Amitabh came under fire from his own fan quarters for the first time. He recently challenged a couple of posters who were continuing to harass him on non-issues, and won overwhelming support from all sections of his fan-base. There is nothing to be surprised about this though, since he has always won unconditional support from his movie fans post his megastardom. So, what went against him this time? Well, the following ill fated article by Rajdeep Sardesai, it seems, in which Amar Singh was showered with praise and AB too seemed to approve of it.

A majority of Big B fans do not approve of Amar Singh’s existence around him, it appears now. They visualize Singh from a fairly different angle than what Mr Bachchan may like to believe in. There was a constant barrage of anti-Amar Singh rhetoric since Bachchan posted the above article last night. The Hindi movie doyen went unusually silent after reading the reactions. Bachchan is a seasoned public figure (and well beyond the small fries like Amar Singh and his ilk), who can handle such glitches with utmost diplomacy, one knows that well.

Big B finally starts speaking about his heydays. Begins by recalling his fight from the jaws of death at the Breach Candy hospital in 1982. Brings out in the mind very familiar pictures for this author, whose both parents had to be shifted in the ICU at some point of time in the past, and whoes dad had to finally breathe his last in the same environs in 2006. Big B makes a tale-telling account as usual- quite narrative, stirring and laden with drama. His ability to visualize the events of past is amazing, and he could easily have been a great fiction writer or a movie director if not into acting.

Many images came to this author’s mind, and the whole 1982 crisis got revisited. How Indira Gandhi had flown to Mumbai to inquire about his health. How the complete absence of any commercial TV channels had still not prevented the entire country going totally hooked to this sole news for months on. How his life’s end would be rumored causing an instant outpouring of public sentiments. How fans would make journeys to temples, stand in huge numbers outside Breach Candy. How each of his ups and downs, as he finally started recovering would be made into major headlines in those days. This author could recall until his departure from Breach Candy, the rest is fuzzy now though. He went ahead to complete Coolie with Man Mohan Desai, which became an instant hit on its release in 1983.

Find Amitabh story-telling about his cheerleader in the ICU as he rose back to his recovery from ash. It may end you chock-a-block with emotions.

Day 60

Amitabh Bachchan has promised to speak about his old team mates soon – the stalwarts and colleagues he worked with. Part of his fan following, including this author, kept him reminding about this issue, and he now seems to be about to oblige us.

This made me to recollect all I have wanted to know from him and left the list inside his comments section at his latest blog entry. The list of my queries goes without any edits as bellow:

Sholay is the biggest example of how the movie critics could go horribly wrong. They had already trashed it down, before the crowds began swelling in in theaters, and how awesome it proved out to be, we know now. At the same time let me add here, the media or any other segment of our society (like the polity) may not be any different that what the rest may stand for. If India lacks in efficiency, while driving on roads, in honestly paying and collecting taxes, in governance and social make-up, then media could also not be expected to be any different. They too are the same CHALTAA HAI motto people!

With regards to your earlier hint that you might soon begin speaking about your early days, and the stalwarts you had a chance to work with, let me remind you some of the names and issues for the moment.

1. Please help us know how the “angry young man” tag got evolved with your early phase. There is this movie Namak Haram, which brings out your aggression and energy quite remarkably inside a plot where there are no fights to be undertaken; Zanjeer also got released during the same year. In fact, Anand too had a glimpse of your about-to-burst anger in a couple of shots. Had any particular director have a say in molding you into such developments, or did you start to bring it out on your own?

You once narrated, how you had complained your father “Hamein Kyun Paida Kiya”. Was this same dissatisfaction which later began surfacing up in your roles? Or would you say, this whole “angry young man” image was a fabrication by the media, and you never felt conscious towards it?

2. Please, let us know something about Hrishida and his movies like Abhiman, Mili, Chupke-Chupke and Namak Haram, and the impact they had had on cine career.

