Bolly in your pocket
| While it's a convenient little pocket book, if one is looking for rare insights or a detailed analysis of icons such as Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt, or even Amitabh Bachchan, much better and more elaborate works are out on the stands: one can immediately point to authors like Vishwas Nerurkar, Rachel Dwyer, and Khaled Mohammed amongst many others, who have produced some rather well-documented theses on the great masters. |
| And almost everything that the author collates under the brief chapters in this book has been better enunciated by past authors. |
| Yet, for someone alien to the glory and glamorous history of the world's largest entertainment industry and its icons (and such species do exist!), this is the perfect crash course. |
| Shantanu provides valuable anecdotes ""some part of common folklore now, like how Amitabh Bachchan lost a job at All India Radio for "not having a good voice"""and other not-so-familiar stories about how musician extraordinaire Rahul Dev Burman was the central swimmer in Calcutta's first water ballet and how Javed Akhtar got a job as a clapper boy with Kamal Amrohi, who allowed the 19-year-old to sleep in the property room in the studio, where he encountered three Filmfare award trophies won by Meena Kumari. |
| (Interestingly enough, this year Javed Akhtar bagged all five nominations for best lyricist at the Filmfare awards.) |
| More often than not, the star-worshipping audience pick up hardbound books on the Big B and current heartthrobs like Shah Rukh Khan, but very rarely do we find publishers coming out with well-publicised works on stars of yesteryear like Nargis and even Hema Malini. |
| What is, however, welcome to note is that despite being commissioned a paltry 158 pages for 15 luminaries, Shantanu manages to weave in some pretty accurate and incisive observations, like how Hema Malini is perhaps the only heroine in the history of Hindi films who stayed at the top despite not having a well-established partnership with any banner (which is the only factor apart from talent that catapults an actress to the big league today) or actor. |
| Also welcome is his objective style of writing which doesn't reduce to fawning (a la Bunny Reuben) at any point. Relatively adjective-free, the style provides the viewer enough instances to be amused without resorting to any theatrics. |
| He minces no words in providing the reason for Rajesh Khanna's downfall"""success went to his head and he became arrogant and unprofessional". Or taking a dig at the industry itself"""the very film industry which shunned him (R D Burman) in the last years of his life, now goes overboard trying to create full-length feature films woven around his compositions". |
| In fact, it's common knowledge that Dada Saheb Phalke award recipient""and evergreen showman""Dev Anand has been churning out ridiculous trash in the name of entertainment for the last two decades, and Shantanu sums it up curtly"""... each of them amply demonstrates his limitations as a director""a total lack of scripting sense and almost amateurish technique". |
| That apart, it would have been interesting to have a special section on Filmfare awards, and the numerous unthinkable awards handed out by the Indian equivalent of the Oscars. |
| For example, one would have liked to get a point of view on, say, on what grounds the Manoj Kumar-starrer Be-Imaan fetched the best music statuette for Shankar Jaikishen, in a year in which R D Burman gave us Amar Prem and Hare Rama Hare Krishna. |
| The author needs to be credited with the ensemble mix, though a much better introduction was expected from Shyam Benegal. |
| When a filmmaker of his stature decided to pen the foreword, we wished there would be more personal insights into the industry, and not just the umpteenth passage on how "cinema has evolved over the years ..." The total lack of photographs (the pencil sketches are nice, though) is also a sore point, but the effort to unearth rare stills probably didn't justify the budget the book was commissioned for. |
| But hopefully there are better days ahead for Shantanu and readers. |
| While several cine-enthusiasts would squabble about the 15 names chosen (and surely it is the author's prerogative), one cannot fathom why seven-time Filmfare award-winning director and the man who, amongst others, introduced a touch of realism to Bollywood, Bimal Roy, is excluded from the list. |
| In terms of sheer drama, the lives of superior lyricists Sahir Ludhianvi and Shailendra (who committed suicide, when his brilliant production debut Teesri Kasam flopped at the counters) should have found place before Javed Akhtar, and while the mention of Shah Rukh and Aamir on the cover may help sell those few extra copies, the absence of non-lead actors and actresses is glaring. |
| Pran, Ajit, Mehmood, and Helen are icons who have weathered more era changes than most current stars. |
| But, I guess Shantanu can always include them and other greats like Mohd Rafi, Meena Kumari, Ashok Kumar, Nutan, and Naushad in the sequel. One only hopes then, that in the process of making it attractive on the shelf, some current but lesser mortals don't find themselves in the next august gathering. |
| Icons from Bollywood |
| Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri Penguin Books India Price: Rs 175 Pages: 158 |