Year 1986. A lanky fellow with big, dreamy eyes made his debut with a little known film ‘Biwi ho to aisi’. His first big break came 2 years later with ‘Maine Pyar Kia’. The phenomenal success of this out and out love story turned him a star overnight and as they say…there was no looking back. His Bollywood genes must have been an advantage but not many Salman Khans are made every now and then. May be I’m being a bit too harsh with the younger lot, the very talented bunch of Ranbir Kapoors and Imran Khans. But our metrosexual babies can only give us some superswank, urbane love stories which won’t even see the light of the day in standalone theatres in Tier II cities!!! For a typical, desi, family, male, masala flick, he’s THE guy. Otherwise how would you justify the opening of a movie on a weekday wherein 90% of the shows went housefull. Starting from plush multiplexes in South Delhi to a theatre that still sells a 20 bucks balcony ticket! He has never kissed on screen. He doesn’t even let his heroines shed clothes. He very humbly does it himself. So almost all his films can be flagged as family entertainers. Quite literally!
The journey from being a loverboy to a full-fledged action hero was quite something. It started with the prankster Prem of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. And by the time we could blink, he was out with his very enviable physique in Pyar Kia to Darna Kya in 1998! Remember the signature beach dance where he bared it for the first time? Well a body is a body and everyone in Bollywood has it today…Aamir, SRK, Ranbir, Imran (even Hashmi!!!), etc. so why talk about Salman Khan alone? Simply because he’s maintained it all for the last 15-16 years. Think PKTDK, and then think Dabanng. Give me one person who will do justice to that one shirt-tearing shot in Dabanng. And BTW he’s touching 50. Just because he doesn’t flaunt a trophy wife and wannabe kids every now and then, don’t underestimate him to be 30!
He’s not a great dancer. Doesn’t move much while dancing. Makes his muscles do it for him! And that becomes a cult overnight. So is the man’s aura. His comedies are mindless. I mean what’s in a split in the middle of a super serious fight? There is! His antics are unmatched and will definitely keep you up till the credits in the end. Quite unlike those gory, action movies starring his contemporaries.
And very few stars have the courage to release a film on the same date as Salman Khan. Ask a Shahid Kapoor or a Ranbir Kapoor to do it. They will give the lamest reasons and postpone their releases. Basically helpless because the old man still rules! And it’s much more than being just a hero. It’s about being a medium to take things to a different level altogether. It’s about carrying that aura of assurance. It’s about making the Brand Partners of a film split into 2 screens while credits. Starting from BlackBerry to Tupperware…everyone bets their fortune on him.
And why so much about Salman Khan suddenly? Well I watched Bodyguard today (1st day 2nd show). It had a whistling opening in one of the most posh multiplexes in South Delhi. I’m sure the lesser known halls saw much explicit reactions like the naryal act or the garland dance even! Sadly I couldn’t do much this time but promise to do it for Tiger, his next release.
It was a pleasure seeing families walking in for the single movie. No. The parents and the kids didn’t have to enter 2 separate auditoriums to catch different films. With due respect to SRK’s charisma and Aamir’s intellect, I hereby declare myself as a lifelong fan of the man himself…Salman Khan.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The phoenix land
Have never seen this a big change other than the 9/11, in my lifetime. It’s still hard to believe my state has rejected a rule... a way of life rather, after 34 years. Because, in West Bengal, you’re either a man, woman or a leftist. And in Kolkata, even that pigeon sitting on the roof of that very old house is a leftist.
I have heard people saying the nastiest things about the state government and still letting them happily rule year after year. Apart from their party cadre and some firm believers (mostly the ones who think to be a Bengali is to be a leftist) ever single person had a grudge against the people’s party and its people. The veterans cribbed about the state running out of resources and degenerating from their times. The youngsters...about lack of opportunities. People in general? About the existing system, the education, industry, in fact everything. Me at my level? Fortunately or unfortunately I never had to stay in Bengal or Calcutta per se. Thanks to my parents’ jobs, I had the privilege of growing up in a very remote but cosmopolitan township in the very backward state of Jharkhand. I saw my cousins of my age who studied in the state board schools shying away because they didn’t know English. Oh yes...they get to study the queen’s language from the age of 11/12 when we get to solve unseen comprehension passages in our exams! A handicap enough, to retain them within the state. Only some hardworking ones move out (that too after spending fortunes in spoken English courses) and the rest? They either find themselves writing the SSC( School Service Commission) exam and travelling to some unknown village to an almost imaginary government school in the name of teaching, or lay out a grocery shop in the house garage (that was once made by the father with a hope of their son buying them their first car...but then again...Nano never happened!!!)
