Big B-A real friend indeed!

40 years on, Big B rekindles yaarana
Ajanta Chakraborty
[ 12 Mar, 2007 0221hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

KOLKATA: People cried. Someone tried taking pictures on his cellphone but his hands shook too much. Some others cheered, cheered and cheered as if there was no tomorrow. When Amitabh Bachchan stepped into Calcutta Club, the clock stopped. For everyone.

And amid all the jostling and cheering, Bachchan stopped just once. Spotting a face in the milling crowd, he stepped up and hugged the bewildered man. "Oh my god, it's you!" said the Bollywood Badshah. "Bapi," he said softly, and embraced the man even tighter. He could only mumble in reply, "Forty years ..."

It was Bapi Mukherjee, an old colleague from Bird Company.

Sixty-eight-year-old Mukherjee, a Calcutta Club regular, had especially come to rekindle the long-lost yaarana. But he hardly expected the big man to recognise him. Mukherjee turned so emotional that he left the club immediately.

Emotions ran high in the thousand-odd crowd. It was an exclusive event, a "very private affair barred to the media".

The "ladies and gentlemen" €" the city's glitterati €" known for their etiquette and grace forgot all decorum and swooned over the tall, white-bearded, immaculately dressed man. They rushed to touch him and jostled to get near just to make that fleeting eye contact.

And Bachchan returned the sentiment. "Your warmth humbles me," he said.

He was immediately transported to his "days of struggle" in Calcutta of the 1960s, "when I got my first taste of independence, looking for a job." The club members reignited memories of Jaya (then Bhaduri) and Satyajit Ray. One of the giant screens flashed a black-and white still of Jaya in Ray's Mahanagar.

Even Bachchan was caught in the emotion. "This is the city that gave me my wife. I'll always be the jamai babu here. This city also gave me my desire to enter the films," he said.