The Film Fraternity Sham In Mumbai

Calling Shri Manoj Kumar's well wishers

As we all are familiar with MSN.com and a majority of us started with its email service Hotmail. Today during my regular email checks I came to this story which attracted my attention and I find it worthy to be circulated so here is the link:

Part I
http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1627000&imageindex=1


Part II

http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1627000&imageindex=2



I have been left astounded as the author of this article Rajiv Nair echoed my sentiments exactly when he said those words about Indian cinema and how its so called "fraternity" functions.

I admit that after a long long time I did read something which got me thinking more about how shallow this film fraternity is.

For all you blogger friends and the visitors who don't blog I want to tell you that I subscribe all the leading six newspapers at Mumbai and nowhere did I see anyone ,meaning anyone from the film industry coming forward in support of Shri Manoj "BHARAT" Kumar - the Iconic Star who made millions of Indians proud through his actions on and off screen.

Why?

I tried to probe and I called up a few of my friends who are in the film industry and asked them why no one from Manoj Kumar's friends, co-actors, industry leaders or film associations heads never spoke about the way the Thespian's "image" was battered on-screen in Red Chillies Entertainment's Om Shanti Om since last year(2007).

The reasons which I found out were not at all shocking but a reflection of the times we are living in - in a cocoon of our own makings. Everything around us is dispensable, expendable and not to be bothered about. Be it our surroundings, nature, ecology, hygiene, health, relationships, family, friends and colleagues.

To begin with the "Bharat" (our nation with heavy patriotic fervor) we romanced about is nothing but in shambles. So why would anyone bother about one of the actor who portrayed the patriotic and commanded awe even from his contemporaries?

I want to quote from a book "The Hundred Luminaries of Hindi Cinema" - co-authored by two film journalists Dinesh Raheja & Jitendra Kothari.

"Manoj Kumar practically held the franchise for the cinematic exploitation of patriotic themes for 25 years. The flag-waving jingoism of this actor-director's films, showed that patriotism can be infused into the national stream of consciousness, not by dry docudramas but by exciting cinema, complete with songs ('Mere desh ki dharti' and 'Hain preet jahan ki reet sada' could move a heart of stone), melodrama and glamorous heroines. Manoj brought an entire populace in touch with its nationalist feelings."

"In 1965, the patriotic Shaheed (he was the de facto director), changed the course of Manoj's career. After Shaheed's success, Lal Bahadur Shastri exhorted Manoj to make a film on the slogan 'Jai jawan jai kisan' and the idea for Upkar took shape. Manoj's image as a patriot grew in dimension with each subsequent film. Manoj too pandered the image. Whether as a Sanyasi (1975), or a Dus Numbri (1976), he became famous for refusing to even touch his heroines.

Born in 1937, Manoj Kumar has been a celebrated writer, director and actor with numerous super hits in his career.

But as today he has grown old and many of his colleagues have either passed away or have retired they have lost touch with him. That's why we do not see anyone coming ahead and speaking for him. There seems to be a void. A space where he alone as Manoj Kumar has to fight back for his honour which has been tarnished by Shah Rukh Khan, Farha Khan and above all the writers (again there is a case filed by a writer who says that OSO was his idea but he was cheated) of OSO.

However our mainstream media was never into serious journalism else we could have read / seen / heard a lot more about this issue where a senior artist is ridiculed by the so called reigning star in his own home production. And we all have read and heard so much about SRK favouring Delhi-wallahs! Shri Manoj Kumar is also originally from Delhi.

The Industry's associations are usually headed by people who have their own agendas as their film-making careers are not working so they do not have a spine to take a stand or comment in a matter which has SRK at the receiving end.

Current crop of actors from Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and others only talk to the media selectively especially when their movies are about to release else they are reclusive.

But I wonder where people like Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Shammi Kapoor, Yash Chopra (who allegedly had brokered peace between SRK Farha and Manoj Kumar last year) Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Rekha and the industry's self appointed spokesperson Mahesh Bhatt been.

All of the above mentioned names are very much in Mumbai and are a part of the film fraternity since Manoj Kumar's days. But no one came forward to support or patch up the misunderstandings within the two actors.

It is mentioned in the book (The Hundred Luminaries of Hindi Cinema) that Manoj Kumar (whose original name is Hari Kishen Goswami and he changed his name after his matinee idol Dilip Kumar's name in a film Shabnam) started out as a writer for films when he landed in Mumbai in 1956 and he used to charge Rs.11 for each scene he helped re-write.

Well no wonder he has filed a defamation suit against Farha Khan and SRK asking for Rs.1 !!

Such is the man, Our's Forever Manoj "Bharat" Kumar!

I hope that the present generation reads what Rajiv Nair has written so well and understand that tomorrow some one else shall stand up and make fun of you just as you did. So self dignity is a virtue one cannot do away with just for some fun.