My Sojourn with SRK
We always reminisce about the past. Especially, now that I am a grad student, I remember the carefree, 8 hrs of sleep a night days, during the not so distant past (though it seems light years away)! But I have a very vague recollection of my school days. A hazy mish mash of memories! But one incident I vividly remember, was when Shah Rukh Khan happened to me.
I was 11 when it hit me. Baazigar had just released. Theaters were in a sorry state then and cable tv was on the rise. I saw the movie till I think Shilpa Shetty's plummet to her death. And something changed. Maybe it was my first brush with watching movies independently. Before tben, in my family watching movies was watching Sholay for the umpteenth time or some
inane movie about bashing up baddies. And again, I re-iterate, something changed.
First time I saw that the 'hero'
1. need not be a cop framed by the corrupt system
2. need not be a college romeo
3. need not be a man who is righteous
Shah Rukh in Baazigar was cunning, wily, selfish, Machiavellian and perhaps evil. Then came a spate of his movies. In Darr he played the role of a warped obsessive lover. If in Baazigar, his motives were inspired by 'righteous' reasons (though he uses craft and crime to achieve his ends), in Anjaam his motives were also not defended. Maybe I was accustomed to watching the hero always being fettered in a set paradigm, or just the onset of hormones at 11, it cast a deep impact on me. But love hadnt' happened till then. It happened at 12. With DDLJ.
I laughed, I cried, I sang, almost danced, while watching the movie in the theater. Why, I still do not know. In the time span of 1 year from 7th standard to 8th standard , I must have watched the movie at least 20 times (and that is a conservative estimate). And the funniest part is my obsession was shared by siblings , parents, and even believe it or not ...grandparents. In that 1
year we went to see the movie thrice in the theater. And to top it all, just 3 years ago, when I was 19, my full family went to watch it again in Maratha Mandir, a decrepit theater in Mumbai that has never seen the sun rise, without the first matinee show of DDLJ since the year I was 11.
After DDLJ, me and my sister started believing that there exists a Prince Charming, who will come on a white horse and whisk us away one day. Later we realised that the Prince was the same person in her case and mine ..ya guessed it right, Shah Rukh. This was a cause of strife between us till our teens lasted.
I enjoyed DTPH and KKHH, though not as much as DDLJ. In recent times, Kal Ho Naa Ho also was an entertaining experience. I found SRK's diabolical sense of humor in it , reminiscent of Chandler in Friends. Also I wept in a very different way while watching Swades. His contempt for the parochial mentality of the villagers and somewhere his strife within himself, with his double standards was completely relatable.
This is not a debate about his acting prowess. It is just my personal journey with SRK and his movies! Though my obessive, compulsive disorder has diminished (people will say otherwise)
he still has a special place in my sundry musings :) But a word about the actor and not the persona. If I can relate to him even after 12 years of movie watching, both Hollywood,
Bollywood and soon Mollywood, there has to be some merit in his abilities, which often gets dwarfed behind superficial stuff like he danced at weddings and appeared in a soap advertisement and whether he is metro/hetero.
I would personally like to see him as Rhett Butler in a desi take off of Gone with the wind.
He could play the rakish, crafty, lusty, also the righteous, the love struck, the jealous man Rhett Butler was! Kareena would fit the role of the feisty Scarlett. I cannot think of a fitting parallel to the Civil War in a desi scenario. But I am sure someone will think of something! Wot say, Mr. Bhardwaj?
I was 11 when it hit me. Baazigar had just released. Theaters were in a sorry state then and cable tv was on the rise. I saw the movie till I think Shilpa Shetty's plummet to her death. And something changed. Maybe it was my first brush with watching movies independently. Before tben, in my family watching movies was watching Sholay for the umpteenth time or some
inane movie about bashing up baddies. And again, I re-iterate, something changed.
First time I saw that the 'hero'
1. need not be a cop framed by the corrupt system
2. need not be a college romeo
3. need not be a man who is righteous
Shah Rukh in Baazigar was cunning, wily, selfish, Machiavellian and perhaps evil. Then came a spate of his movies. In Darr he played the role of a warped obsessive lover. If in Baazigar, his motives were inspired by 'righteous' reasons (though he uses craft and crime to achieve his ends), in Anjaam his motives were also not defended. Maybe I was accustomed to watching the hero always being fettered in a set paradigm, or just the onset of hormones at 11, it cast a deep impact on me. But love hadnt' happened till then. It happened at 12. With DDLJ.
I laughed, I cried, I sang, almost danced, while watching the movie in the theater. Why, I still do not know. In the time span of 1 year from 7th standard to 8th standard , I must have watched the movie at least 20 times (and that is a conservative estimate). And the funniest part is my obsession was shared by siblings , parents, and even believe it or not ...grandparents. In that 1
year we went to see the movie thrice in the theater. And to top it all, just 3 years ago, when I was 19, my full family went to watch it again in Maratha Mandir, a decrepit theater in Mumbai that has never seen the sun rise, without the first matinee show of DDLJ since the year I was 11.
After DDLJ, me and my sister started believing that there exists a Prince Charming, who will come on a white horse and whisk us away one day. Later we realised that the Prince was the same person in her case and mine ..ya guessed it right, Shah Rukh. This was a cause of strife between us till our teens lasted.
I enjoyed DTPH and KKHH, though not as much as DDLJ. In recent times, Kal Ho Naa Ho also was an entertaining experience. I found SRK's diabolical sense of humor in it , reminiscent of Chandler in Friends. Also I wept in a very different way while watching Swades. His contempt for the parochial mentality of the villagers and somewhere his strife within himself, with his double standards was completely relatable.
This is not a debate about his acting prowess. It is just my personal journey with SRK and his movies! Though my obessive, compulsive disorder has diminished (people will say otherwise)
he still has a special place in my sundry musings :) But a word about the actor and not the persona. If I can relate to him even after 12 years of movie watching, both Hollywood,
Bollywood and soon Mollywood, there has to be some merit in his abilities, which often gets dwarfed behind superficial stuff like he danced at weddings and appeared in a soap advertisement and whether he is metro/hetero.
I would personally like to see him as Rhett Butler in a desi take off of Gone with the wind.
He could play the rakish, crafty, lusty, also the righteous, the love struck, the jealous man Rhett Butler was! Kareena would fit the role of the feisty Scarlett. I cannot think of a fitting parallel to the Civil War in a desi scenario. But I am sure someone will think of something! Wot say, Mr. Bhardwaj?
posted by tilo @ 1:25 PM
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