-time risk for two orphaned kids. In fact, that film could even have been re-christened Vijay, for all it mattered. SRK’s Don is a landmark effort because he delivers a knock-out solo performance as an anti-hero, making the anti-thesis the protagonist, the villainous, selfish, unforgiving self-obsessed global crook, the true hero. The film and the hero give the ultimate tribute to the title of the film itself, Don.
Shah Rukh Khan is not Amitabh Bachchan. He is the Don.
Courtesy : www.ibnlive.com
Add comment June 18, 2009
President Natwarlal of India
If Mr Natwarlal (alias Mr Amitabh Bachchan , Bollywood legend) becomes the President of India , the following is inevitable:
1 Amar Singh will be ushered into Madame Tussaud’s, dark glares and a CD in hand (it is rumoured that he had made indiscreet calls to Madame Tussuads’s thinking it is the name of an aspiring Bollywood starlet).
2 Mrs Jaya Bachchan may be encouraged to move a Bill titled Profit from Office.
3 Rashtrapati Natwarlal will call for daily 4 hour media briefings wherein he will give exclusives wearing foreign designer sunglasses (approved by Income-Tax) espousing the cause of his Guru.
4 All temples in India will have to be on a 24-hour standby as Rashtrapati Natwarlal can make a sudden surprise appearance post-midnight barefoot. A red carpet welcome may be made mandatory.
5 Mulayam Singh Yadav will be provided a raised dias on the pristine flower gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan where wrestling matches will be organized regularly. Only UP MLAs are eligible to participate.
6 ABCL will be appointed as the event management company to organise visits of foreign dignitaries, and handle the Rashtrapati’s endorsements. A UP based TV channel will have exclusive commercial rights.
7 Hrithik Roshan may be prohibited from kissing his co-stars in future films, and the past as well.
8 Industrialist friends causing image discomfort will be encouraged to communicate directly with Rashtrapati Natwarlal over wireless applications and SMS, fearing espionage by rival firms.
9 Aishwarya Rai will be given free acting refresher classes as per government orders, and Rashtrapati Natwarlal will announce a remake of Umrao Jaan by ABCL, starring Karishma Kapoor and Viveik Oberoi made by who else, but Ram Gopal Verma.
10 The script for DON 2 will be a whodunit with the President of India emerging as an Interpol double crosser, with Rashtrapati Natwarlal playing himself. Martin Scorsese may direct this incredible thriller.
Latest update:
Last heard, Shah Rukh Khan had already begun writing his own President’s Address to the nation for Y 2012. On hearing this, Bachchan huddled with his cronies and has come up with an ingenious, brilliant master game-plan; he has decided not to stand for President.
After all, the original Don ka nakal karna na mushkil hai na namunkin.
Courtesy : www.ibnlive.com
Add comment June 18, 2009
![before the second collision [EXPLORED HIGHEST POSITION # 1]](http://static.flickr.com/4085/4967941658_a1e665797c_t.jpg "before the second collision [EXPLORED HIGHEST POSITION # 1]")
