IT'S JUST A BEND, NOT THE END







I admire the team that is making the upcoming Hindi movie, ‘Sanju’, a biopic on Sanjay Dutt. The life of Sanjay Dutt has everything in it – the good, the bad and the ugly. Some of the choices he made, at various points of his life, had proved to him very costly and he had to pay a heavy price for those mistakes. The suffering in his life – be it his mother’s or first wife’s cancer – were beyond his control. But, through all of them, including his jail terms, Sanjay had been a graceful human being. Like many around me, I have known him only from what I have read about him or seen about him. But, I have, always, admired him for the way he had dealt with the consequences of his choices, and moved on in life…

I seriously feel: If Sanjay Dutt knew, that he was making some wrong choices, he would not have made them. Now, the question: Did he really not know, that he was making some wrong choices – like doing drugs or possession of AK-47?

My answer is a philosophical one, and a lot holistic: ‘He did not’! For, if he knew, he would not have made those mistakes!

Why did Jesus say, even as he suffered from the cross: ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing’?

So, when Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani come together to produce a biopic on their Munna Bhai, Sanju, it can only happen because they, too, admire Sanjay Dutt for the grit and grace he has shown in his life. It’s a story worth telling, and I will be one of those first-day-first-show movie-buffs!

Chopra and Hirani both are known for their shrewd sense of choices. Their movies have almost one-hundred percent success rate… They do roaring business at the box-office, and, importantly, their movies are loved by people of all ages.


Some days ago, during the launch of the teaser of ‘Sanju’, I heard Vidhu Vinod Chopra talking about Ranbir Kapoor, who plays Sanjay Dutt in this film. Chopra was full of praise for Ranbir’s acting prowess. In his own forthright style, Chopra said, "Ranbir is an incredible actor with stupid script choices".




I couldn’t agree more.

Ranbir has been one of my favourite actors, too. When I saw the teaser, where he has unbelievably transformed into Sanjay Dutt, my admiration for him went up a few notches more.

Well, like Sanjay Dutt, here is Ranbir… with his own ‘stupid script choices’. When asked for his reaction to Chopra’s comment, Ranbir replied, "If every actor knew what he was doing and had a plan, everyone would be a superstar. So, it is hard and I am trying to learn from my own mistakes… I keep reminding myself that it's just a bend, not the end. Life is very difficult and requires a lot of hard work and you have to keep working... Like Raju sir's film title, 'Lage raho.”

What a deadly combination, and what a contrast! On one side, Chopra and Hirani have been almost flawless in the choices of their ‘scripts’, while Sanjay and Ranbir had frequently got it wrong…

But, then, that’s how life is… and, life should be. Some we win and some we lose… but, we need to make our choices to the best of our wisdom… If they go right, great; if they don’t go right, we need to dust-off our feet and move on in life,  saying what Ranbir says, “It’s just a bend, not the end”!

Life doesn’t come with any guarantees. With all the past success record of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani, nobody can still predict if their new project – ‘Sanju’ – will be a roaring success or a disaster…

Such is life… If the decision turns wrong, that would certainly not be the ‘end’… It would be just a ‘bend’…

Yes, every dead-end is a new turning-point. And, it shall be so for all of us here – whether we are a Chopra, a  Hirani, a Dutt, a Kapoor, or just a ‘you’ and a ‘me’.


GERALD  D’CUNHA

Pic.: www.indiatoday.in
Video: YouTube



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