DAY 3379
Abu Dhabi June 28, 2017 Wed 10:32 pm local time
High above the skies beyond the blues of the Medi .. the strains of gentle layered clouds whistle past as the craft climbs gently, hesitantly, gingerly above .. caressing the almost universal temperament of all - does one really have to leave ..!!
Within moments, one passes by and another equally beautiful in its earthy temper, gently begins to invite your visage .. there is a desire to pull out the top lapped brain sub .. to record in possible words what experiences hold good for us .. and then with the suddenness with which it evolved , it deflates .. and there is a ponder .. a ponder to allow, perhaps that thought to prevail .. and before long those graphic edges of earth, in possession of select powers, change geographic and political boundary .. to live to learn to exist another hour, another day ..
I break journey here till the morn .. and the morn shall arrive in all its glory again .. to live to learn to encompass to withdraw to envelope to teach to observe .. that it is time for ..
a good night ..
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3378
Malta June 27/28, 2017 Tue/Wed 12:06 AM
The unit of TOH gathers about me in numbers .. I wonder what it could be .. I think and apprehend some wrong that may have happened .. they all stand in silence .. I in apprehension .. looking about ..
Then the Director steps out from the largish crew crowd and speaks :
‘Its a wrap for Mr Bachchan for this schedule !” ..
And everyone breaks into loud applause and cheers ..
I am stumped as always .. in my generation there was never any of this fanfare .. so I stand like an idol of clay, not knowing what to say or do .. the smiling faces say what they have to say and feel .. I awkwardly raise my hands with gratitude, head down and walk away with a mumbled thanks ..
Strange is it not .. the moment of cut off is so abrupt and decisive .. we already start thinking of where next and whats to be done .. strange ..
Its back home and immediately ‘102 Not Out’ ..
I am dozing off .. it will be impractical to continue writing .. i shall slip into oblique thoughts which shall be alarming the next day and make me and you wonder .. what the hell .. what was he on ..
heehahaha ..
Good night
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3377
Malta June 26/27, 2017 Mon/Tue 1:41 AM
Birthday - EF - Ravi Patel Tue, June 27 . .. happy birthday Ravi Patel and may the years of your life increase a hundred fold .. joy and happiness ever ..
And really would it too much if I sought from my Ef, another day ..sorry another DAY, … when I am so tired and exhausted after work that I wish to bed myself, for an early morning call ..
Would it be too much ..?
So apologies ..
And ladies and Gentleman of this extraordinary family, I give you above, Chotu, the youngest brother of a Rajasthani clan in the film ‘Reshma aur Shera’ ..
It deserves a much greater description on its making, its acceptance, its long and vivid history on the sands of deep interiors of Rajasthan beyond Jaisalmer, and it deserves tales of great detail and interest ..
But for now .. its
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3376
Malta June 25, 2017 Sun 10:46 PM
Birthday - EF - Anamika Gupta & Ef Özen Eren Mon, June 26 .. and it is time to wish the dearest Ef’s on their special day .. love and greetings from us all at the Ef family .. love
A Sunday of rest and recuperation .. of spending time with thoughts and ideas and efforts for fresh grounds of work .. of connecting with many that connect with me .. of giving responses and assuring Ef that they are not forgotten and lost ..
And of contemplation !
The festive inputs of celebrations and important religious events gives us all a sense of belonging and prayer .. a prayer of togetherness and oneness and respect and peace .. may it all last this way ever ..
As you spend time in the years that come along , there is such ignorance of what has been, among the generation that is today .. many during conversations are unaware of times of my early days .. and it sometimes surprises me .. but then I think back to my times and understand how the earlier times of those times were as unknown to me as is the unknown element in today’s .. life’s doings are so similar yet so apparently far apart ..
I speak at times of the moments of my time .. of events .. of people and places .. of the profession and their works and the giants of the time and am surprised that many have no knowledge of them .. a pity ..
But a fear as well .. for, the generation of today that rule and garner so much attention, shall in time also be in the frame of the forgotten .. just as all of us of the 70′s have been forgotten .. lost .. and looked upon as a passing shower, that came whetted appetites and left all dry and deserted ..
Time does that to all .. it has already to many and shall continue to do so ..
So how does one envelop the doings and not be irrelevant .. there really is no median .. an extremely very minuscule percentage of enthusiasts really may, with a bit of luck , want to be interested .. most do not .. I speak from experience .. there are and have been times when a past has been brought out in general conversation .. there is a respect to listen in .. but partially .. then its over .. they shall turn to another side .. slide away judiciously often surreptitiously and never turn back to partake in what they have heard or given ear to .. does not matter .. and perhaps does not matter to them also ..
