One Cuckoo flew over Bollywood nest

For past few weeks, gone thru many news n articles on Rajnikant after release of his Endhiran (tamil) dubbed Robo (hindi) movie, some speculating that a new box office records is on its way, how SRK & Hrithik are expanding their budget for RA1 and Krishh2 to match the sfx of this movie and some other waggish stories. But the thing I am waiting for is, the new Rajni jokes in the famous - What Rajni cant’ nobody can series. Some like - The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikanth kicked one of the corners off. Rajnikanth's every step creates a mini whirlwind, Hurricane Katrina was the result of a morning jog. Superb ! I guess, only Santa Singh-Banta Singh surpass him in that field and it’s a moot point to even discuss the comparison though some of it may be bemoaned by Rajni’s die-hard fans, still the sheer genius of ppl coming up with such soaring imagination is admirable.

There are certain items in print that I don’t agree with. Thru my days in Tamilnadu and whatever part of the state I’ve toured, I’ve never seen any temple for Rajnikant. I know and have met many die-hard fans of his, but no one has time or are brain-sick enuf to construct a temple. The huge garlands and aarthi to his cut-outs on movie release is south-indian style of welcoming home a hero from a long stay away, since he accepts a movie once in 2-3 yrs or so. It’s surely an idiocy to even comment that people in general treat him like real God and worship and other craps.

When western media made whimsical comments on Aamir Khan being 45 yr old  enacting as a fresh 18-yr Engg student in 3 Idiots or memory loss hero in Ghajani, no wonder why their counterparts in India wud spare 60-yr Shivaji Rao Gaikwad flexing his mannerism. Last time, with the same charm, he took the NDTV entertainer of the year award, apparently given by the same media. Wud he, this year too ??

Contrary to the funny series, there are many things which Rajni can and others cant apart from his unrivaled fees, having 60 shows of his movie in one single day in all the screens of a multiplex, the most striking which cant be matched with any actor anywhere in world is his ability to refund back his fees to producers and distributors if his movie is not a blockbuster let alone a hit.

When a friend from Dubai struggling in queue for first show at 7:30 am morning at  Grand Cinema - Hyatt Galleria tweeted that car parking collections from the theatres featuring Endihiran wud surpass the box office collections of Anjana-Anjani, I cud not stop laughing on the capitalist at heart to take notice of Superstar. Unfortunately, in Phuket there are no theatres which show Indian movies, neither Hindi nor Tamil. Thru an acquaintance, I’ve got a DVD of the movie dubbed in Thai. No clue how much I wud understand the lingo, but quite eager to know what exactly he says in Thai while bashing the villains like fruitcakes. Maybe, I cud steamroll some of it in my office on my staff with a piqued intolerance oozing from my gaze and ending the dialogue with the Thai equivalent of ‘Mind it’ !

Worship

 

Whenever we relate in our opinion to someone else who is better than we are or say higher than us in our esteem, we tend to conceptualize him or her as hero. I suppose, this has been for ages. It dates back to people worshipping in the form of God, then King/Emperor of a nation and now in modern times following a certain movie star or a political leader.

Oxford Dictionary explains hero worship as: excessive admiration for someone.

Since, entertainment in form of movies is so much of our lives; we look at movie star as a real time hero who plays as a warrior embodied with wisdom, strength, and courage in the face of evil. Hero, in Indian movies largely has the carefully-nurtured defender-of-the-downtrodden image, which in a way promotes the term hero-worship.

I, myself am a big fan of Mr. Kamalassan of Tamil Cinema. Whilst, I was with Grand Hyatt Mumbai before joining Ma Foi, I had a chance to meet up the favorite actor of mine in full flesh. While there is a long and interesting story of how I ended up meeting him, Mr. Kamalassan as such is a very humble person and easy to talk to. He readily agreed to stand besides me for a photograph. When, I enquired about his fan followings back home and how he feels about the same. He smiled and said though it makes him nervous sometimes; still it proves as an impetus to work more perfectly as there is a larger expectation involved. In Tamilnadu, have heard rumours about shrines for MGRamachandran and Khusboo at Chennai and Trichy respectively. Which, needless to add, in case had been erected, by now must have been promptly forgotten and left to ruin. Still, what prompted the fans for such an idea? And would this hero worship ever lead me to keep a photo of Mr. Kamalassan in my pooja room?

In the urban Tamilnadu, you can find fan clubs of popular actors in every street. How can I forget Mr. Rajnikant, whose delirious fans, hang on to every syllable he utters with something akin to a religious fervor. Once, in Trichy, when I was going towards my exam centre, I found to my amazement myself in a traffic jam. Though I didn’t had much time, I tried to sneak out side the Autorickshaw to find a fairly large crowd amidst a cinema house. People with flowers, coconuts, garlands and incence sticks had gathered in front of big cut-out of the hero of the newly released film. The atmosphere there was nothing less than auspicious. I asked the Auto driver to take a short-cut to reach the exam centre. Which, he did and when I was paying up the money, he repented that if we had stayed there for some more time, we could have got some ‘prasad’ too.

In Mumbai, not too long, there was an advt for sale of flats in a building near Amitabh Bachchan’s bungalow. The price was bit costly than the normal rates in JVPD scheme - Juhu, bearing to the fact that it was near to Big B’s place and one can boast to their friends and relatives that they live besides the king of Indian cinema. And all of the flats got booked in a day’s time.

Recently in Dubai, a new state-of-the-art complex of the Belhasa Driving Center,(one of the premier driving institutes in the UAE) was inaugurated by Bollywood actor Salman Khan, recently booked for crash driving. I suppose, you can see the irony in the function held and the level of hero worship.