31 Stars in OSO’s Song And OSHO’s Spirit
Farah Khan picturises a song for OSO with 31 stars: SRK does a gig with his colleagues, contemporaries and his seniors by a generation,notably Dharmendra and Jeetendra, on whose filmy diet he grew up.. For the first time Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan and SRK come together on big screen..Though this experiment of bringing together stalwarts of the film fraternity on one platform is not the first of its kind. More notable was Amitabh Bachchan’s symbolic gig as a waiter in Naseeb almost twenty five years ago, where he played host to giants of film world of that time– Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna,Waheeda Rehman,Sharmila Tagore, Mala Sinha et al..
This is not a comparative study between the two superstars..Shahanshah and Badshaah of Bollywood (though SRK seems to be paying an indirect compliment to Big B by doing all what the latter has done—KBC, DON, ‘wax’ ing eloquent at Madame Tusaaud’s etc. etc.).
To me coming together of these stars underscores the unique and subtle bond amongst film folks..The preamble to the Constitution of India says that our nation is secular in its nature..Noone celebrates this diktat in spirit more than Bollywood ( Hindi Cinema’s alter ego)..There are examples galore where people have risen above their caste, creed, religion and language to indulge their passion for cinema and bring to the audiences emotions in neat little time capsules ranging between 90 minutes to 180 minutes..And audiences have eagerly and earnestly lapped up these capsules..
Regardless of VV’s diatribe against his film colleagues, the accusations of crab-mentality, the norm of camps and groups, the sons- of- the- stars syndrome, Bollywood is one place that is really an epitome of secular creed..If you brush aside the initial hiccups before partition where having a muslim name could mean non-acceptance at the marquee, (the classic example being Dilip Kumar who was advised by Mehboob Khan to have a Hindu name instead of his real Yusuf Khan, if he ever wanted to make his mark in Hindi Cinema ),for the most of hundred plus years of Hindi Cinema, there has been remarkable tolerance amongst its folks.
This is a place where S D Burman’s compositions are given soul by Mohammed Rafi with lyrics written by Majrooh Sultanpuri in Guide superbly directed by Vijay Anand.. Where one of the most innovative and finest albums on ghazals is sung by Asha Bhonsale with music from Khayyam and lyrics by Shaharyaar for Umrao Jaan.. Where Jagjit Singh excels as ghazal maestro and a unique film-composer in his own right for movies like Saath Saath and Arth.
This is a melting-pot where Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza writes sanskritised hindi dialogues for epic Mahabharta on Doordarshan that is produced and directed by B R Chopra..K A Abbas writes some memorable films for Raj Kapoor..And some of the best scripts of Salim-Javed are brought to life by Yash Chopra and Ramesh Sippy..
This is a rendezvous where Mehboob Khan meets his masterpiece Mother India with Nargis as a protagonist and Raaj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar and Sunil Dutt as three male leads.. where Prithvi Raj Kapoor stamps his authority as Emperor Akbar in a magnum-opus Mugal-E-Azam.. where Amjad Khan reaches peaks of villainy in a legendary Sholay helmed by Ramesh Sippy!
Where K A Abbaas gives break to Amitabh Bachchan..O P Ralhan introduces Zeenat Amaan.. Salman Khan is launched on his path to Prem(love) by Sooraj Barjatya..Sanjay Leela Bhansali launches himself riding Salman Khan’s stardom.. This is an arena where rivalry between Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar is finely etched and executed by Subhash Ghai in Saudaagar.. SRK is recommended and signed first by Hema Malini for Dil Aashna Hai thus lauching his career to orbits uncharted so far in annals of Hindi cinema..
Where H S Rawail makes one of the finest muslim socials Mere Mehboob.. And B R Chopra does an encore with Nikaah launching Salma Agha in one of the first moves to introduce talent from across the border..Where south Indian star of yesteryears Laxmi essays the role of a Christian girl opposite a debutante Vikram in a Hindu-Christian love story Julie way back in early seventies.. where John Mathew Mathan makes a brilliant film Sarfarosh with Aamir Khan in the lead..Kabir Khan takes John Abraham and Arshad Warsi through the ruins of Afghanistan in Kabul Express.. And Kabhi-Kabhi it happens that a movie made by Yash Chopra from a screenplay by Saagar Sarhadi has soul stirring lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi and melodious,feet-tapping, yearning compositons by Khayyam.
