Whither the Sharukh we all loved?

Watching Sharukh Khan Serenade Deepika Padukone in HNY (No!!! MY Gosh!!! I have not seen the film, stupid… Nor do I have plans to see it either… Just talking about the promos) for the umpteenth of time and also come up for promoting the movies in innumerable sitcoms, reality show etc. etc… and the help-me-get-Deepika-by-calling–this-number with a “boyish” grin on his face which is so “Rahul-ish (remember “ naam to suna hi hoga… hmmm… hmmmm…)

 I mean come on man… there is a shelf live to actors and to be clinging on to the limelight long after the “expiry date” is over (so to say) is just to be plain naïve or pretending not to understand the writing on the wall… well what can we say… thank you Sharukh for all the DDLJ, KKHH,Darr, Anjaam, KANK et al et al… But don’t you get the message dude… move over uncle and pass on the baton gracefully to the youth brigade…

90’s was such a proud era for us when we saw you as the quintessential lover boy who could run around the girl in exotic locale or the character with a difference who could let his seething rage and caustic anger give vent to the injustice done to him in a manner no one else did or could… we clapped in dark theatres, over pirated video cassettes run in rented VCRs and colour TVs watching back to back movies sitting up sleepless to regale in your glory in the sweet gone by era… You somehow defined us… Our urge to be different from the earlier generation… to make a statement that here is a representative of our generation who can do it all and that too with style and panache… even the way you shouted Madan Chopraaaaaaa was simply ethereal…

 

Then all of us faded in to the eerie reality called middle age (some did it gracefully and some did with a bit of a resistance…but complied we all)… Then we waited and waited and waited some more… But then we never saw you join the bandwagon… No sir… Not you… You are so immersed in playing “Rahul… Naam to suna hi hoga… hmmm… hmmm…” role that you never noticed when the ferry called “middle age” left the shore… For fleeting moment thereafter we saw you mature in to meaningful (Chak De and Swadesh) and dare I say “age suitable” role (Mohabattein) which lifted our heart… but not for you Sir… You simply never could shake off the “Rahul-ish” role nor could you settle in to something meaningful because you never wanted to take the risk…

 

Now you could point out to me saying that I am just saying that coz I am biased and have an “evil vendetta” against you while the same parameters can apply to the other 2 Khans too… True Sir… True that with all my heart… But see, as far as Aamir is concerned he really does not matter to me…with just one film / year he does not even register in the Bollywood firmament and lately has started playing “ego satiating” roles which only he and his family can watch… Well Salman on the other hand is just become another Telugu star poaching on Bollywood… I care for him in a way that I would for a NTR Jr or a Ravi Teja… So here again I come to the last hope that Bollywood really had which was you (and you have shown glimpses of it in your otherwise “Rahul-ish” movies like rab ne bana di Jodi)… Now you chose to let it flounder as your cash register was ringing as you were forever raking in the moolah… 

 

We have seen the fate of stars who failed to notice the writing on the wall what with a middle aged and obviously obese Rishi ”Chintu” Kapoor dancing away with heroine like Divya Bharati in sweaters to hide their middle age adipose from making a fool of them… But even they also had to exit as the niece (Karishma) joined the industry…

 

Well we hope that same is not the case with you as you wait for your daughter to enter the industry to make the final exit… There is still fire and that lil bit of “Madan Chopraaaaa” in you to make you redefine yourself and come back with mature roles a la Al Pacino, Harrison Ford or Tom Hanks…

 

Hence I rest my case with a  silent prayer on my lips as we look forward to our favourite hero of the 90’s again come back with the same fire and passion and will only be too happy to watch you over sleepless night if not on rented VCRs and colour TV but on Blu-ray and flat plasma HD T.V…

Celebrating summer

A child laid watching amaze struck at the night sky wondering from where so many stars have come from…

A summer night nay it was but not as merciless as the summer now…

Allowing bystanders, dreamers and children to lose themselves in the reverie…

A reverie which was scented with the sweetly fragrant smell of the night jasmine floating from the neighbour’s house…

The sweet scent was equally tempered with the delicious scent of dinner being cooked by mother in the kitchen down below…

In an era uninterrupted with the onslaught of satellite television, the friendly radio hummed mellifluous melody from Air India and Vividh Bharati as the family lay on the terrace enjoying the evening…

The child is happy and gay with the knowledge that this little heaven of his is going to last forever and ever as his summer vacation has just begun…

Ignorant is he of the complexity of life, its drudgery which is equally tempered with envy, jealousy and hatred which lay ahead of him…

Alas…the joy of innocence and the bliss of ignorance… 

If life could go on and on in such a state, would it not be a heavenly affair…

As the child grew up and was blessed to see his second childhood, he saw the child in him come alive as the little one ran around and created joyful sound…

In celebration of another different summer…