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Ali's Notes

SUHAS’ GRAtituDE IS AN ATTRIBUTE
An actor and arrogance are said to be related, according to some of the great know-alls. They may be distantly related too but they are, somewhere they are. I’m some. There are, however, exceptions to every rule and to argue my rule, a very strong case, I’ve just one witness, just one strong point and I don’t need any other power to prove. Yes, yes, I have Suhas Khandke, my friend. He is an actor who walked out from the National School of Drama with some very brilliant students who went on to become some of the greatest actors and actresses of all time. Suhas is a good actor too but I feel he has not taken his career seriously. His being a young man for whom struggle was not created, was considered some sort of a punishment, pampered the actor in him and he was lost for quite a while. In the meanwhile, he was ambitious enough to produce his own film called Dozakh which was not a very good experience in any way. But he had the guts to take it all in his stride. He then took his “family business” seriously and made it good, made a name in his circles. His close friend called him “a better businessman than an actor”. But Suhas, the actor who was there atoned with extinction fought back and tried out with serials. His work was appreciated and Suhas soon found a place, he was a face and a talent to be recognised.

But what I really like about Suhas is not so much his ability as an actor or any other quality an actor needs but his sheer humility. Let some director offer him some more roles and see how grateful he will be to them. Gratitude is in his blood, in his genes. As a friend I hope and pray that Suhas being Suhas remains Suhas. It will help make the world a better world because the world is desperately running short of people with gratitude as an attribute.

VIDHU’S MASSIVE MISSION
This man Vidhu Vinod Chopra can go to any extent to fulfil his ambition. And his ambition doubles up, grows more intense, leads to heights never touched by ordinary filmmakers of his generation who when other filmmakers are still talking about Kashmir and Kargil and their plans to make films based on them after the lofty promises made by the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah and his government, Vidhu has already gone ahead and made almost 70 per cent of his “ambitious, risky but adventurous film”, Mission Kashmir. He has shot part of it in and around Kashmir amidst fear to so many lives belonging to his unit and is now busy creating Dal Lake and its surroundings near the lake in Film City just like he had dared to dry up the same lake to build the entire city of Dalhousie to shoot the climax of ‘1942 A Love Story’. One visit to the location and you will feel you are in Kashmir, in the Dal Lake, in the surrounding beauty and whatever is left of that beauty after the consistent ravaging by the monstrous militants who want Kashmir (how can these men with no hearts, no conscience even when it comes to little innocent lamb-like children take care of Kashmir, one of the greatest wonders of the world, even if they get a chance to rule Kashmir, to look after it, to care for it, to make it look like paradise again? How can they who have a hold on hell look after paradise?)

Vidhu has gone through several hurdles during the making of Mission Kashmir but he has not started screaming yet. Beware of the day when he starts screaming because when he does, his mission will be the truth, the truth through cinema, the jawans who fought in Kashmir and Kargil and have been fighting continuously will be proud that they have a man like Vidhu to wake up every Indian to fight for what is his right.
PS: Vidhu’s efforts to make Mission Kashmir would not have been what it is without the creative output of Nitin Desai, the award-winning art director, who seems to specialise in creating places which are very difficult for ordinary art directors to create. He can imitate God as a painter.

POONAM KE DIN
Her beauty, her charm, her knowledge bowled Yash Chopra over
Yash, one of India’s outstanding authorities on women and love
She said her name was Poonam Dhillon
And Yash asked her if she was willing,
If she wanted to sing Gapuchi gapuchi gham gham in Trishul, one of the major films he was making
Poonam who was a beauty queen gave the great idea several thoughts and finally said yes
She looked better as life went on
Soon she was a national star
She gradually grew into a good actress because she was so very different, so delicate, so dedicated, so very different from the other girls in the game, the race
She reached places. She could have reached greater places
But then love? What can one do about love when it threatens to come and stay?
She fell in love with producer Ashok Thakeria
They looked good as a couple, they looked happy wherever they went
But that love was not to love, alas!
Something, someone came in its way, their love was not true love
Or it would not die such an ignoble death, gone, gone forever
Ashok and Poonam have separated now
The children are with Poonam
Ashok tries to be, to look, happy
But who’s really happy?
The end of their marriage has, however, led to the beginning of a new Poonam
She has learnt to stand on her own
She is doing some tough work on television
She is into Internet, she is into website, she is into human causes
There is so much to learn, there will be so much to learn
She is no longer the Gapuchi gapuchi gham gham girl she was long long ago
She is a celebrity today, a society woman, a woman society so badly needs to build a better future.

