My dear, dear Dharamji,
You know very well how much I love and admire you, both as an actor and a man. In a way our stories are similar to a certain extent. You saw Dilip Kumar, the great thespian for the first time and decided to rush to Bombay to make it as an actor and you finally made it and what a way you made it, your looks (you were once ranked among the ten most handsome men in the world. What a glorious moment it was for all of us Indians, our hearts swelled and even a greater feeling for all the beautiful and not so beautiful women.) It was great watching you grow as an actor in every way. You were destined, dynamic, determined to do some of the most extraordinary things which made you one of the most-loved actors. You were good in action in the beginning and you were good in emotions and you are good at comedy (one of the best I feel). The only thing you couldn’t do with conviction was crying. Your crying was converted into some kind of comedy for many. I remember hundreds of cases when you have done good roles when you have changed crying into comedy and I wondered if that was some way you tried to catch the audience interest. If it was, I think it was a very clever game of a very clever actor. I remember your crying almost turning into comedy in the dying scene of Amitabh Bachchan in Sholay and some memorable comic scenes in your favourite director, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films. I still wonder where you cried better.

But of late, you, my dear Dharamji, have given me some reason to worry, you and your career. Why in God’s name are you doing all those brutal, boorish and banal films, mostly ranked bad films which don’t even run for three days. Why in God’s name are you doing all those unbearable bad films, B grades and C grades films in the world. You can ask and get whatever you want and why are you doing these films which you would not have given a thought to in the good old days? What is it that is driving you to do these daku and jwala and agni and all kinds of ugly, sexy and almost dirty films. Believe me, everytime I see those filthy ads with your face with a moustache like Veerappan’s, I feel like crying and I know there will be several others who will feel the same. I am very sorry to say such bad things about the films you are doing but the heart refuses to say a thing about the son of the soil, who was loved by every Indian from the President and the Prime Minister to the farmer in the field. Why, my dear Dharam, are you doing these films which look like a man flogging himself? You have everything. You’ve had a fascinating career, you have two successful sons, you have plans to build your own ‘Dharamland’ where you plan to build a filmland. Then why, Oh why, what crime have we made yourfans, speciall, committed dear Dharamji? are you punishing us by doing films which can only be called films made to punish their audiences.
No, dear Dharamji, you who started a great career from nowhere, cannot end up with these meaningless films. You are still capable of some of the greatest things an actor can do. Ask and you shall receive, dear Dharamji. Try and see what the people who have given you the love for the last 40 years have to say about what you are doing at this stage of your career.

The Shabana Show!
Incidentally, Shabana Azmi, MP, at 50, has her hands full with work, all kinds of work a buddi at 50 cannot do. Today, at 50, Shabana looks much better than she used to when she was 25 and much better than she when she was 35. These and several other memories flashed across my mind as I sat with Javed Akhtar and Shabana in their beautiful (there is no other way to describe their flat facing the sea in Juhu). We talked about all kinds of things from the time when I, as a peon of Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, carried news items from Shabana, the actress to Mr SS Pillai, the then editor of SCREEN to some of the interesting things she has in mind to do to make India an interesting country soon. The story is continued...

Only a Shabana Azmi could do what Shabana recently did, adding one more crown to her over-crowned head. She was offered one of the major chat shows by a major TV company. She considered the offer for a while and then spelt out her terms and conditions which flummoxed the programme-making gentlemen. She said she would do the progrmme only if her own remuneration for every single episode would go to one of the many genuine charitable trusts or causes spread all over the country. It came to a huge amount if calculated by the year if they wanted her to sign a contract. She then said that her program would not revel in fun and games or songs and dances. She saw in it a good means to use these games which are becoming a fast-growing fashion on television. She saw in it a good way to raise a number of issues of social relevance, problems that would mean something to the people who would watch her programs and perhaps change their long neglected miserable lives. The channel was going crazy, then a little more crazy with every demand of Shabana like 33 per cent of the contestants and 33 per cent of the people would be women "who have never been given their deserved place in the last 50 years". The channel finally came to the conclusion that she was in some way trying to change what they thought was their grand entertainment programme with Madame Shabana Azmi, MP, into a politico-social programme. They wanted entertainment plus, not social programs or anything to do with social relevance. They had busier things to do like planning various entertainment programmes to make every Indian happy by watching all the songs and the dances on their screens at home. The men in charge of the programme looked stunned for days and finally they couldn’t take Shabana’s love for her people, for her country and their problems. They wanted entertainment, only entertainment and Shabana wanted what she wanted and when she didn’t hear from them for days she knew what was on their mind and she once again came to the conclusion that people in this country, people who seem to matter talk about using entertainment as a source of social relevance but are ultimately interested only in money and their dil maange more and more when it comes to money.

