Success - a problem

It is a problem to make it big, to make a name, to make it as a success story, especially success stories like Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai, success stories has made the history of Indian films very colourful and even exciting. Yash last made Veer-Zaara which was based on a sensitive subject. Yash conquered again to make a success of a subject which was considered to be very risky by many of the so-called experts. The film was a big success in India and was also a must see in every Pakistani house and in any part of the world where Indians and Pakistanis lived. The film was also seen as the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between the two countries which have been hostile towards each other for more than fifty years. Now Veer-Zaara is a challenge and a problem for Yash. He will have to make better, different, delicate, risky and challenging subjects only because the audience has got habituated to his kind and class of films. Yash is now waiting see is son Aditya make his next film and is already going restless to make his own next film. And the expectations from the showman was at its peaks when he made Kisna. He made the film which all the passion which he could muster but somehow something went wrong and the film failed to make the kind of impact it was expected to. It was made on a grand scale. It was made with a lot of hard work put in both the showman and his entire team which was appreciated by festivals and audiences in other parts of the world but was not taken very kindly to by our own audience. It hurt the showman in Subhash Ghai and a hurt showman can only rise after he is hurt, not fall or fail (remember Raj Kapoor making Bobby after the debacle of Mera Naam Joker?). The showman has many other plans and activities for Mukta Arts, the company he has built based on his own dreams but the one thing working in his mind all the time is the kind of film he himself is going to make next. There are many Subhash Ghais working in one Subhash Ghai but it is Subhash Ghai the director who is working the most because he knows that he just has to make a good film the next time. That is what he knows the people want from him and that is both he has promised himself to give them come what may. Where are the leaders?
INow you know why this country, our own dear country is not flourishing, not dearing to like it should have just like this country which could have been a much greater country than the mahaan country it promises and claims to be. YES, BECAUSE OF THE SHEER LACK OF GOOD AND GENUINE LEADER, LEADER WHO HAVE THE BURNING DESIRE TO LEAD THE COUNTRY OUT OF THE MIRE AND MESS AND GRADUAL FALL IT IS LEADING TO, LEADERS WHO CAN SOLVE PROBLEMS AND NOT CREATE THEM, LEADERS WHO HAVE THE WILL TO SERVE AND NOT BE SERVED THEMSELVES, LEADERS WHO CAN ONLY LEAD THEMSELVES TO REACH HEIGHTS WHICH THEY COULDN'T EVEN DREAM OF ONCE, LEADERS WHO DREAM OF BECOMING LEADERS ONLY TO DO GOOD TO THEIR OWN NEAR AND DEAR ONES, LEADERS WHO ARE SELFLESS AND NOT SELFISH, LEADERS WHO CAN LEAD AND NOT MISLED, LEADERS WHO WILL THINK OF BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW AND NOT RUIN EVEN WHAT SOME OF THE GOOD LEADERS HAVE DONE, LEADERS WHO CAN FIGHT FOR EVERY RIGHT AND NOT LEAD TO EVERYTHING WRONG THAT IS BECOMING IS FASHION NOWADAYS. I AM CERTAINLY NOT A FASCIMIST BUT THIS IS JUST WHAT I FEEL AND WHICH GIVES ME NIGHTMARE, HALLUCINATIONS AND NIGHTMARE.

And if we really need leaders to lead this industry from darkness to light, from despair to hope are leaders who always think of the welfare of the industry and not think of ways and means of leading it close to the well or even hell. We have leaders who I genuinely feel are only interested in themselves like one of the meetings of the leaders of one of the most important associations of the industry proved. These leaders who promised to build a new industry behaved like hooligans at the meeting. They abused each other like not even the men and women in the street can. They levelled charges of high-level corruption and nepotism against each other. They reach a stage when they had to shut the windows of the hall where they were meeting to hide their real selves.

This just doesn't happen in one association but in every other association which is supposed to do the work for the welfare of the industry and only look for ways to denigrate it, to descrate and who knows even to disintegrated. We have to have leaders who care or beware this industry will soon reach nowhere. This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and not the ravings and rantings of a pessimist because the day I turn a pessimist I see a blur a shadow of darkness slowly covering the industry. Will our leaders change their souls and minds and behave like leaders or will the lead us to nowhere?

