Armani does not sell Grace
iView Author: Nadi (Pune, India)
Email: withheld
‘ It’s a pity Armani doesn’t sell Grace.‘
The local Mirror carries pictures of a very beautiful actress kissing a star-son’s cheek, hugging his wife too.
Then there is a picture of a scurrying superstar.
And while it is none of our business to speculate about the past Reason, his reality or her imagination of it;
The gracelessness hurts.
The graceless response to a very graceful gesture. An younger colleague taking the initiative in acknowledging your presence. A lady getting up from her seat to greet your family.
Nothing original he did of course- now That would have been news!
The entry of a woman’s desire has always caused a disruption in the male narrative. Leading to strange uncharacteristic reactions from the best of men, even artists, even scholars.
Why else would, (and we cite the example only of the Great considering we are talking about the Superstar);
Why else would the Nobel prize winner Elias Canetti say ‘you could call Iris Murdoch a bubbling stew-pot’, ‘everything I despise about the English life is in her’, deride her work –‘the facile plausibility of her books’ and after she was dead say ‘She had not one serious thought’
About a woman who dedicated a book ‘to E.C’, referred to him as ‘the teacher I learnt Everything from’, and wrote books like ‘The Flight from the Enchanter’ , ‘The Philosopher’s Pupil” – and the wonderful characters of the enchanter and the philosopher were both based on Elias Canetti.
Irritating, I guess, a disruption again, all this dedication stuff; but aren’t there non-work spaces to express irritation, to insult?
Anyway, did not affect me, who is Canetti to us, kis kambakth ne ‘Das Geheimherz der Uhr’ padhi hai yaar?
But this was the big B, our star!
You know why housewives watch tabloid pictures of award functions- to tell the darzi to cut their next dress Exactly like the one Ms. So-and-so star was wearing.
And although I wouldn’t know the difference between an Archana Kochchar and a Manish Malhotra , I confess I had retained that small-town girl belief – These are the stars. These are the graceful ones. These are the beautiful people.
The gracelessness hurts.
Whatever the personal reasons for this dread, surely a public function, a meeting of professional colleagues, is not the place for it.
Surely, there are things like handshakes, Namasteys and Salaams to avoid unwanted hugs?
And maybe he worried unnecessarily; maybe one look at those ugly designer glasses and Madame herself would have decided- “ah! No hug definitely. A nod would do nicely I think.”!
Tags: Armani, Elias Canetti, Manish Malhotra
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Nadi – Subtle, elusive and well written, in a very left handed way, showcasing the feminine perspective of a *starry* incident. Keep posting on PFC.
thanks, wb. someone even noticing what you call the ‘feminine perspective’ is such a GOOD feeling.
nadi, nadi, nadi, you should be writing much more here. welcome – warmest, sincerest!
Smriti, i first found the site when i read your article about the ‘Terrorist’. thank you.
ouch! used the phrase *feminine perspective* in the nicest possible way… for lack of a better word
and i said Thanks in exactly the same way- honestly, wb.
who notices ?
Wasn’t that obvious!!
‘obvious’ exactly what i thought Tejas, when i saw those pictures- such a too-emphatic, too-’obvious’ expression of the Avoiding.. makes one wonder..
Nadi,u have writeen a clever piece,talking bout the ‘grace’ n ‘honesty’ the stars,most importantly a ’super mega star’ i.e. Big B ofcourse, should have.i agree with u,but more than that i’m sure that u are not able to even fathom the reasons that went behind such a gesture/act.Amitabh Bachchan is not one of the most gracious actors we have around…..he IS THE MOST GRACIOUS ONE!can u imagine what would have happened if he had gone ahead and hugged(shudder) or greeted rekha?the coverage of entire event ek taraf,’amit rekha episode’ ek taraf….what cheap juicy headline the scores of channels would get for the next 4 days!..n when it would b telecasted on tv,all(including U)would have gleefully waited to watch for that 2 second ‘gracious’ gesture to happen!…….so my dear Nadi,im thankful Big B ’scurried’ away, n for one of the very few moments in life,forgot bout the so called ‘gentelmenry’ behaviour u r lamenting bout.u n i didnt get a moment of scandel,no loss i think.I think wat he did was the most graceful thing one could think at that moment,saving the abovementioned ladies face from being splashed nationwide next day,with their ‘real’/'imagined’ history being thrown at them again.
