I know atleast three filmmakers who will spend the rest of their lives wondering why they couldn’t start their films with the greatest thespian ever, the actor forever, Dilip Kumar who is now lying on a lonely bed after going through a major heart surgery, a surgery he wanted performed in his own motherland, his own India, by his Indian doctors despite all the advise by all his admirers.

These men of today and so many other men like them in the past have always been “trying” or “dying” to make films with the actor who Javed Akhtar calls “a point of reference.” They have wanted to make films but the ever elusive and ever selective thespian chose just eighty or eighty-five filmmakers of the hundreds who flocked to him from time to time during his fifty years as an actor. The man’s dedication, his determination, his sheer sincerity, his pure passion have become part of Indian film history now. Didn’t the great Amitabh Bachchan once say that if any Indian actor during the past fifty years dares to say he has not been influenced or inspired by the “shahenshah of adakari” he is blatantly lying. The doctors attending on his heart say the legend will live long and live strong. He will recover fully. But will the actor who has always believed in a passion for perfection have enough time to worship at the altar of the God of acting? His best has still to come, I feel and I hope his own heart doesn’t feel jealous of him. This God, our God, is a very playful God. He has his own ways to deal with the human heart, the real human heart, the heart the best doctors can never understand. Will they ever? In the meanwhile the prayers of millions have reached God and Dilip Kumar is “hale and hearty” according to his doctors. I hope and pray like I have never hoped and prayed before that the king comes back healthy and starts his reign all over again. We need him. The world needs him. How poor this world will be without a man like this man who is more than a man!

Why this ghai (haste), Mr Ghai?

WHY this sudden urgency, this unexpected hurry, Mr Showman? I have been an active observer of the way you make films ever since you started with a bang with Karz. I have watched you and your team at work during all the big films you made under the banner of Mukta Arts. You first dotted all the ‘is’ and ‘ts’ in your script before you went on the floor. You made sure you were sure about making what you were setting out to make. Now, I feel, yes I strongly feel that you have decided to change your taal (rhythm) of making films. You started Taal without the kind of fanfare expected of you. You went into recording the songs of Taal. You were spending more time with AR Rahman and Anand Bakshi than anyone else. I wonder if you have given so much time even to your wonderful wife, Mukta (Rehana). You then started shooting with all the silence which is not a part of your taal. Now you say you have already shot major scenes with Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna and Aishwarya Rai, all of them busy stars. You say you have completed sixty percent of Taal which is supersonic speed according to your standards. What’s the reason you are changing your style? Why are you changing it so drastically? You are still the reigning showman, our own showman. I know you know what you are doing but I’m a little worried because I am not used to this showman, his “future”. Has the competition forced you to lead you to follow some unhealthy ways. Your themes, your music are forever. You can still do it the way you’ve always done it. You are a showman who does not have to show what you are making. We still have faith in you. We will always have faith in you. You are our only showman, our hope, an Indian every Indian is proud of.

These anxious fathers

THE anxiety on the faces of the fathers who are trying their best to encourage their sons to follow in their footsteps can only be ‘felt’, cannot be expressed. Like I wonder what thoughts must be shooting through Feroz Khan’s mind when he thinks of Prem Aggan, the film in which he put all that he had to make the film a fantastic launching pad for his son Fardeen Khan. Feroz the flamboyant filmmaker who has made some stylish sophisticated and successful films during the last two decades failed miserably to make a film that could do atleast an iota of good to his son. The film flopped on the very first day and people called it Prem Agony.

Feroz however is a pathan who refuses to surrender. His son was a good actor, one of the best launched recently. Feroz will not give him up. This father can never betray his son. He shaved off his head (repentance?) after the release of the film. He will make another film to give Fardeen a fair deal. There are other filmmakers who have seen promise in Fardeen. I remember how fathers like Dharmendra and Sunil Dutt and mothers like Nargis Dutt cried the day they launched their sons Sunny and Sanjay. Vinod Khanna was happy in the beginning but two films and the cynics had second thoughts but Vinod need not worry. Akshaye is the best of our new actors. He is a complete actor and with a little more grooming and gruelling hard work he can come up tops. So chin up, all you fathers. You have fought such great battles. You will win your battles for your sons too.

Following the sun

THAT’S how it should be and that’s how it’s turning out to be, thank God. The young ones, some young boys and girls who were dismissed by the “oldies” as ye aaj ke chhokre are taking over, taking the thunder and shower from the “oldies”, something they have always have dreaming of. The charge of the dynamic, young ones to challenge and win brigade was led by Sooraj K Barjatya who made Hum Aapke Hain Koun and proved what entertainment, pure entertainment means, what entertainment for the masses means. He was the ‘sun’ who first showed the way. He was followed by the quiet, shy but totally in command, Aditya Chopra who made Dilwale Dulhania... and let the crores flood in. And now comes Karan Johar, Aditya’s disciple who has made another gigantic success with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Ab kuch bhi ho sakta hai. These young men have found the confidence and the courage to conquer and change. I am sure there will be many other followers. The millennium to come needs them badly.

Dust you are

How does a man, one man
Make such a big difference so many men, women and children?
He comes in as a struggler
A man who waits to make it in films
Make it as a star, a superstar
He walks around for a while
Till he finds his first break
He becomes a star, a superstar
All this is more than he had dreamed of
Years ago this same man sneaked into studios
He was snubbed, sneered and pushed out
Today he walks like a sultan
And the whole world walks behind him
He is a messiah, he feels
He is a God, he believes
Then just one little slip
And time makes mince meat out of him
And yet ...
History doesn’t teach
No one wants to believe
He will be reduced to dust
He will be reduced to ashes
Then why all this showing off
Why, when you know everything is just a dream which ends one day
with just one slip?