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Ali's Notes

Roar Tiger, roar

It is high time the Bengal Tiger (better known as Mithun Chakraborty) took care of his career. He had a flood of releases during the whole of 1999 but not one of the films were upto the mark, not upto any mark. Some of them were even crass, crude with no touch of class at all. The films naturally didn’t do well and more and more producers lost heavily. But the irony is that some more producers, small-time producers, new producers, producers who wanted to make some quick money fell for the great Mithun game and are still falling because they say the Mithun magic works in the “interiors” whatever that means in the market.

Mithun must do something about Mithun the actor, get some good writers, some good directors, some good roles. Isn’t he a three-time National award winner for the Best Actor? Think Mithun, think. Thinking can work wonders at times.

To think of it, if only the quality of his films was good I would have asked him to continue signing one film after another (the way he is now) because his signing films changes life for so many, changes them for the better.

Mithun has turned into a messiah for so many. His films generate jobs for so many. According to a rough survey more than twenty actresses have found the “chance” to play his leading lady, girls who would never ever have got a “chance” otherwise. He has created so many producers and directors, resurrected some who had already been given up. He has been the saviour of villains and character actors from Mumbai, men and women who had little or no work in Mumbai. He is “God” for writers, small-time producers and directors, music directors, choreographers, technicians, assistants, spot boys. And there are countless stories of him going out of his way to help the poor and the downtrodden, get them work with honour. He has helped sportsmen. He has built an amusement park in Coimbatore. He has plans to start many other projects which would help the poor. “I was poor. I know the needs of the poor like very few know them. I have to do my best for them,” Mithun says.

Carry on Mithun, may God be with you. But why have rejected Mumbai like a sinner? Wasn’t Mumbai the city which first held your hand, helped you walk, take the strides of a tiger?

Who says AB is slipping?

Who the hell says Amitabh Bachchan is losing his throne, his popularity? True, some of his films are not doing as well as they are expected to but then those films are bad films, atrocious films (it hurts the soul more than the heart to see him strive to excel in them, it also damages the entire system which controls my thinking to know that this great man, the greatest star of the millennium even agreed to do them), he was a little old no doubt, but is strong, is as clever, as smart as he always was. The films didn’t do well at all, deservingly, but they harmed the reputation of a colossus or that is what I and many others like me felt. But thanks be to God we have not lost all. The charisma, the charm, the clout to face challenges is intact and his popularity has not dwindled even after a quarter of a century. The crowds are still there outside his house on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Buses carrying sight-seers still stop for people to have a look at the house Amitabh Bachchan built.

And listen to this story told by Ram Gopal Varma. The millennium man (“AB”) wanted to see some optical effects at Ramu’s studio. He managed to sneak in, sat through what he wanted to see. And then it was time to leave. Good heavens!

How could he leave? There were more than a thousand people thronging every corner of the compound to have a glimpse of the greatest man of our times. It took the security men more than twenty minutes to disperse the crowd for him to leave. If this is not popularity at its peak tell me what is? Please tell me what is. I challenge all the young stars strutting around today to hold their popularity for as long as “AB” has. Accept my challenge at your own risk, my young friends.

You live in us

I wanted to be a bohemian. I always dreamed of being a bohemian. I wanted to live like a bohemian, build a hut far away from any city and civilisation and write poetry. I even thought of taking up bohemianism as a full-time job if someone as crazy as me was willing to pay me for it. I lived with these wild ideas till I met the man who made me realise that everything I thought of and believed in was foolish — KA Abbas. He gave me a job with a royal sum of Rupees hundred as my monthly salary and rounds of steaming hot tea and a crowd of books for company (I really don’t know what I would do, what I would have been without Abbas). When Abbas couldn’t afford to pay me my salary he sent me to his friend Mr SS Pillai (father of my present editor Udaya Tara Nayar). He instantly offered me a job. I fled. I kept meeting him. He gave me some assignments, paid me amounts which made me feel like royalty. He kept asking me to work for Screen. I couldn’t dream of taking up a 11 to 6 job. I’d die, I felt. Till one day he gave me a long lecture on the importance of having a steady job and how I was foolish turning down an offer when there were hundreds clamouring for it. He put me under the supervision of two veterans, Mr SS Kapadia and Mr RM Kumtakar. These two veterans were helpful in changing me into a human being. Kapadia made me see the better side of life. Kumtakar made me see the practical side of life. It was Kumtakar who introduced me to the world of films, places, which helped me go places. He introduced me to legends, legends who respected him. He was the kind of journalist who made his job his life, his wife, his family. He lived for Screen. We had a gaping age gap but he never made me feel the difference. We ate together, drank together (sometimes drank like hell), we abused each other. I can never forget the four months I spent in Ahmedabad working for Screen under war-like conditions (during a strike in the company).

