Stars: India’s Disappointing Darlings
Many years back at a hill station in India, my maternal uncle, my ‘mamu’, a military doctor then, mildly chided a pretty girl for not sticking to the queue. People around promptly gaped at him, as if it was their duty, probably wondering what hole this plump, moustachioed man popped out from.
Why?
Because the girl — if age isn’t messing up my memory — was none other than Juhi Chawla, the effervescent, curly-haired beauty, then a rising Bollywood star who had given runway hits like the Quayamat se Quayamat tak and Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke. She was already the darling of millions with a baby-like voice and a marriage-breaking smile. But mamu cared a zilch about the glamour world she came from. For him, the Indian military was the most glamorous thing in the world.
Like him, I too have no respect for so-called stardom. Because I think a large part of their lives are as unreal as the acts in their movies. Many of them live in a tinsel, make-believe bubble on a desert of strained, selfish relationships where matlab (for the lack of any better English word) is the only currency. I still haven’t been able to stand the idea of hardworking people swarming outside their houses on their birthdays, jostling with each other to catch a morsel of these remote beauties waving their tiny hands from their lofty balconies, far away to preserve their safety, far away to preserve their stardom.
For a brief period during my mid-teens, when every young boy or girl seeks a hero, I too idolised the strictly average-looking Ajay Devgan, not because he was a ‘star’ after the hugely successful Phool aur Kaante, but because he could effortlessly balance himself on two moving motorcycles.
We, however, just had one sea-green scooter at home, adequately pampered by my father who painstakingly wiped it with a torn vest everyday whether or not it was dusty. Because finding two bikes (or just one more scooter, though it would look nowhere as good) with willing riders was nearly impossible, I finally, reluctantly, settled for cycles instead. I found a like-minded cousin and took him to a deserted road under a banyan tree where I put both our cycles on their side stands and attempted to balance myself on their luggage carriers, attempting to mimic poorly the dare-devilry of my on-screen hero.
The unsteady cycles, of course, toppled over multiple times taking me down as well. We readjusted the bends of the stand-rods by kicking them vigorously and kept trying, finally taking the legendary photograph of an awkward teenager in a brown floral shirt and a pair of grey jeans looking sideways, balanced atop two tall cycles, one BSA and the other Hero, his bleeding bruises thankfully not captured by the pathetic India-made Hotshot camera.
But I am digressing!
I can’t remember myself having ever been in awe of these delicate men and women, as also of their star-studded, over-hyped brethren, the cricketers. Who are stars anyway? Just actors at the end of the day, living a life behind the camera, having a career like everyone else! They put their makeups on, learn their dialogues, practice their steps, act and re-act under the glare of spotlights, forgetting their lines, making wrong dance moves, maybe even embarrassing themselves over and over again. Yeah, a lot of them claim they work very hard, but so do many others, on things that are far more important, far riskier. Where a second or third take isn’t available. The only thing that makes the stars different is their nature of work, which happens to put their faces in front of millions of screens. That’s it.
Doctors, engineers or army men don’t do their jobs in front of cameras. And that’s why there is no superstar major or a megastar ISRO scientist.
While there are many great actors, and I don’t mean to belittle them, it’s also true that after politics, cinema is the only other field where incompetence and success can lie on the same bed. Why else do you think it’s so rare to find kids of successful sportspersons making their mark in sports, while star-kids almost always end up becoming stars?
Unfortunately, unlike Hollywood our own Bollywood — with so many star eggs waiting to hatch — is a breeding ground for nepotism, not a hotbed for talent. The industry is more or less closed to outsiders. As for the insiders, most have it rather easy as the competition is far lesser than what it could have been. Take someone who is already good-looking because of the parental genes, throw in a lot of money, furiously edit the dances, get a few good ‘character’ actors, a decent story line and some music, exotic locales and you can make the audience jostle shamelessly at the theatres, at least for the first couple of movies.
What is a Superstar? Who is a Megastar? I don’t get it. Why lift these mere mortals, who just paint their faces and act, into demigod status? These so-called stars with many-million-followers are often puny, timid insects when confronted with controversial issues of national importance, their large social media handles only good for ‘rare’ childhood pics, candid bedroom shots, festival messages, or prompt condolences.
They alone can’t be blamed though. People who chase money and fame often don’t come with spines. When you have things to lose, it isn’t easy to stand up for something. And in those times, you need a rare thing called character. But then, India seems to have been enslaved for far too long, servility having permeated into our consciousness. We will happily vote for the inept wife of a politician, or the worthless son of a minister. We will make celebrities out of average-looking sons or daughters, whose only competence is a lucky parentage.
Sushant Sing Rajput, that boyish outsider, that IITian who didn’t belong to the industry, suddenly dies with a noose around his neck and no one utters a word. No one asks for justice. No one cries for an investigation. Because crores are a stake and only good things must be spoken. The million-plus handles continue to churn out the same pointless posts, and same colourful posters of upcoming movies.
This time too, they act. As if nothing has happened.