on second thought Nadi,why dont u ponder over the real ‘graceless’ acts of the other actors?….or the whole burdan of doing everything correct n proper is on the shoulders of bachchan clan?actually,cause of hawk eyed people like u,who gaze n measure their evry twich n nod, they r paranoid n so utterly self concious.on the other hand,others,lke the mighty ‘khans’ get away with the ugliest of brawls n third rate behaviour,n no lecture on ‘grace’ follows them.
Have not seen the programme on TV and have read only reports in Media, which ofcourse has to settle score with Mr Bachchan, as he is denying to bow down befoe the might of uncontrolled Media power.
There have been many occasions when Mr Bachchan and Ms Rekha have been seen greeting each other (Namsatey with folded hands) during public functions. So what was the deal this time? None of them is known to follow bad manners rather they belong to a lost generation of stars which was hardly indulged in bitching about contemporary co-stars in press.
Good writing sytle, as something nicely readable material has been created around a target point which has no substance. As usual it seems Mr Bachchan will have to write right version.
[Editor Note: Vishal, please dont use abusive langauge on PFC against anyone. Offensive word has been deleted from your comment.]
personally im tired of seeing rekha in golden sarees and loud garish make up attending these award function and posing with the ‘im a diva’ face for the tv cameras at every bachchan mention. . .and did i mention she looks positively ——-
Dear Praveen,
am not hawk-eyed about the Bachchan family; but yes, I am as big a fan of Ms. Rekha’s as you seem to be of Mr. B.
THE MOST GRACIOUS ONE – in all capitals, you wrote.
and you were reacting to just some words written by a stranger-me.
so you can understand my indignation,
an action is so much more hurting than mere words in a blog!
Honestly Nadi, I don’t give a hoot about any of them and how they behave except that it occasionally gives me fodder for gossip… when I stray into some news channel where starry matters are being aired. But I have noticed that most of them aren’t too graceful. And that is exactly what I expect. Period.
thanks for reading, RK.
and Vishal Chalchitra- yeah, the Posing!
posing with faces , posing with names-
am going thru a strange state-bewildered not only at the way people treat each other, but also at the language we use.
old-fashioned i guess, but calling an artist, who is so much more talented than many of us put together, a person who is much older to you, i am sure;
for that matter calling any woman ‘positively whatever’ is a little harsh, a little crass, don’t you think, Vishal Chalchitra?
yes, Irene; to not expect.
glad you wrote.
just a moment before your comment appeared here, i was asking myself -how did i get into this discussion? what was i thinking, reacting like that?
was reading Iris Murdoch- a life.
was a trifle sad about this Elias Canetti thing.
and just then, these newspaper pictures.
you know how it is with popular space images – we usually find one to pour our personal baggage feelings on, and then react to it disproportionately.
i did.
shouldn’t have.
Iris Murdoch and EC of course you can react to Nadi :-)
hi nadi,
understood now that u were acting as rekhas advocate(exagerating a bit here,but im sure u’ll see the point)but let me say this- Big B was not scurrying away or humiliating ur favourite actress….he was turning his back to all the unpleasant fodder about him n her that would get an excuse to b printed…. sad irony that even after he did what he did,still people r getting ‘annoyed’ n ‘pouring out their personal baggage’ on him!…..qt unfair to him….right?lastly,i was indignated as much as u were while posting ur blog….n no,actions r no more hurting than ‘mere’ words on blogs.havnt u heard bout pen mightier than sword n all those things???….anyways,hope next time u’ll get something more substantial to write bout.tc.
Amen to that , Praveen-
to us finding substantial stuff to write about And
the pen being mightier than the sword.
Hoping to have more PFC discussions with you about what all of us, despite our differences, love most-
the MOVIES!