Happy Birthday Salman Bhai

by Piyush Dewan from Nacchgaana

Bhai turns 46 tomorrow. I am advancing my wishes by a few hours as I will be travelling for the next few days starting early morning tomorrow.

Bhai, It feels great to see you on the top of the box office game since the past two years. It gladdens my heart to see you enjoying yourself and making millions swoon to your tunes, your songs, your kicks, your punches, and your dialogues. This super-successful phase is sweeter as it comes after a lull period which was laden by box-office disappointments. And it is still sweeter as you maintain that your best phase is still yet to come.

But more than this tizzy that you creating at the cinemas, what’s more delightful is to see is your renewed vigor and enthusiasm for your job. You are working hard and working in the right spirit, without getting affected by what’s going around you. There is a new-found glint in your eyes when you talk about your upcoming movies, which is a delightful change from the disinterest you showed while doing the same earlier. I still remember a CNN IBN show with you and Priety Zinta on the day Jaaneman released (or was it NDTV?) where the anchor asked you what your film was all about? And you, very tongue in cheek, answered that your movie talked about how it’s very difficult for married men to make it big in the film industry. I was Flabbergasted by your answer (though I got the context when I saw the movie)- but still was disappointed to see you taking the whole thing so lightly. It was a disservice, not only to yourself, but also to the hundreds who work day and night to make a good film, and also to your countless passionate fans. However, today it seems that you have realized this responsibility that you have towards your fans and well wishers- of doing well and doing it right- and are trying to do the best you can within your limitations and without changing the way you are.

The best thing about you however is that you are what you are- direct, spontaneous, and perfectly imperfect- that you are real and sensitive- and that people like me can identify with you extremely well. This is despite your larger than life persona and the tough exterior that you seem to be a fellow who is closer to what we are- how we do our stuff- how we think- how we react- how we imagine things to be. And to top it all you don’t give a damn about what been written about you- good or bad. You never make statements, or never try to clarify things. This is your way of trusting your fans to know what is right and what is wrong.

You never shout out that your film is a success. I have never seen you tweet to your fans regarding your movies. When you give interviews, you keep your eyes down if the interviewer is being nice to you (else you look everywhere but at the interviewer which is a kick-ass way of telling him/her that she is being silly). You always have kind words to say about your co-stars and co-actors. You try to give people second chances, and take failures as just a part of life (I have never seen an actor who is more flippant about his past failures). You never try to pretend or camouflage your disliking for a particular person (even if he is your biggest rival and a potential threat). That is because you know you have no potential threat, no insecurities. You don’t mind lesser actors and lesser stars than you to get the best lines in front of you. You don’t mind your competitors to have the bigger hits than you.

When you visited SRK’s KBC along with Katrina, you very jovially claimed that the aim of your life is to see a father who tells his son to be like yourself, and at the same time another who tells his son to be like anyone but not like yourself. This just shows that you don’t crave for universal acceptance- and that keeps you content and happy and rooted and real. But without trying you have made your presence felt in the hearts of the masses- ranging from the man on the top-most echelon of the economic ladder- to that bloke working hard every day just to sustain and feed his children. It is a big thrill to see you having such massive unparalleled connect with the people at the bottom of the pyramid. You are spreading smiles and selling dreams to the people finding it tough to make a living- and in that manner you are doing a greater charity than the ones you do through your being human endeavor.

You are an inspiration to many in the way you stand for your family and your brothers and your friends (and vice-versa). Maybe you could have planned your career better had you taken lesser number of decisions from your heart than your mind- but then you wouldn’t have been yourself. You wouldn’t have been Salman Khan.

Wishing you all the best for all your future endeavors- stay yourself and stay blessed. Your fans are with you in full force (and the army is getting bigger and more diverse with each passing day). Personally we are waiting for the day when you will settle down- may the coming year bring the answer to the question everyone asks you- “When are you getting married?” Shut their mouths for once, will you?