Sorry, Mr. Rao
After realising that I had made a mistake, a mistake which hurt my good old friend, the talented "guru" among "gurus", the director, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, the director who knows only to make good, sensible, sensitive and sincere films, I FIRMLY BELIEVE AND WILL NOW ALWAYS BELIEVE THAT EVERY MISTAKE HAS ITS OWN DESTINY. YES, IT HAS.

Let me explain, Mr Rao. I was to write a feature on your ambitious film Little John which you were making in English, Hindi and Tamil with Bentley Mitchum, the grandson of the legendary Hollywood actor, Robert Mitchum, Jyotika, the No.1 actress in Tamil films and Anupam Kher.

I first heard of the film from my friend Anupam Kher. I then heard more and more people talking about the film which was going to be a new adventure in Indian cinema, a series of graphics which have never been seen in Indian films before. I read the synopsis again and yet again. I talked to Bentley about his role in the film as Mr John. Jyotika was more than just excited about doing a film with Mr Rao. I spoke to Mr Rao and Mr Rao told me how very “different” this film of his was from his earlier “different” films like Pushpak, Appu Raja, Mayuri and several other films made in Tamil. I was obsessed with Mr Rao’s film. I wrote all that I knew about the film. My artists placed the pictures in the proper order. I read and re-read what I had written, from the pages I wrote on and then on the computer and then on the computer on which the page was made. I was sure, I was confident. I told my mind to LOCK KIYA JAYE, I said and I could almost see Amitabh Bachchan smiling one of his mysterious smiles. It was like he had seen some mistake but was in no position to tell me what. Three days later I got the answer and I almost went Oh! My God! What a mistake I had made! For a moment I almost felt like Amitabh for a moment (that’s the magic of Amitabh’s KBC working all over). I’ve done everything to the best of my ability and for that mistake I had to face its destiny. The name of Mr Rao’s film was Little John and not Mr John (Mr John was the character Bentley played in the film). And I went on calling the film Mr John, Mr John and Mr John. Why did it happen? Why did it have to happen even after I had taken so many pains. I will not say sorry, Mr Rao, because sorry will not mean anything to a man as saintly as you. But I don’t think I will forgive myself for quite sometime because how can a man whose own name is Mr John make a mistake about Mr John which is much much more serious than this Mr John (Me).

The Great Teacher
Fall on your knees, all you actors and actresses of tomorrow and thank the "God" who invented TV. Ask me why and I’ll tell you the only one why which is all important for you, I say in the present and the future in everything happening. When you find opportunities try and watch some of the great films which are shown to you, thanks to television. Some of the great performances by actors like Dilip Kumar, Motilal, Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand and Meena Kumari and Madhubala and Madhuri Dixit down to Preity Zinta. Just switch on the remote and watch and you will learn much more than what all the best institutes in the world and specially the growing number of acting institutes in Mumbai will teach you. And then keep in mind what you have seen and get inspired by them. Then apply your mind and concentrate on the great gift gifted to you by those great men and women who, I wonder, will be born again.
So, my dear young friends who are interested in making a serious career in acting, you will lose nothing if you fall on your feet again and thank the "God" who created TV to teach you what no teacher or technique or machine can teach you. Observation, I feel is the greatest teacher for anyone who aims to be an actor because an actor is always playing another life, a life other than his own life which he cannot play unless he observes what the other man he is playing.