Recalling Amitabh Bachchan At His Prime

I wrote down the following message at Big B’s blog, and now sharing it out with you as well. It is interesting to find Amitabh Bachchan rant about his daily chores at the aforementioned link. He recently spoke out about his father’s long battle with ailments before finally the latter passed away, something quite touching and worth a read. I have bookmarked his weblog and would look forward to reading some more interesting news, controversies and revelations in the weeks to follow. May be I can get someday answers about his on and off-screen equations with Kishoreda, who knows.

My Entry At Big B’s Web Mouthpiece

While surfing through this weblog, I fondly recalled my Mumbai (then Bombay) visit about 27 years ago. I was merely 12 at that time and was accompanied by several of my family members during that journey. We were out in the late afternoon having a reccie of the area we were lodged in – Andheri to be precise – and trying to figure out and grasp the “Mahanagari” character of Mumbai in those days. Suddenly a commotion erupted at the gate of a cinema studio, we were passing by, and people frantically began trying to have a look of somebody who had just sneaked inside there. One of us asked who was it. They shouted back Lamboo…Amitabh! We too joined in the fray for a while, but in vain of course, as the mega star was already behind the studio’s high walls. Being the youngest in the whole crowd meant, I had no chance of getting Amita-Vachchan’s (as kids would fondly call him back in Ahmedabad, from where I hail) glimpse anyway! I still feel remorse for having missed the sight of an Amitabh Bachchan at his pinnacle! (he is continuing to rise on, no doubt…but, that was something more special)

Those were the days when Lamboo would occupy the first ten spots (and not merely the top slot) in various Bollywood ratings, as Jitendra, another of his immensely successful co-actors, had once famously suggested. People would flock, both the new and old Amitabh releases, with an amazing show of excitement. Kids would go berserk looking at Big B’s mammoth posters outside the cinema halls. Audiences would shout their lungs out, whenever Amitabh would finally appear over the wide cinema screens, and Man Mohan Desais and Prakash Mehras would also do their jobs well in those days to sustain the euphoria of those exciting moments.

That was also the era when, when Sholay was yet to be archived in the Indian cinema’s history. Zanjeer, Deewar, Don and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar were still collecting great moolah at the box office. Kishoreda was still alive and going strong like never before, while RDB was as legendary as ever. And with the melodious voices of Latadi and Ashadi around and some of the best production houses, screenplay writers, female co-stars of that era accompanying him…Amitabh Bachchan was simply invincible in the truest sense!

Heck! So many years gone by, yet the memories reignite as if it was only yesterday. So Big B has finally gone on to become elderly….this author sudenly awoke out of the slumber to rediscover this paramount truth. He was 12 in those days, now 39 with the first round of gray hair and baldness appearing on him as well. Time did quickly fly by indeed, one would have to concede!