HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMIT JI
A HEARTFELT ASSOCIATION WITH YOU
ALERT : Very Long Post
It's 11th October. Amitabh Bachchan completes 80 years and 53 years of entertaining us. It was 1969 he made his debut. I was just 5 years old. In 1970 we left for Brighton England for my Fathers doctorate, ( before which in 1969 a superstar came on the horizon in form of Rajesh Khanna I remember the last movie we saw before leaving India was Aradhana). We were in England for almost 4 years. So I missed the phenomena of Rajesh Khanna and the blooming of Amitabh Bachchan. I remember the first movie I saw was Roti Kapada aur Makaan it was 1974 at Heer Palace Kanpur. I fell in love with the charismatic character of Vijay .
The second movie I remember was Benaam. A suspense thriller and my admiration for him increased. This was followed by Majboor and reruns of Anand Namak Haraam and Abhimaan.
I used to ask my parents to take me to see his releases.We had to try thrice before we could see Deewar and Sholay both released in the year of emergency 1975. Faraar, Chupke Chupke and Mili were the first movies I saw more than once in those days as a 11 year old. .
After almost 2and half months during my Diwali Vacation of 1975, we finally got tickets to Sholay. The movie then was ruthlessly edited with Asranis scenes as also Jayas Holi Scenes being cut . But that movie had a great impact on me, esp the character of Jai.
It was later in 1976 in its Golden Jubilee week we saw Deewaar.
After Deewar I was totally smitten with Amitji, I used to tie a knot on my shirt like he did. Since then somehow or the other I saw every movie released.
In 1979 in 9th Standard I bunked school and went to see The Great Gambler ( which my parents would not allow as it was for Adults ). In Pune I understood the concept of Advance Booking, where bookings for a movie used to open on Monday and if one wished to see a film First day then that booking needed to be done. I remember that I saw Muqaddar Ka Sikander 4 times on the trot in 4 days.
Sholay I saw there 5 times in a week, this was thankfully the uncut version .
It is a well-known chapter of Indian film history beginning with the release of Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer in 1973 which turned Amitabh into a goldmine—.
This movie I finally got to see first on DD and in the theatre as late as 1980 during a re-run. Smouldering in the Salim-Javed dialogues and refracted through the Amitabh flamboyance fired the imagination of a whole nation as nothing had ever done before a trend which was carried ahead in Deewar, Sholay,Trishul, Don, Kaala Pathhar, Shaan, Shakti.
Standing in the Advance Booking Queues from 7am on the Monday of the release week that's another experience.
From Pune used to go for Summer Vacations to Mumbai and saw many movies there. Namak Halaal, Dostana, Desh Premee, Mahaan were all seen there.
Once I decided to go and visit his house, then Prateeksha. I had gone alone and after I reached just looked at the house in awe.
I always used to think if I could ever meet him, see him.
Thats a long story and long time ahead.
One incident I remember that in 1991, my father was travelling from Delhi to Mumbai,( and from Mumbai to Pune by road, as Pune airport was not functional then). On reaching home he asked me during dinner , guess who was next to me on the flight ( He was eligible for Business Class then ). I couldn’t guess and he told me, your favourite Amitabh Bachchan. I was zapped, I said Dad did you get his autograph ? Dad replied, “why should I , Iam not his fan, when you meet him, take it"
Cut to 1994 , I had won the All India award for Best Sales performance and the award was to be given at Mumbai. We were invited to Mumbai and put up at Ajantha Ambassador hotel. As I reached the Hotel, I saw a Mercedes Van coming out of the gate, I wowed it and came to the reception where my colleague told me “You should have come a bit earlier, Amitabh Bachchan was in the lobby to pick up Jaya Ji {who had her office on the second floor ( Saraswati Audiovisuals, the makers of the TV hit series Dekh Bhai Dekh). So I Mercedes I saw was his
The Journey moved on..
Insipte of the ups and downs, odds and evens Amitabh’s box-office records can be described only in superlatives. Producers and distributors seemed to believe still that “even a flop with Amitabh’s name on the marquee is a good enough grosser”, which was proved by the trade.
