Shahrukh, Dogs and some thoughts!!

When I was in school, I used to hate Shahrukh Khan, maybe because the girls loved him, or maybe because I wanted to prove myself different. However, with time, the perception has changed. i still don't say Shahrukh is a great actor or a great human being. but I simply have come to love his way of portraying a non-existent personal life as if it were real.

For those who haven't yet seen the documentaries The Inner World of Shahrukh khan and The Outer World of Shahrukh Khan, I strongly recommend them as a must-see. London-based Indian writer and film maker Nasreen Munni kabir made those back in 2005. They revolve around two small stages of his life-one during the shooting of Main Hoon Na (that becomes the inner world) and one during his famous US-Canada tour (the outer world)..


While the Inner World focuses on the actor's personal life-his wife, his kids, the unmarried elder sister; the outer world shows the love he gets from all over the world- the image that he projects to the world.

Now why would it be interesting? Isn't it an old-fashion to romanticize celebrity life and make them look like God? Well there lies the difference- both the films intelligently tries a different approach- a Shahrukh khan who's no idol, who's not perfect-but immensely successful- a story of You and me- a story of dreams!

Now this sounds like romanticism again- yes, it is romanticism-but what makes it different is the way it is articulated. You can't say who deserves the maximum credit-the director or the actor, but they both sure deserve accolades. e.g- if we see a teary eyed Shahrukh in his school church, we don't believe it to be real..We know he is an actor-but when Shahrukh keeps on smoking Classics incessantly and getting massages from his doctor for his troubling back; that clubbed together with his teary eyes gives an impression that everything is real...we think this Shahrukh is real,one who smokes, suffers, hits clubs, has a family and also gets emotional in his school churce-he suddenly becomes you and me- a human being..And we start taking everything seriously-as if we are watching a common man's life unfolding...kudos to the makers.


Now moving to a different perspective- the man is an entertainer. Yes his jokes are idiotic and stupid at times (read the towel act at filmfare), but he entertains nevertheless. He does not goes around taking up social issues he does not understand (pun definitely intended), he does not let his dark side come into focus. when he attended a birthday party of a co-star's girlfriend and blabbered some insult on the host, the media did take it up-but just for a day, he restrained from commenting-such a clever thing to do to avoid controversies. This is not to say he is perfect ..He is surely not. he's not a great actor either- i would rate Paresh Rawal and Ranvir Shorey ahead of him any day (Or even Akshay Kumar for that matter), but what i am trying to say is that he has shown how to handle stardom. He has taken it in sporting spirit when someone compared him to a dog licking his feet. Or even when he is compared with the Big B. Actors are professionals, they should know how to handle the profession. And that dignity is a virtue. Shahrukh has that. And that's precisely why he has been "the man to go to" in Bollywood for such a long time. I admire the man for that!!

THE AURA OF CRICKET..

Some ten years ago, there used to be a popular Close-up ad, where Ajay Jadeja, the most popular cricketer of his time, tried to get close to a gal, and finally was able to get close to her with his 'close-up confidence'. I still remember the conversation in that ad-
Ajay-Hi, I am Ajay
Gal-Cricket fan toh nahin?
A-Nah. Cricket?? Silly game. Ek choti sa game aur uske peeche bais deewane
G-Aur uske peeche?
A-Baais laakh expert!!!!

Now, here Ajay clearly mis-stated the figure. It has to be in Crores..Cricket Expert is the most available specis in India, back then and even now. And the question is how come the number of cricket lovers (read experts) is not going down?? Are the new innovations the tool to keep the business of cricket ticking?? Is it an effect of Twenty-20?? Or simply the passion associated with the very name of the game-the gentlemen's game-Cricket??
When we talk about cricket from the perspective of a viewer, we have to keep in mind that no one watches anything for nothing. We watch a movie for enjoyment (no doubts here, even if you say you watched Legend of Bhagat Singh because you are a patriot, and Elizabeth because you love history!), news for selfish resons of expanding our knowledge base, and WWE to satify our Mr. Hydes. But cricket? A game that can run up to five days and still produce no results? Or finish in just over an hour with a slice of luck turning the match in someone's favour?? A game, to watch which we spend 400 bucks a month on our Tata Sky or Dish TV?? A game the micro-mini format of which costs us a 1000 bucks for a single ticket (the price of 5 movies, three whiskey bottles or a visit to your nearest amusement park; whatever you like)?? Then why would anyone watch cricket leaving aside all his alternative choices of entertainment???

