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Ali's Notes

The giant against the boys
There is something within me that tells me loud and clear that Amitabh Bachchan this year is working on some of the best films of his career. They are the films that are going to bring him back in a big way and are going to prove to all generations that he cannot be given up as a great actor, also prove that great actors can never go away ever, never fade out because they are good even in the worst of films. That is what Amitabh has been proving time and again ever since his second coming with films like Mtiryudaata, Major Sahab, Lal Badshah, Hindustan Ki Kasam, Sooryavansham and Kohraam, bad and indifferent films with first class performances by the man who is always first class, always the best.

The films Amitabh is working on now are films which he deserves, films being based on scripts that he has fallen for without second thoughts, most of them films in which he is pitted against some of the talented yougsters who are seen as the great bright hopes for the future. Amitabh is pitted against the numero uno of today, the Khan among Khans, Shah Rukh Khan in Aditya Chopra’s Mohabbatein. He has also accepted the first major challenge in playing Aishwarya Rai’s father in the film. The life of the film depends on these three characters and there is Anupam Kher and three pairs of youngsters, all of them looking upto the giant who refuses to give up, so what if he has to grow a grey beard only for this one film. This giant once carried his director (Aditya) in his arms. Let’s see how high Aditya carries the actor he always wanted to direct, any director would like to direct. The film is being made at a brisk place. It is expected to be one of the major films of 2000. It will be eagerly awaited for many reasons, the main reason being the clash of the giant of three generations, Amitabh, and Shah Rukh with Aishwarya standing between them and the film being directed by Aditya, whose first film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is still running in a theatre in Mumbai ever since it was released some five years ago. A fact of entertainment of a very rare kind is in the making -- with love. Love has worked many wonders. I’m sure it will work greater wonders in this film which has everything to do with love.

Pitting the giant with today’s giants-in-the making seems to be the in thing these days. Like Karan Johar followed his master (Aditya) and created another box-office record with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. He is now planning his next film with Amitabh, Shah Rukh and Hrithik Roshan. The girls are still being looked at. It is the script that is being perfected. The young man with a big hit below his belt can not dare or dream taking any chances. He will have to be good. He knows what he will be in for if he sleeps, strumbles or stutters.

And then there is Amitabh being closely followed by Manoj Bajpai, the young man who created a storm with three films in a row, Satya, Kaun and Shool. He is very good, he has proved with all the films he has done so far. He was nominated for the best supporting actor for the SCREEN-Videocon awards for his performance in Satya and won it. He later won the National award for the best supporting actor but he strongly feels his facing the giant in a film being directed by Rakesh Mehra is a greater challenge than winning all those awards. Amitabh and Rakesh are all praise for Manoj which means double the challenge for Amitabh or that’s what Amitabh says. And if all goes well Amitabh may be teamed with his son Abhishek one day. That will be an event. That will make the world tremble with joy. Amitabh is as good as ever whatever some foul-souled people say, a challenge for any actor, any director any time. It’s not a challenge, I know what I am saying.

Anand kitna anand deta hai!
What would we do without Anand Bakshi, "the word and feeling machine with a heart" who has been writing songs for the last forty years? Listen to what Bakshi has to say about the fourth generation of directors he is working with now:

"I feel very happy when an Aditya Chopra or a Nabh Kumar Raju comes to me and asks me to write their songs. I don’t know them. I don’t know how their minds work and what kind of films they are planning. But there is something about these new boys. They are very clear about what they want and they see that they get that from an old man like me. They respect Anand Bakshi but when it comes to work they want Anand Bakshi to come up with his best. They suggest changes and I have to change because this is their generation. We have to listen to them or no one will want to listen to us," a practical lyricist, this man nearing seventy with a heart of sixteen, says.

That the typical Anand Bakshi I know ever since I was a child. He has never claimed that he is a great poet, a Faiz Ahmed Faiz or a Sahir or a Shakeel or a Majrooh or a Kaifi Azmi. He says he is a song writer who writes according to situations demanded in a film and he has been succeeding in doing just that. Anand Bakshi writes the language of the common man. He creates poetry greater than writing when he writes about the most spontaneous and powerful feelings in words which reach hearts without any difficulty. Yash Chopra feels at home working with Anand Bakshi and so does his son Aditya because like Yash says: "He is a no-nonsense poet. He knows his work thoroughly. He can rise to any occasion and live any age, any event, any happening in life. And the best thing about Bakshi Sahab is that he is not rigid. He can adjust. He can make changes in what he has written. He can make something good better and something better the best." The poet with a heart so full of love and joy is having trouble with his heart these days (pace-maker et al) but his heart refuses to give up making the world a happy place to live in.

There is a crowd of lyricists today but there is only one Anand Bakshi. There have been various names mentioned in the various lists of men of the millennium but if there is one man who really can be described as the lyricist of the millennium it is to this lyricist of all times, Anand Bakshi. How can anyone deny the man the honour he deserves? How can you? How can me? How can anyone who knows Anand Bakshi and his gifts to every Indian home all over the world.