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Why Chennai Express of Sha Rukh Khan is an amazing sine qua non for a course on world cinema
It is almost a year since Chennai
Express, a record breaking Indian blockbuster of the king of
Bollywood, Sha Rukh Khan, was released. This Indian
flick may have a few surprise lessons for students of the movie craft.
It is one of those rare events on
the silver screen, which provides a lot of insight to anyone seriously
considering to master the craft of cinema and how to press the right buttons to
enter the hearts of millions.
Bollywood films routinely become
blockbusters with record collections at the box office, thanks to a captive audience looking out for a pass-time and burdened with a deficit of IQ and excess of money in
their pockets both in India and abroad.
Chennai Express which got only
sub zero marks from film critics, but managed to add a record number of zeros
to its box office collection, however, is different and something of a a mystery of the Indian silver screen.
No one really knows how and when
the ‘rail cars’ of Chennai Express, with such complexity that
they could all have hardly come alive in a single brain, came together.
If Chennai Express was a typical director’s
film it might have been a Rohit Shetty film. It is actually a unique flick, with a lot more deeper and
serious facets to it than a film director’s work of entertainment. Many of those can be
attributed to its hero, the Indian movie star and entrepreneur, Sha Rukh Khan.
A rail car named desire.
It is clearly the enormous desire
of Sha Rukh Khan to make more money by investing wisely in a sure-fire formula
which compelled him to venture out to make a film with Rohit Shetty, who is a young Indian director with a string of blockbusters under his belt. Rohit had cracked what
the modern Indian audience wanted and was ready to to pour oil on any desire
which made good commercial sense. The result could hardly be anything but
explosive. Chennai Express, a deceptively dangerous theme, was the product of bold commercial vision of Khan, as
suicidal as it is genius.
A script no one will touch
With the fire of desire in its gut, the express train of Sha Rukh and Rohit Shetty could have gone in any direction, but it took a southern turn with its script writer Subhash, son of a veteran southern film director, connected with the leaders of linguistic strife in India before independence.
It was no surprise that his script came with a genesis of an impossible dream of unity and harmony between southern and northern India, which broke down with the departure of the British and was aggravated by the linguistic division of India after independence.
From Helen of Troy to Gone with the wind, regional human conflict had been the backdrop of great classics, depicted truthfully and presented to audiences who can discern life from entertainment.
However, it would be utterly irresponsible to ignore consequences of chauvinism, even if it is in mere movie entertainment, in the 21st century India more divided and ignitable than ever.
The script of Chennai express, dealing with the love of a
northern man to a southern belle was
explosive any day, novel yet fraught with danger of massive protests and
national grief if not a civil war, with the risk of negative stereotyping of south Indians. Though
the script has a strong message of the power of love to unite everyone, almost impossible to deliver today as it was
nearly a century back, the great Khan was audacious enough to grab it because
he saw a divine touch of great commercial success.
The divine touch
What actually created the spark
of creation of Chennai Express was a touch almost divine as the one in the
Creation of Adam of Michel Angelo. It was the final touch of Khan’s own
blockbuster Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge,
still running in Mumbai after two decades, as the longest running flick.
Khan has instantly recognised that
the feel of goodness where he left off in DDLJ is his ticket for Chennai Express which had the pulling power to drag millions of Indian hearts along with him in to it. It not only sealed the script
of the movie but also the soft corner he has managed to sneak in to in millions
of hearts worldwide.
The fault in the stars of Sasi Tharoor
As the story goes, Draupathi, wife of the Pandavas in the Indian epic of Mahabharata, asked a poignant question to Lord Krishna, who was about to embark on a peace mission to appease the Kauravas, the arch enemies of the Pandavas.
The latest controversy in the life of Sasi Tharoor, once a candidate for the post of the U N Secretary General, reminds of this episode and beacons the question what his deceased wife Sunanda Pushkar would be asking him if she was still alive. Sasi Tharoor and Sunanda Pushkar had a brief life together reminiscent of "The fault In Our Stars", the latest romantic flick enthralling film lovers of the world.
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| Sunanda Sasi - Photo by Indiatimes |
The Fault In Our Stars may not replace "Love Story" at least in the hearts of the baby boom generation, but will resonate with the story of romance, jealousy, sacrifice, union and tragedy the amazing short life of Sasi Tharoor with the beautiful Sunanda Pushkar in the hearts of a lot of younger Indians.
Draupathi, who was disrobed and humiliated in public by the Kauravas in front of her five powerful husbands, asked the lord if he forgot why her hair, which she had wowed to leave loose till the Kauravas were annihilated, was not plaited.
It is only natural that Sunanda, who was once called Rs 50 Crores girl friend of Tharoor by his political foe Narendra Modi, would have questioned Sasi Tharoor with no less vehemence and rage at the overture of her husband to the same man.
There are none so blind as those who won’t see. How can a person with the highest of education and international exposure miss the danger posed by the blind ambition of a person like Narendra Modi?
Narendra Modi has not apologised to Sunanda Pushkar before or after death which beacons the question what has made Sasi Tharoor to warm up to someone who has not only insulted him and his wife but even his government headed by Dr Man Mohan Singh by his snide and thoughtless remarks, especially when the ex Prime Minister had promptly asked for his resignation instead of defending a brilliant minister of his team.
Time to Experience the Great Joy of Liberation of Indian Music by a New Generation
It used to be called fusion, very often concocted in confused minds, mostly
an experience of frustration to those who enjoyed traditional Indian music.
With a new generation of
dedicated and serious musicians who seem to understand what they are playing
and work very very hard to perfect their skills, suddenly Indian music is being
liberated from their traditional limitations and scaling new heights.
There are several palpable facets
to this new, invigorating upheaval in the Indian musical entertainment, being
brought about by our youngsters through their ventures with exotic names like
Music Mojo, Kappa TV, Acoustika, Music Bowl
Rosebowl and bands like Staccato, Bennet’s Band etc.
First and foremost is the
liberation of the musical soul of the artist itself. A talented musician can
now experience that joy of his own god given talent, which was confined to the
bathroom and extremely private moments, in much more accepting, forgiving and
friendly environment.
From the nerve wracking and
competitive performances in schools and colleges, through the highly
pressurized competitions on TV and similar platforms to the demanding recording rooms of established
directors, the journey of a musician, in his quest for getting recognition and
fame is indeed gruelling.
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