WANTED strikes gold and two weeks later, MAIN AURR MRS KHANNA bites the dust. Gauri Khan’s ramp walk created more flutter in the media than Salman and Sohail Khan’s film. Is there any method to this madness? I don’t think so.
I loved WANTED. It was a typical, loud, predictable pot-boiler of the senseless Eighties which we’ve seen to death but yet I enjoyed it thoroughly. No logic. But I didn’t even feel like watching MAIN AURR MRS KHANNA. No logic. I am a film buff, I love Kareena Kapoor, I enjoy watching her on screen, I had enjoyed watching Salman in WANTED and I wasn’t doing much at home during the Diwali holidays but I couldn’t get myself to go and watch that film. I just didn’t feel like it.
There’s a dialogue in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ANAND – (My interpretation) Hum sab rangmanch ki kathputliyan hain (film stars, in this case) jinki dor uparwale (the audience) ke haath mein hai. Kab kaun kaise uthega yeh koi nahin bata sakta…The dialogue is followed by a loud guffaw. Hahahahahahahaha! Exactly my sentiment when I think of fame in the modern day context. Famous for being famous is the new phenomenon of the 21st century; the triumph of the trivial, thanks to the 24x7 streaming on the news channels; and we are all hooked to it. Looking for logic in what’s rocking and what’s not is a lost cause. Kabhi bhi kuch bhi rocking ho sakta aur wohi shocking bhi ho sakta hai.
For all that endless debate and analysis of what the viewer really wants and doesn’t want, I don’t think we can ever predict why we respond to certain things in a certain manner and why we, all of a sudden, stop responding to those same things in that certain manner.
Taking joy in nonsense is one thing, but I hope we haven’t started taking nonsense as joy!
Am I making any sense? Does it still matter?
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