He lived the way he wanted to. He died a death which could have been better. Farewell, Kumtakar, but you’ve not gone. You cannot. You’re the kind of man who have left a little of yourself in every man, woman and child you came across. Now you don’t have to work twenty hours, Kumtakar. Now you can play your flute (your favourite instrument) without any disturbance and please God and his darbar.

Listen dear Dev, listen

It's not a dream dreamed on paper. It’s not one man talking about a legend in a state of delirium. It is not the maddening mumblings of a man gone insane. What I am about to describe, the scene I am being forced to share with you is something that actually happened to me one night, exactly on August 26, 1999 which I found out in the morning was exactly one month before the evergreen, ever-eager, ever-enthusiastic, ever-ebullient, ever so much more than just another human being, Dev Sahab’s 77th birthday.

I saw myself on my painful knees, kneeling before God, the God I knew so well, the God who knows all my problems, the God who I feel knows everyone else’s problems and takes the right decisions at the right time.

I pray and I ask the God I know to help Dev Anand grow younger, stronger, sharper in mind, full of life, love and laughter like he always has been.

I pray that he never ever gets sick, not even has a fall which could give him a sprain or a scratch which would not suit him.

I pray that he makes that one big hit which he is desperately looking for.

I pray for Censor the film he is making with thirty stars to succeed like no other film of his has, so that he can go on making more and more films.

I pray for all his critics and enemies ( don’t think he has any) to vanish from the surface of the earth on which a wonderful man like him walks and makes the world a world full of wonders.

I pray for his family, for Mona, his wife, for his son Suneil who is making a film called Master, for his daughter Devina who is living a life of her own with her little daughter in a bungalow Dev has built far away from the city of Bangalore.

I pray that he starts writing his autobiography and completes it as soon as possible, an autobiography in which he promises to tell the truth or not write it at all.

I pray for his dreams for India to come true. He has spoken for hours about the great India he would like to see and which he knows he would be able to see only if India has good leaders, great leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, VK Krishna Menon and other able leaders. He has the earnest desire to see a great India belonging to great Indians. I pray for that desire of Dev to come true.

I pray for Dev Sahab to make some more meaningful films under his banner (Navketan). So what if he has to hire writers and directors other than him.

I pray that his image as a living legend lives long, lives till the end, lives without a blemish, without a crack.

I pray to God to listen to my prayers because I am praying for one of the greatest human beings I know, a man who is second only to God if you ask me.

The whole of next morning I keep thinking of my prayers for Dev Sahab and the more I think of him the more I pray for him. And I plead with God not to let my prayers for Dev Sahab fall on deaf ears. No, my dear God, you can’t do such a cruel thing to your humble servant praying for a man created by you to create so much happiness in the world around us.

Listen to my prayers for Dev, dear Dev. Let this birthday be the best birthday for Dev, the beginning of a new Dev. A man like Dev deserves more than one life here on earth. I want to believe it.

My dear Divya

I like girls. I started liking them ever since my dear mother gave me a very nasty pinch because I didn’t treat a little girl “like a girl should be treated, softly, tenderly, carefully, lovingly”. I don’t think I can ever forget her famous lecture and that painful pinch which had the power to change my ways of thinking — especially about little girls like you.

I thought of my mother’s commandment some days ago when you rang up to say that you were going through deep depression. Depression and a nice little girl like you! I could never believe that you could come together, meet and clash. I know you must be having your reasons for being depressed but you must never let such reasons depress you because depression is one of the greatest killers in the world and my obsession is to see that it doesn’t affect or afflict atleast young girls like you. You will get your due. You are talented. I have some of the best authorities on talent as witnesses. Your time will come. Yes, your time will come. Only if you keep depression far away from your spotless white door. Try optimism, dear Divya. It is the greater cure of our times. Optimism has helped men move mountains, made legends and warriors kick depression into the darkest corners of history before they have fought their way up. Try optimism. It is the only power that will usher in the millennium to come, the only power that will keep the millennium going, going stronger. You’ll have to try optimism before depression, the devil’s designs work on you and try to wreck you. LET THAT NOT HAPPEN TO YOU AND ALL THE OTHER DIVYAS. You are the light. How can you let the devil of depression defeat you?