So .. we just let it be …
Memoirs and biographies are an answer .. but not for me .. I find it difficult to say and use the word ‘I’ for too long .. in such descriptions the letter ‘I’ would have to be in maximum use .. ‘i did this, i went there, i thought this, i thought that’ etc .,
So I shall refrain .. in any case, there is nothing of worth to write in any description about me .. so ..
Good night
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3375
Malta June 24/25, 2017 Sat/Sun 1:26 am
Birthday - EF - Donna Lisch and Ef Akhilesh Goswami Sun, June 25 .. this be a memorable day in your lives .. happiness always ..with love from the Ef
the sleep inducement is beyond a single word to be typed here .. so may I just leave you with the smiles of the day .. something many have been asking for ..
my love to all
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3374(i)
Malta June 24, 2017 Sat 7:25 AM local time
An addendum to last night BLOG DAY 3374 :
Writing on Meena Kumari I remembered a few more details as I woke up. During the last years of her life, she carried a most melancholic sad face, but would ever smile during public appearances, or when meeting acquaintances. She passed away in loneliness. I went with Annu, Anwar Ali my dear friend and younger brother of Mehmood, to her apartment on hearing of her demise. She stayed at a sea facing building at Worli. We stood in absolute silence among many mourners, in the car park below. The only sound heard was, the uncontrollable loud weeping of a man -Kamaal Amrohi .. her separated husband, and the maker of that everlasting classic iconic film ‘Pakeezah’ .. Meena Kumari’s last film !
On the portion in the Blog 3374, of the film ‘Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam’ I wanted to mention, apart from my other star favorites Waheeda Rehman and GuruDutt, the effervescent Minoo Apa - Minoo Mumtaz .. younger sister of Mehmood, and whom I was very fond of as was she .. she and Baby Apa, the sister younger than Minoo Apa, but older than Anwar Ali .. looked after me like family, when I stayed for many months in Mehmood bhai’s house in a multi storied personal building of his with many apartments, all of them housed all his family .. Annu had a section of the house to himself and he and I lived there for long in those early days .. Annu and I became very close friends from the time of ‘Saat Hindustani’, he being one of the 7 Indians in the film, and remain so till date .. Minoo Apa an exquisite danseuse, was the nautch girl in the nautch girl song sequence in ‘SBaG’ .. ‘saqiya neend nahi aayegi’ .. and she would always guide me whenever I had a song sequence to perform in my early films .. she would say ‘always have a smile on your face when you sing and dance in a song sequence’ .. I never forgot that ..
Incidentally ‘Apa’ means elder sister .. its an endearing way of addressing close relatives in the Urdu language .. just as ‘behen’ in Hindi .. ‘bhai’ meaning brother, is the same form of addressal in both Urdu and Hindi ..
There is another small detail, which is somewhat personal, and I seek apology if I am wrong in my observation .. Meena ji I think, had a defective finger on her left hand .. and she throughout her career would very cleverly and most aesthetically, either keep it covered by her other hand, or keep it hidden from camera view or allow it to be wrapped in the ‘pallu’ of her sari ..
I could be completely wrong and do seek forgiveness if I am ..
I say this now because when I had burnt my left hand when a Diwali bomb blew it up .. I was in the middle of shootings and had to continue working .. I had hidden it in film ‘Inquilab’ and ‘Sharaabi’, by keeping it either covered in a handkerchief, or keeping my left hand in my trouser pocket .. many thought it was some kind of style statement .. haha .. but no .. it was a reality to save it being filmed while it was still healing ..
I had remembered Meena ji and her hand condition then ..
AMITABH BACHCHAN
DAY 3374
Malta June 23/24, 2017 Fri/Sat 1:33 AM local time
Birthday - EF - Agnes James & Ef Donna Lisch Sat, June 24 . … wishing the very best to our Ef and giving them the love of all for a prosperous year and years to come …
A memory picture sent and put out on the platform that goes by the name of Twitter, and there are queries as to what the occasion was and who and when and how ..
This is the showing of my first film ‘Saat Hindustani’ at a private theatre behind what used to be a recording theatre at Tardeo, Mumbai ..
The recording theatre at Tardeo, was a small almost insignificant destination on the main road as you turn left at Haji Ali crossing, coming from Juhu, but it was the most prized and important destination for all the illustrious stars and music directors of the time ; Shankar-Jaikishen, and all the other stalwarts of the time, C Ramchandra, Naushad, OP Nayyar .. then Kalyanj-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, SD Burman, RD Burman ..et all .. and the recording was done on film tape, the model at the time ..
It was a destination where every one that mattered came to .. we strugglers used to sit on the road outside and opposite the theatre, and watch all the greats come by, Lata ji, Rafi Saheb, Mukesh ji, Asha ji and all the stars - Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor .. and it used to be my dream to get a moment to just enter those hallowed portals .. it was a very limited spaced small area, but crammed with musicians .. a studio where some of the greatest songs of the times and time immemorial were recorded .. on occasion when I would sneak in and get caught, would be thrown out unceremoniously .. embarrassed and humiliated, but still hungry for the moment to be witness ever to those historic recording moments ..
