OUR TIME IN THE SUN
Another
‘hero’ passed away, yesterday. And, I am inspired to write one more Post, today…
Yes, back-to-back.
As a kid, I grew up on the diet
of Rajesh Khanna’s movies: Aradhana, Kati Patang, Amar Prem, Mere Jeevan
Saathi, Bawarchi, Hathi Mere Saathi and Anand.
Romance. Songs. Style.
Yes, as a blooming teen, Rajesh
Khanna’s on-screen romance lit-up our tender hearts… We hummed his songs as we
walked to and from our schools… And, yes, we tried his famous hair-style!
He was the reining star… The Super-star.
And, fans, particularly the female fans, went crazy about him… the young, the
middle-aged and even the old. I remember my own grandma raving about this young
heart-throb after watching ‘Hathi Mere Saathi’ with other village oldies in one
of the theatres in our town! The raving went on for quite some time, and it
took quite many years for me to understand why one raved so much a celluloid
hero like Rajesh Khanna?... And, why, even the wrinkled ladies, like my grandma,
did that?
In a few years, this Super-star
was destined to fade… and, another one was destined to rise!
And, since then, this star – Amitabh
Bachchan – has remained my great inspiration. The romance, songs and the hair-style
was now replaced by the intensity, the grit and under-dog spirit and, of
course, the charisma. Never to forget the legendary discipline.
I was young by then, and quite
conscious about myself. I needed someone like this Angry Youngman on the screen
to inspire me to fight my own battles…
Amitabh did exactly this. He does
it to me, even now!
Well,
the reason why I have chosen to write on Rajesh Khanna and other Super-stars is
to remind myself this: “Look buddy, even the Super Stars fade…
The fame fades…
The adulation fades…
The power and the position fade…
Someone else will rise…
will
become a Super-star…
will dethrone you from you seat…
will take away all your
fame, adulation,
power and position…
And, you will fade away into the
oblivion…
Are you aware of it? Or, do you
still ‘resist’ this from happening?
When the inevitable comes, will
you be prepared? Wise enough to accept and live gracefully with dignity?”
Yes, to remind myself about the
mortality of fame, power and position!
It is tough. Very, very tough to
accept this reality!
The irony is that when I am a nobody,
I die to be famous – become a ‘somebody’. Then, when fame comes, I die even
more desperately to remain there forever…
And, my struggle to be there, forever, now consumes all my energy… and,
I embark on a losing battle against the simple natural law of life – ‘What goes
up has to come down!”
No, I don’t want to come down… I
fight, I struggle… I remain in fear, pain and sorrow.
Amitabh knows it… he has gone
through all the familiar roller-coaster ride. He considers, with all his
humility, that he is fortunate to be there – in the hearts of people - for so
long. But, he is old… health is fragile… energy is dwindling… and, knows what a
stupid idea it is, even to imagine in his wildest dreams, that he is a ‘Super-star’!
Shah Rukh Khan is on his way out…
and, he, too, knows it.
Elvis Presley… The Beatles…
Michael Jackson…
Marlon Brando… Marilyn Monroe… Sylvester
Stallone…
Pale… Maradona… Mohammed
Ali… Don Bradman…
Winston Churchill or Adolf
Hitler…
Gandhi or Bose…
It is only the little allotted time
to you and me – the destiny’s children – to bask in the Sun…
That’s all to it… to our Super-stardom!
Perhaps, Rajesh Khanna himself
tells this to us in his famous acceptance speech…
As Amitabh Bachchan absorbs.
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pics.: Vivek D'Cunha
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Pritesh