Then there are screen pairs that had tremendous chemistry.. Raj Kapoor-Nargis, Dilip Kumar-Vayjantimala, Guru Dutt- Madhubaala, Dharmendra- Meena Kumari..And recently SRK-Juhi Chawla/Kajol, John Abraham-Bipasha Basu to name a few.
Sunil Dutt literally passed the ordeal by fire in marrying Nargis.. Kishore Kumar embraced Madhubala.. SRK is better off with his better half Gauri..Farah Khan teams up with Shishir Kunder ..Arshad Warsi ties up with Maria Goretti .. Arbaaz Khan knots up with Malaika Arora..Manoj Bajpai lays a protective shield around Neha and Hrithik Roshan settles with Sussane Khan.
Point of all these examples is one—that Bollywood is one and only place of its kind where secularism flourishes without any biases and prejudices..Even though one may have reservations with the folks from other religions but it all boils down to participating in and winning the race–a race at the box-office and living the dream!
There could be inner cliques..but ultimately all is reduced to paying obeisance to Goddess Laxmi..At times more than the the creative aspect of film making , the business side influences the talent from across the religions to come together and sell dreams.. There is no God except the box-office..It is not for nothing that almost for past 15 years three Khans have been ruling the roost..Kahan, Kahan se aa jaate hain (where from they come) is not the question, but Kahan, Kahan(where all) Khans are accepted that is the main issue..
Politicians may try to divide for their political gains, but the audience sitting in the dark belly of an auditorium watching its dreams being chased, shattered, or realized is unmindful whether the person sitting next to him is going to say Allah, Hare Krishna, Wahe Guru or Amen after the play on the screen is over..They all are one– bound together with the universal language of emotions..Their tears are human, their laughter is humane..Osho would have endorsed Bollywood’s this all-encompassing spirit, as his own views were dead against organized religion and its attendant rituals and pretensions.
With four pillars of democracy Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and Free Press, I would venture to say add another that makes democracy– no more a ‘four letter’ phenomenon..And that fifth is Bollywood—the great leveler, the canopy that gives shade to all..the space that nurtures all!
With all the heartbreaks, struggles, manipulations,machinations or shortcomings, for this one trait only, just for this singular trait of being open to all without any discrimination, I salute Bollywood.. And I have great sense of pride to be part of it in whatever capacity, at whatever level !
And for this I also feel like raising a toast to it! Cheers.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
i find it depressing that you need to talk about religious imbalance, even its absence..in todays times……
Nice thing, but i guess timing is not correct, it shlould’ve come on 15 Aug.
Guys,
I think having so may stars is a lack of confidence in oneself and one’s own story inspite of the fact that features Shah Rukh Bhai… The filmmaker/Producer seems do not want to leave any stone unturned to ensure that the film is a big hit (which it will be, thanks to the sorry taste of the indian audience, who still has not come of age in deciding whats good and whats not so good).
Wish the psyche of the Indian audience changes fast the way our economy is…
Freakin hope the conditioning of the formula films changes sooooooooooooooon.
Thats why they also say people associated with films don’t have a caste, their only Religion is films, films and films…
Wow what a place and space to be in though…
…and who cares about Om Shanti Om if it has even 100 millions stars or even the galaxy. :X
we had had a similar write up on this secular crap.
This is all about i scratch ur back u scratch mine.
ha ha Sourav/Prashant,
kya baat hain…
Krysh,
Nice article. But I still beleive VVC is right and Bollywood is full of crabs.
Surya bhai…i am very very apprehensive about the movies releasing during diwali and eid…last year was don.this time its Om shanti Om and saanwariya.I think ranbir is also pushing it a little bit too hard with all his multiple facial expressions in a 3 second shot in the promo(but best wishes with him..the effort is there). :DDD
Farah Khan said she makes films for the masses and she wants her films to be over the top so people will want to see them more than once. She wants them to be considered Big Bollywood movies and that’s why I look forward to this film. I’m so glad I discovered Bollywood films over 5 yrs ago ,because just turning on one of those big Bollywood musical numbers can take me out of a bad mood.
how can bringing together stars on one platform be an ‘experiment’. it is the opposite, isn’t it? it is the easy way out. it only goes to show the leading man’s star power. and where did secularism creep in all this. money always has, and will be, the more powerful religion. (you think the modis and advanis are interested in religion or do you think it’s power they are after). the one who delivers a hit on a given friday is god and has the maximum followers. come next friday the situation might change. people who believe in religion can never be secular, those who believe in money, are. which is why bollywood is a secular place.