Monday 27 July 2015

BROTHERS IN ARMS

Before you could react from astonishment to disgust and despair, controversy's favourite child, our very own megastar bhaijaan, does a volte-face over his series of scandalous tweets (sympathetic towards Yakub Menon) ostensibly made under the influence of a midnight stupor. Pertinent point is, is he ever in his senses? 

After an extraordinary image makeover from a hotheaded, muscle-rippling, don't-give-a-damn dude in previous money-spinners to a golden-hearted simpleton without a deceitful bone in body in his latest blockbuster, Salman Khan must be having the last laugh all the way to the bank. He has successfully dodged a stay at cells (at least for the time being) to stay bindaas at the celluloid, mocking his detractors and naysayers. 
He does have his saviours though, from 'badnaam' munni to an angelic munni...! If one was the ultimate fantasy queen,the latest is quite like a fairy princess, pristine and beatific. The former resurrected his erratic, down-swinging career graph while the younger Munni has aided in cementing his supremacy at the superstardom ladder. Lady Luck smiles at him while Destiny Dear has him under its folds. No wonder, this nearly fifty years old guy is developing fifty shades of megalomania.

Like millions of Hindi cinema lovers, I've been his fan since 'Hum aapke hain Kaun' days, loving his onscreen supercool projections and dismissing all his off-screen inanities and news of shenanigans with just a frown. Popular opinions have him as a lovable rogue, a generous and helpful guy with his heart at the right place while his head does all the wrong. The fact that at times he crosses the the limits of civilised behaviour, takes people for granted, flouts the judiciary and the laws of the land, is all forgiven and forgotten repeatedly. 

When an aging neo-nabob needs his father (Salim Khan)to come up to his defence and coverup his indiscretions, it reveals the stunted mental growth of big guys like Sunjay Dutt and Salman Khan. Big guys with little brains and even lesser common sense trying hard to hoodwink the public by becoming this 'bade dil wala' human being and diverting attention from their majorly flawed personalities.  But the biggest sucker is the idolising junta which lets a celebrity get away with all his asinine utterances. Either you believe in what you say or shut up. If you take a stand, stick to it, face the cacophony, but at least show some integrity by holding onto your beliefs and viewpoints firmly. Or maybe you DO have a stand, presumably not favourable to the country, but which can't be talked about for obvious reasons ?In which case it doesn't bode well for you, or for us, the zillions who like (a gross understatement) your movies and enable you to earn gazillions.

Paper Tigers (pun intented) never did any good. Bhaijaan won't benefit at all by extending 'bhaichaara' towards an established terrorist. Being human is good but being soft towards hardcore anti-nationals isn't cool. Bajrangbali ki Kasam !