It did happen .. gradually .. as is in the Industry .. the norm being your recognition factor .. as and when it improved, your entires and the level of interest in your presence improved .. and then one day you actually get to record there .. the ‘My name is Anthony Gonzalves’ song and the ‘whole country of the system’ bit done there .. time and fate changes so rapidly .. takes you up and brings you down too ..
BUT we were talking about the picture ..
So behind this rather simple looking structure was an even more ordinary, badly kept preview theatre, where KA Abbas, the Producer Director of many of his films would hold his first trials .. ‘Saat Hindustani’ was one of them, and I had mentioned earlier, he would always call Meena Ji, Meena Kumari ji to his first trial .. this picture is of that occasion ..
The others in the picture are to my left, Pakki, Mehmood bhaijaan’s son from his first wife, who was Meena ji sister .. then Jalal Agha, actor and dear friend co star of Saat Hindustani, son of that famous comedian Agha .. Jalal was also instrumental in giving me my first voice over job .. a voice over for an Add., on Horlicks .. the dialogue was ‘har roz Horlicks peegiye’ etc .. I got Rs 50/- for that which helped me to take a taxi into Filmistan Studio, to meet Manoj Kumar ji for a prospect in a film .. that story has also been repeated and narrated many times .. I used to take the local train, that is all I could afford, to Filmistan Studios in the suburbs, from Marine Drive where I was staying with a close family friend .. I would get off at the station and walk to the studio and get rejected from entering by the guards at the gates .. did this for several days .. then saw that a taxi would get automatic attention and the gates would open .. seeing this as an opportunity, I went to the suburb in the local train, but from the station to the studio took a taxi with my Rs 50/- earned and HURRAH .. the taxi was not stopped .. went in to discover that Manoj ji’s shooting had finished .. and I could not meet him ..
One of my many disappointments of the days ..
So back to the picture .. yes .. Meena ji .. was a soft spoken gentle lady, always appreciative of the work done by new comers .. was extremely kind to me at the trial and ever since always most encouraging when ever I got a chance to meet her .. she sat at the premier of ‘Reshma aur Shera’ just ahead of my seat and was so moved by that scene when I a dumb villager, come to Waheeda ji’s village to plead guilty for killing her relative, saying in dumb terms that I was forced into the kill and not out of my wish .. she kept speaking loudly in the hall ..’arre bechaara’ ..’arre aisa kyun kar rahen hain iske saath’ .. it was most touching for her to feel this way .. Meena Kumari .. her greatness lay in her immense talent and humaneness .. no one, not any one, ever spoke dialogues the way she did .. no one .. not anyone to date .. and perhaps never will .. a prodigious natural talent, a poetess, a most endearing personality and what a performer .. innumerable scenes from so many films come to mind .. but the one for me that stays permanently is that scene from ‘Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam’ of Guru Dutt, where she is trying to persuade her husband Rehman, another prolific actor, from going for the night to a kotha .. and the song .. ‘na jao saiyaan, chudha ke baiyaan ..’ .. heart wrenching expressions ! and what a film ..
A day has gone by .. but never enough to be able to recollect the times of yore .. of times spent in great expectations for the future .. of hope and desire .. of wanting to be jobbed .. of wanting to get film and opportunity to work in one somehow ..of getting up each morning and travelling from office to office in search of work .. of promises made by many only to be rejected later by them .. to watch the world go by and wonder if ever time would come by hold my hand and show me favour ..
जीवन संघर्षपूर्ण है , और जब तक जीवन है तब तक प्रतिदिन संघर्ष है
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3373
Malta June 22/23, 2017 Thu/Fri 12:55 AM local time
Birthday - EF - Anish Morarji Tataria Fri, June 23 . … and our wishes go out to Anish for his birthday .. wishes for happiness and good times ever !!
A young crew member from ‘Thugs of Hindostan’, walks up gingerly to me on set and with some hesitation she says, she wishes to sing a song to me ..
I look at her .. she is young and shy and white Caucasian .. and I wonder why she would want to do that, particularly because there is no indication that she would even know who I am, even though she has been told that the project she is on is an Indian film and these actors are the actors on the film ..
I am suddenly surrounded by other crew members, who, I am somewhat surprised to note, are egging her on to do so ..
And so with great clarity of accent and tune she starts :
‘aisi nazar … kajrare … kajrare, tere kaale kaale naina ..’
Completely with great composure and confidence she even does a few of the patent steps of the song .. every one bursts into applause and I gently ask her, where she is from ..