You had once agreed with an interviewer while speaking on the BBC Hindi service, that your career was on a pinnacle, oblivious of the true rise you were yet to achieve; this was soon after Abhiman’s success…any comments about it after so many successful releases?!

3. And yes, as an ardent Kishore Kumar fan, I’d also like to read something on him. It’s beyond doubt, he had had a great impact on your filmy career. One couldn’t imagine the kind of characters you would play without visualizing his electrifying playback.

At the same time, you were the only actors who could match fire with fire with your on-screen efforts to what KK did behind the scene…you always succeeded in portraying, and even added a few extra dimensions to what KK would sing. This was a fabulous combo that we KK fans are proud of. How challenging was it to act on his voice? Did you both have some kind of personal chats on how he should have sung and how you should have acted upon it? How contrasting is it to act on today’s singers? (notwithstanding the technical proficiency attained, the music has deteriorated in Bollywood over the years)

What was this discord between you and KK before his demise? It surely made us be deprived of some more great numbers!

4. Could you tell us the story behind your hair style, if any…the typical hair cut on your ears, and thickening at the back of neck? The Beatles used to have something alike…was it the influence of that era?

5. How far is the gossip true that Jaya ma’am had made fun of your TOOTEE CHAPPALEIN during your early days?

6. Anything on Amitabh-Rekha pairing? No pressure about this though!

7. Facts about how your association with the names like MM Desai, Prakash Mehra and Yash Chopra got evolved. Did yourself being (almost) in the same age group as MM Desai and Mehra help in the successful releases you later happened to make?

8. Your joining politics at a time you were occupying the first ten spots in Bollywood (as your equally successful fellow actor Jitendra had once famously said) meant that we couldn’t have as many releases as we might have had otherwise. Did you ever regret this decision in the years to follow? Movie fans do regret, on their own part!

9. What was going inside your own mind and that of your producers’, when you started giving the duds like Toofan and Ajooba a few years later? Obviously, you had ceased to continue mesmerizing the new cine goers by that time. Did you ever feel the pressure of age catching up with you in those days?

10. Why did you stop acting in the early-mid 90s?

11. And yeah, how could your ardent screen enemy Gabbar Singh, who was also your great real life buddy, be forgotten here…and also your longest running screen mate Shashi Kapoor….and your only (top-position) competitor Vinod Khanna, who recently, very honestly, accepted that he had lost to you in that war, and it was one of the reasons why he had to flee to Osho’s Pune Ashram. Strangely, the lay movie fan had no insight to this aspect (of his losing the battle, being the reason of his escape) in those days!

More names, points and suggestions later……

More From Big B’s Weblog

DAY 37(ii) Post

[quote]
On the sets of ‘Aladin’ again and a song !!

Petrified ! Songs have always been a nightmare for me. But more of that later.
[unquote]

Dear Amitji,
I have quoted the above two sentences from your previous post. It leaves many of us surprised, since your songs have always played a key role in your success. Kindly, grant me the permission to make the following observations in this regard.

1. This blog seems to be carrying out a two-way communication: Helping you know us (the audiences) better and vice-versa. You recently mentioned how tired and doubtful you were feeling the morning you had a shoot, and suddenly somebody’s positive sms made up your day….seems like a familiar story, since most of us have to go through the same, in one or the other way. This blog is, therefore, helping us know you as much as you might do about us!

2. When you have finally spoken and shared enough about your current projects and your close ones (we are enjoying it, no doubt), kindly, look back into your past and let us know once again about your past associates. Allow us to read the “not-so-diplomatic” version of that era. Let us know about your working with Hrishida, his movies like Mili, Abhiman Chupke Chupke and Namak Haram. This author recently watched Namak Haram (doesn’t know if it was produced before or after Zanjeer) and noticed how you had this “angry young man” character flowing out of your (on-screen) persona by that period.