My 87 year old grandfather has seen it all. The rise and fall of an era. And from the time I know, he refuses to vote because in the last 35 years the potholes in front his house have not blurred by an inch and people have been murdered and taken in broad daylight from in front of the house. My father, who studied in multiple universities in the Kolkata, happened to be an uncontested leader of the students’ union...but then life definitely changed after he passed out and walked beyond the university main gates! And that’s not all...my educationist grandparents couldn’t admit my uncle to Presidency College in the mid 70s because the campus still had blood stains of a student, killed, the very same day.
My tryst with Kolkata happened a couple of years back when I shifted base to the city of joy. My advertising career had just started taking off after working close to 2 years with one of the most reputed agencies in the country. I joined another big name in the business. Only to witness...NO! not great advertising campaigns...but random processions, strikes, riots and everything political and nasty from the office balcony. Most of the weekends turned out to be long one because of the strategic ‘Bandhs’ on Fridays or Mondays! The only good part of working in the most religiously sensitive area in the city was the Biriyani bit! And not to forget, the CM of the state, a member of the very people’s party couldn’t stand people on streets while he crossed the busiest crossing of the city. So the streets we cleared of people atleast twice in a day. All this and I couldn’t stretch my stay beyond 8 months.
So Didi, Rajdhanis and Durontos are fine...but we hope for a lot more. Lesser ‘Bandhs’, broader better roads, more food in Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore, better work, more investments in the state. I want to take my children for a fearless drive to mystic jungles of Kakrajhor and Jungle Mahal whenever I want to. And not just Nanos but Vernas and Endeavours being manufactured in the state...so that people like us can dream of going back to amar Poshchim Bangla...some day...for good.
I have heard people saying the nastiest things about the state government and still letting them happily rule year after year. Apart from their party cadre and some firm believers (mostly the ones who think to be a Bengali is to be a leftist) ever single person had a grudge against the people’s party and its people. The veterans cribbed about the state running out of resources and degenerating from their times. The youngsters...about lack of opportunities. People in general? About the existing system, the education, industry, in fact everything. Me at my level? Fortunately or unfortunately I never had to stay in Bengal or Calcutta per se. Thanks to my parents’ jobs, I had the privilege of growing up in a very remote but cosmopolitan township in the very backward state of Jharkhand. I saw my cousins of my age who studied in the state board schools shying away because they didn’t know English. Oh yes...they get to study the queen’s language from the age of 11/12 when we get to solve unseen comprehension passages in our exams! A handicap enough, to retain them within the state. Only some hardworking ones move out (that too after spending fortunes in spoken English courses) and the rest? They either find themselves writing the SSC( School Service Commission) exam and travelling to some unknown village to an almost imaginary government school in the name of teaching, or lay out a grocery shop in the house garage (that was once made by the father with a hope of their son buying them their first car...but then again...Nano never happened!!!)
My 87 year old grandfather has seen it all. The rise and fall of an era. And from the time I know, he refuses to vote because in the last 35 years the potholes in front his house have not blurred by an inch and people have been murdered and taken in broad daylight from in front of the house. My father, who studied in multiple universities in the Kolkata, happened to be an uncontested leader of the students’ union...but then life definitely changed after he passed out and walked beyond the university main gates! And that’s not all...my educationist grandparents couldn’t admit my uncle to Presidency College in the mid 70s because the campus still had blood stains of a student, killed, the very same day.
My tryst with Kolkata happened a couple of years back when I shifted base to the city of joy. My advertising career had just started taking off after working close to 2 years with one of the most reputed agencies in the country. I joined another big name in the business. Only to witness...NO! not great advertising campaigns...but random processions, strikes, riots and everything political and nasty from the office balcony. Most of the weekends turned out to be long one because of the strategic ‘Bandhs’ on Fridays or Mondays! The only good part of working in the most religiously sensitive area in the city was the Biriyani bit! And not to forget, the CM of the state, a member of the very people’s party couldn’t stand people on streets while he crossed the busiest crossing of the city. So the streets we cleared of people atleast twice in a day. All this and I couldn’t stretch my stay beyond 8 months.
So Didi, Rajdhanis and Durontos are fine...but we hope for a lot more. Lesser ‘Bandhs’, broader better roads, more food in Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore, better work, more investments in the state. I want to take my children for a fearless drive to mystic jungles of Kakrajhor and Jungle Mahal whenever I want to. And not just Nanos but Vernas and Endeavours being manufactured in the state...so that people like us can dream of going back to amar Poshchim Bangla...some day...for good.
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