His image of the “angry young man” had viewers reeling under the magic of neorealism, where dream and daydream coalesced in a brave new world. The myriad manifestations of Amitabh’s no-holds-barred rebellion offered a blissful release to the repressions of a whole generation. The star became a cult figure of radical dynamism, of iconoclastic change. The Amitabh archetype continues to reflect variations on a simplistic mould, magnified to a brilliant potency; it has now become part of the collective psyche of a nation of filmgoers. Amitabh individuates his roles with the utmost confidence and conviction. He makes the unsubtle seem subtle, touches the crass with class, makes melodrama credible. Certainly, no other Indian actor had the speaking eyes and spellbinding voice to infuse nuanced suggestivity into stereotypical situations. His finesse did not alienate his characters from the masses.
In the mid 90s he moved towards central Character roles .
Then in 2000 came the super hit T.V. show ‘Kaun Banega Carorepati’ anchored by Amitabh. It gave an entire new life to his career which was under the dark shadow.
Finally out of the blue came the date, 12thNovember 2018.
The prelude to this date was the fact that I had connected to Amitji on all his social media accounts , also my senior colleague DrManoj Mehta who was an active participant of ABEF ( Amitabh Bachchan extended Family ), offered us a chance to be a spectator at the KBC show , we ( My friend / ex senior from Godrej Sanjay Pandey , and ex Mahyco colleague Kapil Sharma ) . The date was 12th November. It was the last week of shooting of that season. We reached the sets at Film City at 2 pm sharp but had a long wait till 8pm till we were finally seated, alas in the third row. It was another wait for an hour before the shoot began. Finally at @ 9.00pm he came in a Maroon Suit, seeing him I froze.. There he was some 25 feet away from me. Very interactive with the crowd, very sportive, responding to our comments and jokes. How almost 4 hours past, and it was well after 12am that the photos he has with the audience started and well after 1 am that he left. Look at his dedication reached the sets at 9 am completed 2 episode shoots and left at 1 am. He had just turned 76 then. I had finally seen with my eyes, my hero , my idol, or even if I may say My god.
But better things were ahead, The 2019 edition of KBC started in August 2019.
We had epressed our wish to be a participant again. It was 18th July, at 7.12 pm got a message from Dr Manoj that we could attend the shoot on 6thAugust as the show restarted on 5th August. This time the procedure was different. There was an online procedure which need to be followed up with the invite.
We did that. But July end, rains started in Mumbai and Pune, everywhere there were spells of flooding, roads closed. Sanjay and Myself were the only two left from Pune and a friend of Sanjay, Kailash Agarwal was to join us at Mumbai.
The forecast was rains, we debated till late evening weather to go or quit, but the urge of seeing him was so much that we decided to take the risk.
We reached at 3 pm sharp , but this time there wasn’t a long wait. We enrolled ourselves and it was an hour and half later that we were inside. This time being enrolled from the ABEF , we got privileged entry, and were in the first row.
Oh what a feeling it was !! Another hour Later Big B made his majestic entry. Again he was interactive with the crowd, and the shooting ended at 8.30 pm.
Then the photographs moments came. Finally he was in front of me, I had taken a token gift for him, which he accepted. Took his Biography along which he autographed. I was trembling in joy as I shook hands with him, talked to him, it lasted a minute but the emotions were beyond eternity.
This year after a two year gap again KBC happened and that too from VIP Gallery ..
Finally at the age of 55 & 58 and 45 years of being his devoted fan later I got to meet him.
Just last Friday his latest film Good Bye released..but certainly there is no Good Bye from him in reality for many years ahead.
Nobody else ever had this deadly combination of unmatched talent and charisma and nobody else will ever have it in future. Then there was style, polish and a great deal of seclusion encouraging rumours and augmenting the aura. Anyway one looked at it, the man radiates power. To recapitulate there has only been one super star in India, and that is Amitabh Bachchan
Thank You for reading and for your patience 🙏
No comments:
Post a Comment