This explosive energy, which would then devastate your on-screen adversaries, and your ability to act it so fabulously, proved out a crucial aspect for your later career, and may not be reenacted by anybody else, however hard they may try at it. Allow us to know more about this on-screen transformation – going into the top of aggression (Zanjeer and Deewar) from the earlier works. How did you realize you could/ should do it? Didn’t this aggressiveness suit the actor that was lying inside you? Or was it also a nightmarish experience just like songs?

3. An interview that you gave after the success of Abhiman was re-aired by the BBC Hindi service a few years ago. They sounded as if you had reached at your pinnacle by then. You also seemed to agree with them, forcing this author to be amused. You did not have the idea of the rise you were yet to see in the Hindi cinema…did you have really?!

4. Let us also know things about Prakash Mehra, MM Desai and Yash Chopra, with whom you gave so many major hits. You, Mehra and Desai seem to come out of the same age group…almost! Did this help in making your association bloom, in anyway?

5. Being an ardent Kishoreda fan, let me ask you this. How was it acting, when you knew, you had his voice to rely on? The two of you together gave so many great numbers….this despite of you saying songs were nightmarish!

It wasn’t a piece of cake for everybody to act on Kishoreda’s voice – he used to sing with so much energy and passion – yet you succeeded in reciprocating his brilliance on-screen. How challenging was it to shoot on KK numbers? And where do you see today’s playback guys? Do you still feel the same charge and excitement that KK (along with RDB, Ashadi, Latadi and other singers and composures of that era) provided you in those days? You had some kind of misunderstanding with him during the mid 80s. It left us short of a few more milestone numbers!

More later…
Warm Regards,
Pankaj Mohan

The Return Of Angry Young (Or Not-So-Young These Days Whatever) Man!

Fans could watch Amitabh Bachchan picking up Filmy fights yet again. He could be seen resorting to no bars “Dhishum Dhishum” for yet one more round. The only difference being this time, he was not battling against any Amjad Khans or Danny Denzongpas. Neither were any Mumbaiya scripts, studio lights or cameras to follow up with nor was there any Man Mohan Desai to make curries out of every scene! These were the real life detractors Amitabh was punching on at. Detractors who would hide behind a free Indian press and its relative lack of accountability. Detractors who would go ga ga, since it was always lucrative to speak against the legendary Amitabh. These were highly educated and intellectual ganstas Lamboo was picking up one by one for his latest outbursts. And you may find he was winning this round as well, just like the celluloid ones. And why not, for the real life Amitabh is as talented as his movie characters, with some unparalleled humor, sarcasm, linguistic and intellectual fineness that he could put forth his arguments to counter his opponents with and keep his audiences spellbound and enthralled.

Just watch out him picking up a few media buffs for whipping here:

Day 34 Post (3)

Day 34 Post (2)

Day 34 Post (1)

He denied having been paid by BigAdda, and we should accept his denial. But, one thing is sure, his blog is part of a major drive for strengthening brand Big B, in the face of some sinister anti-Bachchan and anti-north Indian campaigns by Raj Thakrey in Mumbai. Also, with Big B’s usual ability to hold audiences mesmerized, they might be trying to build the right momentum for his upcoming movie releases. Remember, SRK is blazing all guns from across the IPL perch these days (notwithstanding his Kolkata Riders’ failures). It is common sense, other major Bollywood players did also have their options reevaluated, hence Big B’s new found blogging love, my humble guess!

You could also notice how frequently Big B was blogging, which sounds strange, keeping in mind his movie and public life commitments. May be he was on a temporary drive before his website was launched (he recently spoke about it) with sections on his father’s literary works and his other family members. If you blogged and spent online time, you’d know it was not so simple doing it without compromising with your daily chores. Mr Bachchan might be getting aided by the BigAdaa people in this case. In fact, you could notice he was being indeed, if you regularly observed his blog entries. There are things only teachies and professionals will be able to do so cleanly and regularly and not any other lay computer user. For example, the following photos and listed names may not be asembled without either spending your precious time formatting and uploading them, or being aided by some junior techies:

DAY 32 Post

DAY 33 Post

Whatever the truth behind Lamboo’s weblog, his fans are having a hey time these days keeping watch on his daily movements.