Love and respect and regards and best wishes
A younger brother you have never met

'Suhani Chandni Raatein'

A wonderful rendition by Mukesh.The feeling of remembrance of the nuances of love and the small happenings gets deified here and Mukesh gives this song a texture of eternal bliss.Melodious and Soothing–just turn the lights off ,recline and put this on your record player and relish the haunting memoirs of love.The way Mukesh alternates between the pain in the voice at missing the love and then he suddenly lowers his pitch to enter the melodious tune again as if losing himself to a trance has such an impact on a heart that misses someone far and yonder that mind is lost in figments of imaginations!! Lovely Song,If you are missing the one you love,just put everything to rest,close your room,close your world and set yourself free with the eternal voice of Mukesh.

Goodbye Dev by Pritish Nandy

I grew up on the mean streets of Calcutta. It was a great city in those days, full of magic and excitement, and one of my big thrills at school was to save my two anna tiffin money to watch Hindi movies. The great stars were Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand. Each had his own loyal following. And they would queue up days before a movie released, to buy tickets in advance. There was a counter for Advance Booking and fans, to mark their loyalty, would often stand in line for three days to buy a ticket for a First Day First Show. There was no black market, but yes, you could always find someone to stand in line for you if you gave him a free ticket. It was a big thing, the FDFS. It was your badge of loyalty. Many of us preserved those tickets.

Years later, when throwing away my FDFS tickets, largely of 10 anna denomination, I figured most of them were for Dev Anand movies. Dev was no actor. But, like Salman today, he was a style setter. His attitude defined the trend. His hair styled after the young Elvis with a puff on the forehead was the most popular style of the time. So was the way he kept his collar up, a mannerism that cricketers like Jaisimha and Azhar emulated in later years. Dev’s own hero was Gregory Peck and he copied Peck as shamelessly as we all copied him, including the endearing way in which Dev stretched out his arm with a limp wrist, his head cocked to one side. Dilip Kumar may have been the greater actor, Raj the bigger showman. But Dev was the hero. He was the star we loved, admired, aped, and tirelessly discussed in between geography and algebra.

Dev had a magic of his own and he eventually proved, by making Guide, that he was also an actor and a showman. Guide was one of Bollywood’s first attempts at making an international movie. Like all other such attempts before and after, it failed. It was based on a RK Narayan story. Nobel Prize winner Pearl Buck worked on its screenplay. Tad Danielewski directed the English version. Vijay Anand, the Hindi one. SD Burman scored its incredible music. It went on to win all the five top Filmfare Awards. But it never became the huge international movie Dev dreamt of. It broke his heart and he went back to making what he knew best: blockbusters like Jewel Thief and Johny Mera Naam.

When I came to Bombay in 1982, Dev was already struggling to be remembered. Raj had moved on to directing movies. Dilip Kumar was playing character roles. But Dev refused to age. He kept making movies, almost one a year, as a hero, much to the embarrassment of all those who loved and admired him. It was his ticket to timelessness, as he saw it. It was the only way he knew to fight mortality. We loved him for it; yet we grieved for him as well. For a new generation of movie watchers had long passed him by. Time is unforgiving. It was Bollywood’s worst kept secret that no one went to watch his movies any more. No one remembered Dev as the iconic hero he once was. He was but a tragic caricature of himself.

It is the tragedy of stardom. You must know when to quit. Few do. I loved Dev. I loved his movies. I loved their songs. Many of them went on to become classics, which means songs we adore but never listen to. SD was his favourite music director and Dev’s few admirers still around largely remember him by SD’s melodies. Many of these I still recall in moments of personal grief and loss. In moments like this when we grieve not just the death of a friend and a legend but also the passing of an era.

Dev Anand was actually gone long before he passed away. But no, he did not go gentle into the good night. Like all brave men, he fought, fought against the dying of the light. He was one of the loneliest people I knew. He craved for immortality. We gave him respect. But he didn’t give a damn for our respect. He didn’t want Lifetime Achievement Awards. All he wanted was adulation. And we had stopped giving him that a long time back.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/extraordinaryissue/entry/goodbye-dev

Salman Khan, his Life & his Family