Starting at 58
Watching "the great Big B" coming up with what was more than expected, an astoundingly brilliant performance in Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein was not only a great pleasure but also whether you like it or not, the most brilliant event in the countless number of events in the film. It certainly should have given all those youngsters, all those young artists, all the force to use their imagination to feel what greatness is and why the Big B is "the great Big B" - just imagine the man is neck-deep in trouble, physical and financial. Trouble troubles him even when he doesn’t deserve it, and if trouble that torments the mind then there is trouble that scorches the soul, threatens to rupture his sanity, doing him immense harm in various ways, easily giving any thinking man an idea that he is being made a victim by some unusual, mysterious, other planetary force. The man suffers but the actor refuses to surrender. The first three or four films which he did after his comeback were almost forcing the actor to surrender. If it was anyone else he would, but he wasn’t. He was Amitabh Bachchan. He is 58 now after going through one long hell when it comes to every aspect of life and yet I believe 58 is going to start a bright new life for him. Just wait for another six months and you will not call him "the Big B". All you geniuses who specialise in coining brands and names will have to look for a new name for this man who was not born to be an ordinary man and for ordinary names. Even Amitabh is not an ordinary name, for that matter. It means ONE BIG LIGHT WHICH NEVER DARKENS. That’s what he has been proving all his life.

Kaun Kehta Hai
Who says the magic of Hindi feature films is dying? It is not the magic but the magicians who are responsible for making the magic fail? Why would cute little college-going young girls wake up at five on a Monday morning and rush to the nearest theatres to book their tickets in advance for films like Mission Kashmir and Mohabbatein to be released on the same day? Why do these girls more than the boys who never wake up before the sun stares them in anger or even later join and then push and rush and move as if it is one big, wild Olympian dash to the booking counter to book their tickets before the other crowd of a new kind, another breed of "Olympiads", the young men and women who run all kinds of races to reach the booking window before the others can.

The same Olympiads, were there that Monday morning when I made it a point to go to Chandan, the theatre in Juhu, in Mumbai, to see if this madness still continued. I couldn’t reach Chandan. There was a crowd of people, all kinds of people, all ages of people and more than the people there were vans full of policemen all in a state of readiness to stop any kind of wild happenings just before the day could start. There were the "blackmarketeers" too. They seemed to have an authority over the theatre because they were all in the first few hundreds standing in the long serpentine queue. The same scene was seen at all the theatres where the advance bookings had opened for both, Mohabbatein and Mission Kashmir. The films were full of great expectations.

They were made by filmmakers who had tested themselves and passed with flying colours. They were not going to let these audience down and that’s why the crowd was even willing to stamp each other out just for the sake of a few tickets to see these films which, according to them, were good films or would be good films. That morning, I went home and had a very peaceful breakfast because I knew that as long as good filmmakers make good films which raise great expectations, films will be made and very soon films will be made with the kind of imagination, ideas and technique that are in the process of being thought of right now and will become reality by the time it is Diwali again, next year.

Free, frank, fearless Pooja
And my salutes to Pooja Bhatt, literally, the only girl in the crowd of all those Bhatt men who have crowded the world of Hindi films in different fields, with their "guru", the founder of the "Bhatt cult", Mahesh, standing and watching each of these Bhatts taking gigantic steps after going through a gruelling time through his "gurukul" and then standing on their own after seeking his aashirwaad in the way just he knows it, in the way just as he has discovered the way of delivering aashirwaads which sometimes even shock people. Just take a look and the names of some of the Bhatts. It all starts with Mahesh’s father, Nanabhai Bhatt, goes on to Mahesh and Mukesh and Robin and Vikram and the one girl among the many other Bhatts whom I have missed, Pooja Bhatt in whom I see a replacement for her father, Mahesh, who has almost given up making films and has decided to specialise in creating strange happenings, great happenings in the lives of the Bhatt khandaan.

