Small-town biggies
SUBHASH K JHA
Call it a fluke, freak or phenomenon. But at the moment the biggest star in Bollywood is Himesh Reshammiya… and there are no two ways about it. His jukebox jingles, accompanied by that nasal twang, have the nation in a swoon. Single-handedly Himesh has revived the sagging fortunes of the Indian music industry. Today, his songs control the industry. And now his first overseas concert tour titled, Aap Ka Suroor, has turned the fortune of Bollywood concerts on foreign shores.
The Bollywood concerts that had taken such a drastic beating lately have now revved up again. The five cities in the US that Reshammiya covered so far greeted the composer-performer with unprecedented gusto. A cousin of mine, no fan of Reshammiya, attended his concert in Atlanta last week. "It was crazy! There were at least 15,000 people in the auditorium of all age and gender, clapping, cheering, shouting and dancing wildly. The last time I saw Asians in such frenzy was when Amitabh Bachchan had come with Kalyanji-Anandji way back in the '80s. And let's not forget that Bachchan was the mainstay of that concert, not the musicians," said my cousin.
Himesh Reshammiya is the first Indian musician to be accorded the status of a full-blown rock star, a status that Himesh's mentor Salman Khan once craved for. You can scoff at success, but you can never grudge it. Himesh's success is fodder for textbook analysis. What makes him click? And why is there such sniggering cynicism prevalent about his superstardom? No, it can't be only jealousy. Himesh has got to be a fluke.
It's the same resentment I saw when Mallika Sherawat become an overnight success. Ruthlessly ambitious and determined to get to the top at any cost, I remember Mallika's almost-daily phone calls to me. She'd weep about all the wrong done to her…from male co-stars who made blatant passes, to female co-stars who treated her like small-town trash, Mallika's voice would crack with emotion every time she spoke about being a helpless victim.
"I've literally crawled out of Rohtak to be where I am today," she told me on the eve of Murder. Then, after accusing me of unreasonable behaviour she vanished from my life. The same girl who claimed I was her guide and mentor never called me after Murder released.
I respect Mallika, not for what she has achieved, but for the singleminded goals she set for herself. In Himesh I saw the same glint of determination, the hunger to reach the top, and the will to prove the scoffers wrong. Himesh and Mallika belong to the 'won't-be-intimidated' ilk of sure-shot achievers. Bollywood just can't turn them away.
There's another side to the small-towner's dream-realisation scheme. Once at the top, he or she takes a kind of subverted revenge on the world. Mallika chose to become a recluse. She plays the role of the archetypal recluse and media-shy movie star long after Suchitra Sen, who never showed her face in public after she called it quits. Today Mallika is seen only on screen. Hard to believe this was the same girl who once offered to come to Patna to meet me. Himesh too has turned into this performing hermit. I once asked him why he never smiles in public. "I don't say or hear anything that warrants a smile. When I do, I promise you I won't stop myself," he said.
Source : TOI