Death Lays Its Icy Hands

The other day, a friend sent me the link of a blog from the Asom Times. It was written by a close friend of the late Ranjan Das, CEO of SAP India, who passed away of cardiac arrest in October 2009. The blog was personal, touching and left me with a twinge of sadness. Das' story was that of the meteoric rise of a middle class boy to the corporate blue-eyed boy. A story of grit and brilliance. At 42, Das was clearly not yet at his peak in terms of his professional achievements and had loads of things to be done on his unfinished agenda. It is anyone's guess what he would have scaled had he still been around....

Actor-Director Shankar Nag died in a tragic road accident more than two decades ago. Nag,in his time, was a brilliant director (we all remember the televised Malgudi Days, dont we?), and had in mind his baby, Rangashankara, a centre intended for promoting theater amongst all age groups. But, when fate struck, wife Arundhati, bravely fulfilled her late husband's dream. Today, Rangashankara stands tall in South Bangalore. The point here is Shankar Nag was set to do a good many things which were abruptly curtailed by death. It was well known that he was a restless, ambitious, creative man who would have worked wonders had he been around.

Indian's former premier, the late Rajiv Gandhi too is another example of a promising life cut short by fate. Gandhi dreamt of the Telecom and IT revolution for India way back in the 80's, and took giant steps to get our hitherto traditional economy well on track with the world. He was young, handsome to boot, and had won many admirers all over for his diction, his charming smile, amongst many other endearing qualities. So, even while mainstream media was divided in its opinion about his capabilities as a politician, he was scoring many points elsewhere, with the able support of his close coterie and his wife, Sonia. May 21, 1991 signaled the end to one of India's most charismatic leaders. There have not been too many ever since.

The recent Carlton Towers tragedy in Bangalore, footage bits of which local TV channels aired relentlessly, really wrenched my heart... young people jumping from the building in blind panic and meeting their end was tragic, to say the least. Open the city beat of any daily and one would see reports of deaths -natural and unnatural. It takes one second for us to cross over from life to the unknown. A cousin once narrated an incident that happened in his home town some years ago. On a sunny afternoon, a holiday, while he was enjoying time out with his friends and was crossing a particular highway service road, he witnessed a brother duo being run over by a speeding lorry in a matter of seconds. The friends later found out that the deceased were muslims : It was Id that day... Celebrations would have turned to mourning at the boys' house that day and for several years to come...

Death is a truth that we all know but often do not want to talk about; we prefer to go into denial. We go on with our lives mechanically like we have taken immortality for granted. It is about time we acknowledge the ephemeral nature of our existence, live by the day and stop planning endlessly for a future we cant be sure of being alive for. It aint so easy? We could do better by asking some of the survivors of terror attacks, accidents and others who have had close shaves with the moment of truth. Their numbers are many; they would agree with this, I am sure.

The Sun Never Sets on the Badshah...

In recent years, I have begun to like watching movies in the comfortable environs of my home and hence my visits to the movie halls have come down drastically. It is about total control and also avoiding a situation of being trapped with a bad watch and a headache in the theaters.

During one such home movie session, while watching MNIK, I could not stop thanking the Almighty and other forces that I was not subjected to the movie in the halls. Nevertheless, Shahrukh Khan s having the last laugh... again... I heard the the movie's opened to a very positive response at the box office here and overseas. And, Khan's exchange of words with the Shiv Sena has garnered more and more support for himself and his movie. The man has done it.... once again, typical of the Scorpio spirit (I cant afford to forget his birthday, since he shares it with a host of people right from my father to close family friends!).

Personally, I would not rate Khan's acting skills as anything beyond an attempt at pyrotechnics. For all the irreverent self -praise he subjects us to through the media, barring the stray Swades, Chak De India or a Paheli, I cant imagine the man ever having delivered a credible performance in his long career spanning over two decades. And understandably, he was reported to have had differences with the directors of each of these movies.. simply because they were not going to suffer the routine rubbish doled out by our matinee idol (it was expecting too much that all would be like best buddies Farah Khan and Karan Johar:)). The numerous blockbusters notwithstanding, Shahrukh remains a star trapped in mediocrity, predictable insufferable mannerisms; this, inspite of a stint in theater and despite a spark of talent (he was compared to Dilip Kumar) one saw in him in his formative years in Bollywood.

But, what makes the Badshah tick...appeal, charisma, lifestyle, matinee quotient, mass reach?
In reality, he is a product of studious brand building and hard work achieved over a number of years, and I guess he deserves to make the most of his efforts. All said and done, love him, hate him, but one just cant afford to ignore Shahrukh Khan- oh yes, he s a superstar and does not shy away from the fact. The person hurting most with the rise of the star is none other than the other Khan-Aamir. Few would remember that it was Aamir Khan' s refusal of Darr (1994) that catapulted the Badshah to superstardom. And our dear friend, Aamir Khan had to work doubly hard to reinvent himself in the cerebral meter in order to counter the Shahrukh box office onslaught... In the Khandom of Bollywood, Shahrukh s clearly stolen the show right under the noses of the other 3 Khans.

It has been a phenomenal rise from where Shahrukh started off two decades ago. A classic case of making hay while the sun shines - the cinegoers love him; so do the advertisers. Yeah, for every ten who cant stand his movies, there emerge another hundred who seem to lap it all up, and significantly, they come from a carefully cultivated overseas market. If he continues to play his cards well, he may have scripts written for him right into his 50's and 60's a la AB. Going by the way it is shining, Shahrukh Khan' s career may never see the sun setting on it. Now, is that good news or bad?