The Bhatt who seems to have curious ideas (curious to those who don’t know him) is now most excited about Pooja, his daughter, who started off as an actress in his own film, Daddy, with Anupam Kher in one of the most outstanding roles of his career. Pooja was good as an actress in other films like Sadak, Sir, Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin and some other masala films which she did "just for the heck of it, I did them for the masala that I got in change for the masala I gave them". Pooja, however, was the first among the growing up fast and knowing your priorities faster type. She realised she was getting into a groove and she would not be able to move in the direction she always wanted to. It took her very little time to make up her mind, the Bhatt girl was too bright to know herself. She soon formed her own production company, which was a daring step for a girl of 24. She started Pooja Bhatt Productions and made her first film, Tamanna in which she also played the title role. Her ambition excited her and she made a very timely and topical film as her next, Zakhm, a thought-provoking and award winning film. Pooja has other ambitious projects, both for films and television, projects which don’t seem to look like projects planned by that Pooja Bhatt whom we knew during the Daddy and Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin days, the frisky, frolicsome, freedom-loving girl. It is difficult for a 25-year-old to do what Pooja Bhatt is doing right now but with a determination which is the hallmark of all the Bhatts, she is going to go all out to make Pooja Bhatt Productions, one of the most prestigious productions, making films which matter or don’t mean anything at all.

For the time being
And one bright day
As I walked by a bungalow
Near the sea, one of the pleasures I still have
Which is also being gradually eaten up
By hungry men, hungry for money
Also called builders and architects
These men have eyed the sea
The splendour of the sun
The glory of the stars and the moon at night
And want to tempt weak human beings to
Shift to huge monstrosities they call mansions built by the sea
Without realising that very soon
They are going to live like rats and cockroaches
In posh structures with all the modern and more modern facilities
I don’t know why I stopped by
A little bungalow
With the sea in the background
I see the name, a strange name
It’s called Convent Villa
As I walked down I see a crowd outside
Which means there is some shooting
Some activities going on within the bungalow
I walk in to find to my great delight
A scene which I couldn’t even dream of
I see Gulzar and Raakhee Gulzar
Together after such a long journey
After such a long life of ups and downs
It’s a great day for them
Suddenly I feel a glow within me
It’s a great day for me too
Their only daughter, Meghna Gulzar
Is making her debut as a writer-director
With her first film called, Filhaal
The couple who have not been seen together for years
Come closer and bless Meghna before taking her first major step
And then leave
Leaving behind a hundred different questions in mind, overcrowded mind
Meghna is launching her first film
As a full-fledged feature film director
After being trained by gurus like her father and Aziz Mirza
And after making a number of short films, documentaries, serials
And anchoring programmes on TV
She smiles, she shakes hands
Her smile grows brighter as the sun comes up
To greet her on her great day
But she smiles and says she will say nothing about her film
Filhaal (for the time being)
She doesn’t like her film to be
Talked-about in bits and pieces
She says she will talk about her film
When it is time to talk about it
Not when people just take decisions for herself
And talk about her film and the kind of film she is trying to make
I don’t like things being scattered around
During the making of my film
Let me make the film, then I will talk
May be I will talk more than you would want me to talk
She has some of her father’s faithfuls working with her
She has the brilliant cinematographer, Manmohan Singh
And half of her battle is won someone says
She is trying to make a film
With women coming to the fore
Coming out and trying to do their best
To do nothing but the best for Meghna
Filhaal Meghna is not talking about the film
Till April when she hopes to complete the film
Filhaal, I only know Gulzar and Raakhee’s daughter
Can never dare make a film which is even indifferent
Filhaal, I hope she has nothing but the
Best script with her
Filhaal, I feel very happy
Because of the dream her father and I had seen one morning
In his library when he and me saw
A little Bosky, now Meghna playing around with the camera
A dream which said this girl would make it one day
Make it as a filmmaker, we even took a bet on it, remember Gulzar Sahab?