That Man’s God
I tried my best not to repeat a part of a question put to Anupam about Mithun. But try as I may I couldn’t because the letter says so much about Mithunda. So here I go. The maximum letters, believe me or not, I receive and Anupam receives are the letters that come in the name of Mithun Chakraborty, letters from as far as Moodbidri and Mombasa and Malkapur and Mysore. The letters are more than they come for Amitabh Bachchan or Hrithik Roshan or Anupam Kher or Madhuri Dixit or Preity Zinta or Subhash Ghai or Aditya Chopra or Javed Akhtar or Gulzar, they are all about the good and not-so-old Mithun Chakraborty who, quit Mumbai and shifted wife, children, baggage and work to Ooty, now known as Udhagamangalam.

These fans who are madly in love with the actor who prefers doing any number of films and any kind of films made in the South and nowhere else is still the most loved and admired actors and admired man if I go strictly by the number of letters.

Take this letter for example, it is from a madly mad man. It was meant for Anupam’s column but I was so carried away by the madness of the man that I repeat some of them. Like it says : “I am an ardent fan of Mithunda. He is not only a good actor but a great human who is next to/equal to God if you ask me. But my friends and relatives continuously keep teasing me for worshipping an actor like Mithunda as a God. Just because of my devotion to Mithunda I have broken up with several ugly people and now I keep myself to myself, in total solitude and silence. Anyone who speaks against Mithunda is a sinner, is a blasphemer for whom a seat is reserved next to Satan - the Sultan of hell, that’s my curse for them. For me Mithunda is someone more important than anyone or anything in the world and then a question from the same badly mad fan: "Do you feel anything wrong in worshipping an actor like Mithunda?”
Answer, all you extraordinary psychiatrists, psychologists, poets, philosophers and Popes. What kind of worship would you call this? Tell me and I will spread your greatness all over the world.

Talent For All Time, All Things
Some artists are born all-rounders, born for all things, to do all the most difficult things to the best of their ability - an artiste like my friend Anupam Kher, the boy who once stood in a crowd in Shimla watching the shooting of Yash Chopra’s Daag and is today, not only Yash Chopra’s best friend and lucky mascot in every film but one of the most well-known names in the country, known because of the several social, cultural and literary activities, he is involved with the same inspiration and the same vitality. To say that Anupam is one of the best actors in films, in theatre or television is like wasting so many words in the air. Anupam, undoubtedly, is an actor who can perform and when I say perform I mean you have to just face him with challenge and then leave everything to him and he will not let you down under any circumstances. As I keep in touch with the growing of Anupam the actor I also make it a point to keep a watch on his growing up in various directions, directions which bring light to the world. He is a voracious reader. Talk to him about any book and he can tell you the story backwards. He has just been appointed an advisor to Doordarshan. He has also been appointed the Ambassador of Hope for CRY, the organisation for children whose crying CRY tries its best to stop. He can speak for hours, speak enlighteningly and an absolute command over his language, some of the most prominent languages of the country. He is one ray of hope for so many patients dying of cancer and AIDS, and other diseases which have no hope for the suffering. He believes in his smile bringing life back to them, so what if just for a bit of a moment. His visits to hospitals like the Tata Memorial Hospital, the Hinduja Hospital, the Avedna Ashram in Bandra, Mumbai where people are just left to wait to die are well-known. And he swears that he does nothing of this for any kind of publicity. He has all that in plenty.
The activities the man is involved in besides his being constantly on the lookout for good roles, I am sure will soon lead him to other higher kinds of activities which will involve the entire country. In fact, he was recently considered to be a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha but time came in his way, but he has not given up hope. His greatest wish, however, is to pay a visit to Pakistan and try and heal as many wounds as possible. It is possible, he says, and if there are many more men like Anupam who think like him, I see great hope for these two countries who are two great enemies today growing into two of the greatest nations in the world one day.

T hat Smile, That Grace!
I was sitting in the office of Mr Rakesh Nath (also known as Rikku) the secretary of Madhuri Dixit-Nene, when all of a sudden he received a call. I could recognise the voice which I had heard for 15 long years. It was the voice of Madhuri herself. She was speaking from Florida in America where she was spending time with Ram, her husband before coming back to India to start work on a couple of big films. It was a great pleasure listening to her voice after such a long time. I asked her if she was expected home (Mumbai) during Diwali and she just smiled and kept smiling which meant neither yes nor no.
Ms Madhuri Dixit- Nene may not be what she has been for years but the charm, the rare talent, is busy looking out for the kind of roles and talent that would suit her at this stage of her career. I hope she finds them because I still feel that she still has it in her to prove what she has never been able to prove as an actress born to become a stamp forever.

A few days later I also had the privilege of seeing MF Husain’s Gaj Gamini but I can tell you what she tells the world in the film only after I break my promise made to Husain. Says Ms Dixit- Nene: "I have worked in a variety of films, all kinds of films but what attracted me towards Gaj Gamini was its form which deals with the different images of a woman through the eyes of a painter. Each individual frame is like a painting.

The most fascinating moment was when I was made up by Mickey Contractor to play Mona Lisa, the immortal creation of Leonardo Da Vinci. I remember a day in July when I had walked through the corridors of Louvre dressed in a medieval costume and stood next to the original painting trying to recapture the magic of the bygone era. I realised how people stopped in utter disbelief as they spotted me dressed as Mona Lisa on the streets, stairways and inside the museum. One confused person stopped, stared and exclaimed "Beaoutiful! They should keep you here”. The unit, of course burst out laughing but that American student of art looked on seriously for hours, I was told.
It was an inspiring and humble experience to be amidst the works of geniuses like Dega, Van Gogh, Manet, Da Vinci to name just a few. Thank you, Gaj Gamini for introducing me to the world of true art”. I hope she is wanted, that she is offered better roles that suit her age, maturity and temperament. I have watched her in countless films. I hope she lives on to be remembered as not just one of the most beautiful stars but also as one of the actresses whose calibre was never given the importance she deserved. It is very rarely that a girl from a lower middle class family rises to reach a place which does her country proud. And I, as her one-time neighbour feel proud even when I see a glimpse of her because she has done for me what I couldn’t even dream of when she went to school next to my house, a little girl well-known in dancing the Kathak and other common dances, growing up to win major prizes all over Maharashtra and then making history.

AB Bhi Waqt Hai!
She was kept in hiding till her first film was released. She was not allowed to stand near or speak to anyone from the press. No one from the unit was allowed to even mention her name. No photographs or photo sessions were allowed. She was underground most of the time and yet she was the leading lady of the high profile genius of a director, Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
He had discovered her in New Delhi in highly cultural and literary family which allowed her to make a career in films only because she was being offered the chance of a lifetime by Vidhu whose name and worth they knew. Vidhu’s film Kareeb was complete and she was finally brought out into the light, before the people. She was pretty, delicate, poetic, fair and lovely, she was shy, she had a sweet voice, her words could be weighed when she talked. She was Shabana, but there was the Shabana already ruling the world. Vidhu had no choice. He gave his Shabana a new name. He called her Neha. She was the kind of heroine they don’t often make these days. She was the result of Vidhu’s penchant for girls who mean and are like girls. Great things were expected of Neha but even a Vidhu film like Kareeb failed because of reasons neither Chopra nor his specialist brother, Vir, nor Neha, nor Bobby, her hero, could understand why.

Neha is still around contrary to some wild rumours being spread about her giving up films. She is still doing some good films. I hope something good comes out of them if not I would like to believe what my mother once said when I was a little boy. She said, "a young girl’s curse is worse than the curse of any other curse cursed by any human being."