The answer is ' I don't know'. I really don't know. As you can see, I myself know I have so many alternate options of entertainment, but I cant skip a cricket match. Not even when India plays Hong-Kong in some stupidly organised tournament. This is something I call the aura of Cricket. It is, alongwith Bollywood, the greatest leveller India has ever seen. I took extra care not to say Sports here, as at this point of time, cricket is the only game where India produces world class (however small a world it might be) players, and no other sport can take away its credit. Cricket is the only game which is accepted with equal ease and affection on all its formats, it is only sport that produces a man who earns more than a Bollywood star. The aura of cricket is so mindblowing that when we think about Indo-Pak cricket, we remeber a certain Kanitkar who hit a boundary of the second last ball to give us an emphatic win. We remeber a Prasad blowing up the defences of a certain Sohail. We celebrate the only world cup victory even after 25 years, with a week-long schedule.
This is awesome! This is incredible. This is extraordinary. This is Cricket!

Hail Cricket!!!

Nilim Kumar (Here's the favourite!!)

When and How he came to me I don't know
His name is Nilim Kumar
So desperately he asked me
For my hands
For my lips
That


I gave him my hands
And my lips


He writes verses, he embraces fire
With those hands
He kisses and whispers melodies
With those lips


He stares at people
He wants to hug them, he wants to kiss them
He is human
He practices all the good and bad habits of mankind
He practices all the lights and darks of human


He looks for a man in a man
A woman in a woman
He looks for the natural color of the world


He is stubborn, proud
Angry,doesn't follow the rules
Extremely sensitive
In love with torments
He leads an obnoxious life
His heart is Badly bruised
Outcome of the love he carries


He often leaves me alone
To the houses, the yards of people
The shops the markets
The villages the towns he roams around
As if he is an exiled burnt out soul


He comes to me when he is hungry
He comes to me when he is thirsty
Unable to bear the pain of that wound is his bosom
He comes to me
I have to feed him
I have to make him drink
I make him dress and
I sooth him to sleep in he bed of my heart


In return of that
He pens down verses of my life


Rather he writes about his life itself
But whatever he writes about are stories of my life



When and how he came to me I have no clue
He has now come to you
He wants to hold your hands
Along with his own
To make his lips touch yours
Look how desperately stands in front of you
He is Nilim Kumar





(Translated from an Assamese poem of the same name by Nilim Kumar)

Her heart

I carry her heart around
She goes away leaving behind
Her heart in my bosom

Since she doesn't carry her heart
She can laugh, she can sing
she can dance,she can play

No heart, no pain

And as I carry her heart
Carefully I roam
Carefully i sit
Carefully I eat
Carefully I speak

Sometimes, she peeps in
To see
If I still carry her heart


She can play all the games
All the games
She doesn't have a heart


(translated from Tair Hriday, Nilim kumar)

Accident

Everything has gone wayward


The heart has slipped to the belly from my bosom
A leg has got shorter
Some fingers have pinned down the back
And one hand is now in my chest

The eyes, ears, the tongue and the teeth are very much unaffected yet

Same is the love
In my heart

But the mind is not stable

The accident happened
In the bridge of love




(Translated from Durghatana, Nilim kumar)

Courtroom

She has filed a case
Wants to leave me

Even I am doing the same
Filing cases
Against her

We meet in the courtroom corridors
Often now

We never confronted inside the room

The dates has been postponed
Again and again

One day
When we entered the courtroom
We saw
Pain is the Judge

And so strange
We both have the same lawyer
Love



(Translated from AADaalat, Nilim Kumar)

The Customer

I have thirty paise in my wallet
The price of a cigarette

If I had a rupee
Could have bought a peg

Too broke to be drunk
Such poverty

I just have the heart
Can I buy with it
Love
To get high?

(Translated from Assamese, original 'Grahak' by Nilim Kumar)