Turns out Anbumani Ramadoss hid a somewhat intuitive man behind the ministerial demeanour. The man didn’t think much about the on and off screen lives of our filmwallahs - be it the smoke puffing Devdas or the munchies-crazy Saifu. And now I can almost hear him say from wherever he is - ‘See, I told you so.’
Reason: A promising star spelled doom for himself by allegedly raping his maid. Yes, O unbeliever, close thy gaping mouths and stretch thy ears - the chap reportedly said that the ‘victim’ was in it with him. You said it -
ghor kaliyug.
To top it all, he is called Shiney. No light, this.
Now, if Ramadoss (the previous Health Minister, if your bulb got fused by the high voltage sleaze) is to be believed - no I promise I don’t subscribe to any of his prescriptions for venerable medical institutes, ciggie cinematic scenes or hirsute yoga gurus at all, but still believe him for a jiffy - then millions of youth in our country look up to the heroes & heroines and take every cue in life from them.
The minister comprehends that if ‘Rahul’ can replace ‘Ramalingam’ as the preferred name of newborns, courtesy Shah Rukh’s on-screen characters, then there is every possibility that many fans will be hooked on to cigars or worse, start sssssssssssstammering a la Rahul Mehra in Darr.
Ya sure, we said, and didn’t vote for him; leaving what our IIFA-iffy, Race-risqué, dud-dudes & dudettes of the silver screen do best - entertain us, make us laugh, cry, groan, moan etc. Those are just films after all - Devdas, Fashion, Ghajini, Gangster etc. They are all just good actors - SRK, Kangana, Aamir, Shiney.
And suddenly, it seems SFX pop out of a Rajinikant goggle-spinning, bullet-splitting flick - borders between on & off screen get super fuzzy and Shiney’s starry eyed fans find themselves in ‘Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai’ land, complete with the legendary as well as necessary
Nahhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn!
The villain in the movies is the same in the real life too. And in some cases, reel Dr Jekyll is actually real Dr Hyde.
Time to remind the Rahuls that their name and style-swagger may have been lifted, as it is from some Bollywood biggie (much like Pritam lifting tunes from Indonesian songs), but certainly they need to work their own character to script a genuine super hit. CC this to Pritam too!
That they need not sing out loud ‘Samundar mein naha ke aur bhi…’ if they idolized Big B and see Neetu Chandra engaging in some hot girl-on-girl action by the sea; for it would just be a photoshoot and not real lesbian romp. That’s not to say that if it really was a lesbo romp they need to sing ‘Samundar mein….’.
Sing ‘Duniya banana waley kya tere man mein samayi…’.
No don’t take that seriously. Just keep walking if you happen to see such a rare love show. Not only because the song doesn’t fit the situation but because there is a comment box at the end of this blog where you can freely opinionate, not where it’s not asked or required of you.
In short, mind your manners and business and tell yourself what’s black, what’s white; what’s just a story and what’s the real thing and - most importantly - which lesson is to be derived at the end of which tale. Remember Panchtantra?
And while you are at it, don’t get trapped by the ‘there-is-a-grey-area-in-life’ funda of directors who can’t get it straight and end up from Chandni Chowk to China for no serious reason. Or if you have to (meaning you are a hopeless ‘Khiladi’ Kumar fan), then let us stop making idols out of screen stars and believe that they are real people.
No really, Amitabh Bachchan and Shiney Ahuja are people walking in flesh and blood, like you and I. They fight, they get hit in the stomach, they eat vegetarian food (and sometimes caviar), they fornicate with their maids…er…okay may be the last one is a not widespread phenomena, hopefully.
So thank Ramadoss for reminding us that when the shine is rubbed off, the gloss often turns into the dross. But what the heck, the man ditched Congress to bed AIADMK for no good, damn his intuition. I guess some perceptions are better broken and called what they really are - illusions. Whatever.
(The views expressed by the author in the blog are his/her own)