NDTV reads Mutiny.in
In particular, the views on Dutt.
Saw a post on the NDTV movies website - duck - here it comes.
2S
Techie. Writer. Photographer.Archive for August 1, 2007
Mainstream or art?
First, the facts out of the way, shall we? I love Aamir Khan, I’m a big fan, and I think he’s the nation’s best actor, coming second only to B. The other Khans (Sallu, SRK), and the Khanlets (Fardeen, Zayed), and even the nanokhans (Arbaaz, Sohail, Jiya?) can take a walk in the park. This is the real performer. Don’t mess, enough said.
Aamir’s blog is him unplugged. And the bloke makes sense, loads of it. However, I tend to disagree with a couple, and exactly a couple of points here.
The market strength that I get from a film like FANAA allows me to do this (make films where he conveys a message from his heart). Plus I enjoyed doing FANAA. I am walking this balance and I am enjoying this journey.
Balance? I call it dilution, when you - as a star performer - ought to invest your time and effort entirely, and entirely, into producing quality cinema. If indeed, your dream is to make movies like Mangal Pandey, then go ahead and have the guts to do it. So what, if it wasn’t a success? You aren’t living on crumbs are you? I sense in him the fact that he’s taken it for granted - mainstream cinema ropes in the moolah.
With that attitude - coming from the best performer around - the gap between mainstream and art will never be bridged. Black tried. Parzania tried. Omkara tried. Why, even Morning Raaga tried.
His other comment on mainstream media made me think as well.
In my opinion the PRIMARY responsibility of cinema is to entertain.
Absofreakinlutely, but hello - there is serious potential in those very three hours of entertainment that you can use, that you can exploit, to rid the nation of it’s problems. Yes, people forget all their worries and come to watch a flick. They laugh and cry. But what happens after that? Where’s the impact? Where’s the footprint? Hit-and-run flicks will get us nowhere except for boosting popcorn sales, Aamir. Bollywood can change the way the country thinks, and they know it.
So, does this mean I like him less now? On the contrary, my respect for this great individual just shot up. Why? Okay, I’ll let you answer this: how many celebrities do you know actually sit and blog, and talk to their fans directly on a forum such as this?
Even the nanokhans wouldn’t.
Sanjay Dutt doesn’t walk free anymore
This is what he says when the verdict was passed.
Sir, I made a mistake 14 years ago. Please give me some time to surrender
He has a point here, doesn’t he? In the years that have passed, Sanjay Dutt has kept his distance from the underworld. Does dining with the underworld make you a terrorist? Besides, Justice Kode clearly suggested that the crimes committed by Dutt and his friends Adajania and Nulwalla were not “anti-social, ghastly, inhuman, immoral or pre-planned” and did not cause any harm to the general public.
Then why six years?
The reactions are mixed. With 16 months already spent, Sanjay Dutt has four and a half years to go before he walks free, until the Supreme Court think otherwise. Until August 2, he’ll be put up at the Arthur Road Jail prison - walls of hostility, they be.
While folks might not care even if rupees 500 million worth of movie business is riding on him, the impact that Lage Raho Munnabhai had, and the Gandhigiri wave that swept the nation is one that’s rarely seen before, even as some might disagree. Realistic cinema at it’s best, driving many an Indian to think beyond the paradigm. This, fuelled by the protagonist. Right, so reel and real are different, but why isn’t anyone taking into account his impact on people as a person?
People tell me, that his repentance won’t bring back those who died in the ‘93 blasts. First question - was he fully responsible for it? Second question, agree, for a minute, that his repentance means nothing now. If so, WHAT will get the departed back?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Zilch.
So, while he rots in Arthur Jail that’s seen as many fights as inmates, what’s your opinion? Are you for him, or against him?