41, Pali Hill
Once upon a time Pali Hill in Bandra in Mumbai was the place to be in stars, and those who wanted to make it as stars. It was Pali, a village of ancient times which had a hill which was surrounded by mangroven, monkeys and birds of all species. Then came this rare species of human beings from a strange world, the world of Hindi films. Stars built their bungalows, big and small bungalows on this hill which also had the added attraction of having the sea just below it. Soon there were big naboughers like Naseem Banu, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Guru Dutt, Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt, Bharat Bhushan, Rajendra Kumar, Saira Banu and many others. But I have just come to know about a three storeyed bungalow in a corner on a zig-zag road in which lives some named which were on their way to the a part of history, names like Chetan Anand, Kameshwar Sehgal and his actress wife Zohra Sehgal, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Kamini Kaushal and some others. The bungalow was just called 41, Pali Hill and was a creative hub for all kinds of creative minds because his people who dreamt great drems for the future. They talked about films, about theatres, about music, about literature, about the innovations they wanted to make to change the face of independent India through their creative ideas. Now, alas that bungalow has just vanished. There is a multi-stories building which has come up in its place. Some of the big names which lives their once are dead and gone, some have shifted and moves to other places. Zohra Sehgal at 80 plus is still active as an actress both in India and international cinema. And the most active of them all is Dev Anand who was more of a visitor than a resident of 41, Pali Hill and strangely enough Dev Sahab today have his huge bungalow which is his empire from whose pent house he sits alone and rules like an emperor. Talked to him about those days and his eyes almost turn misty and he remembered how he learned some of the best things from some of the best minds that worked there, the results of which are still seen in all the good work that is being done now. 41, Pali Hill is still Pali Hill but it is not the 41, Pali Hill it was so many years ago. Let's make this year a really
happy New Year
A New Year has just begun
All the other years have become a part of history
This is the time to hope
This is time to wish the whole world well
This is the time to think of ways to brighten-up this world
This is the time to pray that way see the light
This is the time to defeat the devil of darkness
This is the time to resolve to make good films
This is the time to no and understand why things went wrong and how they can be set right
This is the time to forget to past and work towards a better future
This is the time for each one of us to work towards one goal, the goal to have a good world to live in
This is the time to take an oath to give all that is negative and plan only all that is positive
This is the time to promise ourselves that we will genuinely keep all the promises we have made ourselves Rajpal ka raaj
At the very outset a young man like Rajpal Yadav would certainly not even dream of making it as an actor in films. He was very short. He had no physique to envy. He had no personality like the say when they talk about someone making it as an actor. He was, I am sure, taken for granted, made one of and fed heavily on the most delicious dream. Raj Pal, however was a very different, daring and dynamic man who had all the faith in his daring dream. He joint the National School of Drama and not any ordinary school and to the utter surprise of one and all who knew him turned out to be one of the most amazing natural actors. His confidence in himself grew like very few actors have had the privilege to. His next step - Mumbai, naturally, the city where millions of dreams wait to be fulfilled. He was lucky. He played little role in some of Ram Gopal Varma's films like Satya and Jungle and made a very big impact. "Who is this actor?" people asks and Rajpal took very little time to tell them who he was on the sheer strength of his genuine talent. The man who they said had nothing to him to be an actor proved that he had not just something but everything in him to make it as a great actor. He reached a stage when he even played the zero in a film like Mai Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahati Hoon and very recently in Mai Meri Patni Aur Woh. His performance in both the film one rich applause and richer the claim from the hard-harded critics. Rajpal was accepted as a brilliant actor. How far will his brilliance take him. What kind of roles will be created for him? What kind of filmmakers will have the guts to make films with him in leading roles? These are some of the questions that will decide the fate of an actor who comes just once in a way, an actor who comes to prove that it is not just the accepted standards set to make it big as an actor but also break rules and make it big in a world where some of the most talented actors have tried and failed and fade it away. All that is new
The first family (that's how they are known) the Kapoors have had many firsts to their credit. One of them was the grandfather, father and grandson working together in one film, Randhir Kapoor made a striking debut as a director and directed his grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor, his father Raj Kapoor and himself in a film called Kal Aaj Aur Kal. It was a film based on a subject way ahead of its time. Randhir proved how mature he was as a director shouting out orders to his giant of a grandfather, and his father and they were proud of him. And Kal Aaj Aur Kal will always be Randhir's favourite film whatever film he makes in future. Now, so many years later, the Deols are doing it with Anil Sharma's Apne in which Dharmendra and his two sons Sunny and Bobby come together for the first time in a film. This is a very challenging opportunities for Deols and a greater challenge for Anil Sharma who made his last big mega hit Gadar - Ek Prem Kahani which was followed by a damp squib which he would like to forget. He now only has to remember that he has the chance of a life time to make a film that has all the possibilities of making it as a milestone. And I wonder why some writers and some filmmakers cannot think of bringing Vinod Khanna and his two very talented sons Akshay and Rahul together. It would be a great combination. I had the opportunity to talk to Vinod about something like this, something so special happening and he was all game provided the subject appealed to him and both his sons.

Amitabh and his son Abhishek are doing films together and they make an outstanding team. Specially now with Abhishek being taken seriously as an actor and soon Randhir Kapoor will join all the other Kapoors and the Kapoors plan will keep growing and growing and will be a part of the industry forever as Randhir Kapoor says. There are many other ideas that can be work out to make the scene look brighter as time passes because it is only experimenting with new ideas that can bring about that big change we have been looking for for again God knows how many years!