I have decided to republish my comments from Big B’s blog here. Here goes the latest one made at the following entry.

Dear Amitji,

A few comments about your DAY 31 post.

1. You missed out the chance of acting in the school play about fifty years ago, but rose to amazing heights in Bollywood later. What amazes a simple cine goer like me, the pain you sound to be carrying about that one missed out chance even today. While it was touching to read your narration of things back at Sherwood, one also felt laughing, whenever remembering how you created a nostalgia for the Hindi Cinema later. Yeah, the formative years do mean a lot more in life, one will have to agree after reading you! And if you asked about the formative years of my generation, we can easily cite the feeling of nostalgia you gave back in the 70s and 80s, as one of its key elements!

2. There is still a fair degree of doubt about your true involvement in this blogging affair. The text posted does sound to be that from you, with your distinct style of narration imprinted therein….yet it is hard to accept you might be having so much time to spend on this new found craze. I have myself blogged for some time now, and know how taxing it can prove at times to put together the kind of well formatted stories you have been posting down at regular intervals. You might be carrying mega star skills, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you can blog so regularly too.

My guess is, there are a couple of writers or journos involved here, who are compiling facts (based on your instructions) and providing you with the initial draft, something you can edit and finalize for publishing later. There is no harm in accepting, if this was how things were taking place, as it would still be called your own work, your own blog. The world knows how Osho Rajneesh used to be aided by his smart disciples, who would compile stories for the master to lend his thoughts on later. And Osho did it amazingly well; he ended up transforming scores of lives through his sheer narrating excellence.

3. People like me have started feeling jealous about your blogging now. I have spent several months trying to get traffic to my small time blog, but hardly do I generate around 50 odd daily visitors and a couple odd weekly comments. Contrast this with the 1000 odd daily comments you can get anytime by writing just two lines. The only satisfying aspect for me is, as I have discovered recently, that I can generate more traffic by blogging about your own blog!

Warm Regards,
Pankaj Mohan

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!

Amitabh was the only actor who fully used to dub Kishoreda’s songs. You could watch him loudly sing each line with his bulging and tale-telling neck veins. One must say, if Kishoreda had several moods and voices, each aimed at defining one or the other actor, Amitabh had the ability to fully live up to what had been sung by the former for him. While the likes of Devanand and Rajesh Khanna may have had enjoyed a very good rapport with Kishoreda’s voice, they were still the passive partners – KK would sing and they would mold well accordingly – unlike Amitabh, who always had a couple of dimensions to add more to kishoreda’s efforts. I think this ability (not just while doing the KK songs, but also in every other aspect of his career) made Amitabh the mega name, he is known as today.

One could ask Amitabh, if he enjoyed this challenge…meeting out fire with fire….portraying Kishoreda’s artistry on the cinema screens? And how did he see the level of difference in that challenge, if any, while going out for the shoots with today’s singers?

At times one also wonders, where would have been Kaka and Amitabh in the Hindi cinema, had it not been Kishoreda’s playback to favor them. Obviously, these two enjoyed the best of KK’s caliber while the latter was still alive. Devanand would have still made it big, since Rafi’s soft and classical mold went along with his evergreen image. But, the same can not be spoken about Bhachchan and Khanna. Can anybody think of a Rajesh Khanna without the intensity and romance of “roop teraa mastaanaa“, “yeh shaam mastaani” and “yeh jo mohabbat hai“? And where would the angry, young and lanky image of Amitabh source itself had it not been the solos by KK like “rote hue aate hain sab” and “are diwaano, mujhe pehchaano” to flourish his career with?

Amitabh, in particular, had some of the best screenplay writers, directors, producers, playback singers and music composures by his side during his heydays. Does he see the significance of their contribution to his extremely successful career? Where does Kishoreda stand in that hierarchy? We have no doubt Kishoreda had a huge sway over Bachchan’s career…but we would wish the Big B confessed it himself!