Killing them softly
I often wonder if our dear old Hindi films will ever be forgiven for neglecting, wasting, humiliating talent. I often wonder how some of the most talented artistes from theatre (especially) are attracted by the magic of cinema. The glamour, the glitter, the glow and the glory is generally what tempts them to make all kinds of compromises, even sell their souls for films. And once they come in they are trapped, tormented, stereotyped to death (getting stereotyped is a sort of death for any good and talented actor or actress, the beginning of the end, an end which is worse than any kind of end, the most excruciatingly painful end today. Death is peace compared to the death of talent. Ask all those who have been afflicted by this affliction and they’ll tell you their sorry stories.

I’ll just give you a hand full of examples and you will know what getting stereotyped can do to the most talented, the most powerful, the most sensitive.

Once there was an actor called Om Shivpuri. He was a brilliant early product of the National School of Drama. He was brought to films by Gulzar and was soon in great demand — so much in demand that the actor lost his brilliance and balance and turned into a first class ham. The same ailment struck actors like Dr Shreeram Lagoo, the late Shafi Inamdar, the great Paresh Rawal, one of the all-time greats the late Amjad Khan, the man who seems to want to be Dilip Kumar all the time, Kader Khan and the less said about all the villains who play the same roles in the same films. They want to change but they are not allowed to change. They lived ‘bad’. They lived ‘bad’ till the very end. The only actor who avoided the trap was Amrish Puri, “the hundred per cent actor” who can play “any role any time”. What happened to the actors also happened to actresses like Rohini Hattangadi, Reeta Bhaduri and so many other actresses who could have made it as mature good actresses but lived on to work like figures made of stale plaster of Paris. This is a warning to all those who are interested in making it as good actors. Avoid, avoid with all your heart, avoid getting stereotyped. You can make a living, a good living once you’re stereotyped but you can and will never live long forever. Beware.

Too Much Talent
If there is one thing that keeps me going, keeps me smiling it is some of the most unexpected stories. Let me take the example of three young men who were nowhere, nobody till just two years ago. All they had was their ambition, their talent, their restlessness to reach places which they felt were difficult to reach.

Take the case of Ashish Vidyarthi who came in from the National School of Drama and was lucky enough to find a Godfather in Mahesh Bhatt. Mahesh offered him a few good roles in some films, some serials. Till he came up with some brilliant performances in films like Najaayaz and Droh-Kaal which won him a national award. Ashish is high up in the sky now, a huge sophisticated car, an apartment, a secretary, all the “musts” that make a star. Then there were young men like Milind Gunaji, Govind Namdeo and Nirmal Pandey and Raghuveer Yadav who showed signs of making it. They are still on their way and there’s nothing that can stop them. The greatest surprise however was Manoj Bajpai who struggled till he was made to struggle. He then found Ram Gopal Varma and Varma found Bhiku Mhatre for him and Manoj is a star of a very rare kind. He is not grabbing roles. He has just few films in hand, all of them ambitious films. And if his discoverer, Ramu is to be believed Manoj will sweep several awards for his performance in the years to come. He is sure...

Carry On AB?
Carry on, Amitabh. With the stories of people still willing to workshop you, you have nothing to worry about, nothing to feel insecure about, nothing to care about what all those good souls running you down have to say.

Like, I wish you, you were now here, sitting with me in my office while I am talking to Dr RB Nachar. He has left his clinic in the suburbs and come to Nariman Point to tell me what Amitabh Bachchan means to him. This young doctor tells me that he has always been an AB “devotee”. He has named his only son Amitabh. And he sees his son react to every AB film. The good doctor has named his clinic, AB Baby Clinic. He forced his mother and all his relatives and neighbours to go and pray at the miracle church at St Michael’s, Mahim, Mumbai when Amitabh was battling for life at the Breach Candy Hospital.

The mild-mannered, totally and amazingly dedicated ‘AB’ fan has his clinic full of ‘AB’ pictures all over. But what amazes me most is the way he tries to get more and more people into the theatres showing AB’s films. He books tickets for them in advance at all the theatres in his neighbourhood. He tells his family, his parents, his relatives and his patients, his friends, fellow doctors and anyone he meets to go and see the latest AB film.

He has written any number of letters to you, Mr Bachchan. You have been very kind to answer some of them which he has treasured in a box, yes in a box. His only ambition is to have a one-to-one meeting with you to express his feelings for you. That will be fulfilling of his greatest ambition. Will you listen to the plea of a man, a doctor, an enlightened man? I am scared he may soon go crazy (or even mad) because of you. And I would not like to see you guilty about a crime like that.

PS: The devil is responsible for all the mistakes in my column last week, God told me. How the hell could I make so many mistakes for the first time in twenty-five years?