From Poland !!
On set another assistant walks up to me with another young miss, explaining to me that she wishes to meet me .. I do .. she says she has been a fan from when she was young, and that her first film was ‘K3G’ ..
She from Kazakistan !!
NO .. I am not trying to impress one and all with the diversity of crew working on a film from India, but .. the spread of Hindi cinema in the lives of so many away from Indian shores .. and not necessarily Indian ..
May Indian cinema live multitudinous years and may the cross section of the world society, believe and show affection to talent from our Indian shores ..
My love and wishes ..
Amitabh Bachchan
DAY 3372
Malta June 21/22, 2017 Wed/Thu 2:20 AM local time
Birthday - EF - Ashwini/ Ef Dr Prashant Naik @ZicoNaik Thu, June 22, you be deserving of all happiness and love from us at the Ef brigade .. love
प्रर्कीतिक सौंदर्य .. कला कृति की एक संभावना
रंगों का ढेर , शांति की पुकार
और मेरा ह्रदय , विचारों की इक विडंबना
शिथिल समुद्र की बेजान लहरें ,
विचलित मन , अद्भुत गहनें
स्वीकार करूँ मैं
भावुक मन से .. सौंदर्य की प्रतिभा अटल अटूट
~ अमिताभ बच्चन
DAY 3371
Malta June 20, 2017 Tue 10:53 PM local time
Birthday EF - (Janak) Agarwal birthday today 20th June .. all wishes and love form the Ef brigade ..
Birthday - EF - Rajeev Sharma/Molly Amitabh Wed, June 21 .. and our wishes too for Rajeev and Molly for the birthday tomorrow .. with immense love and affection .. Ef family
Pink jelly beans of candy flavour in companion .. setting the gums to exercise .. gentle and thoughtful gift from the Ef that travels long distances for a meeting .. thank you Shital Ef .. I ‘hear’ you too .. !!
It is the little things in life that bring the mind to register the words emanating now endlessly in gratitude .. there are numerous others too that seek attention ..
The art work of the many is astounding and so praiseworthy .. I can but generalise this here .. but all seek individual attention .. and that is never a possibility .. it does not reflect the temperament or the designation or the merit value at all .. to me the equality of temperament .. the oneness of spirit is prime .. I labour to project that, and hope that an understanding audience shall pay heed .. my love and care and concern for all is limited in approach, but never in its abundant feel ..
So yes, many go unnoticed or unread, they feel and therefore believe .. that is far from the truth .. i feel and I read .. and I know ..
As you eat your meal .. and that slight sniffle occurs .. does it not lend to a most loving endearing moment or quality .. and with each morsel, that gentle sniffle .. and for no reason really you feel quite attracted to the moment .. not in yourself but in another ..
( oh dear the jelly beans are over !)
Ya .. so that sniffle again .. does it or will it bring concurrence .. the blowing is unattractive .. but that gentle sniffle never is ..
HAHAHAHAHEHEEHAHAHAA ..
Look what this platform has come to really .. sniffle and the blowing of noses !?
Naaah .. apologies for that .. but its something that I notice for long, and thought of giving it a life .. here .. in internet perpetuity ..
and the art work continues .. one does it .. it gets notice on a retweet or a comment .. and several follow suit .. good nothing wrong .. just an observation ..
the concept of modernity in all walks of life brings one closer to gadgetry that could ease act of physical manuality .. what the human can do with his humane, a machine needs to be constructed by the human for replacing the human .. the biggest dichotomy of the times ..
No more is this prevalent today on the sets of film that I work in, than now … every possible act that was being done manually, now has replacement in a machine or a created object that shall ease the human angle ..
Easing the human angle is by itself a dichotomy .. how does then one describe an error .. a human or a machine error .. a machine designed by the human ??
Puzzling ..
That anxiety, that fear, that uncertainty of the unknown, or the one answer needing seeking .. has all mysteriously and by design, pardon the pun, disappeared .. there is an answer to any query in an immediate selection .. answers today reveal the speed of delivery .. and that has been most fascinating ..
I am enamoured by its presence .. I have the ability to relate to the past, when the circumstances of the immediacy we talk of , were not available or discovered or present .. but the fascination is that the generation that has just arrived, shall always believe in the present set up .. for them this shall be the norm .. the immediacy of result .. we still have comparison, they will not .. unless of course their present brings inventions and order that gives them sufficient reason to steer back and compare .. much as I do today ..
I doubt if it shall be in same dimensions .. for the frog hop quantum leap has taken place now in our generation .. theirs will be of a completely different nature, albeit with some marked change .. but the realm of change or inventory shall perhaps be in a range that may not be too surprising .. not just to them, but to us also ..
Certain basics shall remain the same .. like
Good night and love
Amitabh Bachchan