John Ab ’Garam’! (KWK)- An article

Hair flopping on his forehead, a dimpled wicked smile, drool worthy jism, model-turned actor John Abraham was an instant hit with all the PYTs, and generally liked by the industry. Whether his films did well or flopped John had his fans, and he slowly climbed up the success ladder. When Dhoom (2004) came John became the nation's craze with his bike and bronzed body.

Everyone's favourite, with Bipasha Basu as his love interest, things were going smoothly when a twist of fate turned things sour for him. Controversies just erupted around him and he was caught in the middle of a big mess.

In last year season of Koffee with Karan, John was asked to choose his favourite actress between Rani amd Kareena Kapoor, he said that Rani was his favourite actress. In this year's season Koffee with Karan, Kareena retaliated to the last year's comment and called him an 'ex-pressionless actor'.

John had replied to her remarks "Kareena's opinion does not matter to me. It is not going to change my destiny" on a prominent news channel.

The second controversy happened when John went on his first world tour. The Rockstar concert with Salman Khan. The show choreographer Ganesh Hedge and Salman had a misunderstanding and was replaced by Bosco-Ceaser. Salman had asked the stars to reduce their money, John had refused. An infuriated Salman decided to teach him a lesson. He ignored him, sidelined him and John came back unhappy. Though both have refused to talk about the reason for the fight, John says things are fine, Salman calls him a 'well brought up Parsi boy'.

When they came back from the tour, they even shot for Baabul, but kept to their vans and corners. The cold war still continues.

A male-to-male bonding took place between Arshad Warsi and John during the shooting of Kabul Express in Afghanistan. Arshad had the best punch lines and John provided the charm in the film. When John fell sick with a severe case of diarrhea and was flown down to Lilavati hospital, it was Arshad who spoke to the media and expressed his concern about his co-star.

After the film's release, John gave the credit to Arshad for his fabulous acting. Now they are shooting in UK for Goal, their second film together. Both are keen football players, so much so that Arshad calls his son Zeke Zidane, and both want to win the game in the film. The film's shooting begins from evening, a quiet battle of onemanship takes place between these two guys.

The question that everyone is asking is what's gone wrong John? The chilled and smiling John seems to have developed an couldn't care less attitude, about others opinion.

We think that he needs a big hit soon.

Chandrika Bhattacharya

Monday, 9 April, 2007