Shah Rukh Can is a breezy read with its easy, undulating flow in no particular chronological order, keeping in mind the fact that SRKs life, his triumphs in particular, has assumed the status of folklore. According to the writer, it is a continuation of his Still Reading Khan, but a step forward in that he examines the Brand SRK. A lot of it is admittedly culled from self-conducted interviews as also reports in the media. Considering that the book is about SRK among the most widely-chronicled Indian stars, Sheikh manages well in keeping the tone light while alternating swiftly between asides and analysis to the Q & A format so popular with journalists. Shiekh, a former scribe with Star & Style and g magazine, has always been passionate about film stars and film magazines, Shiekh's book, as it is most times with journalists, is a book in a hurry to tell the million stories that go into making a legend. One can't blame him because the subject is a man of many parts. Khan has, since Still Reading Khan, Mushtaq's first book, moved on to activities beyond acting such as being the owner of an IPL team, endorsing a male fairness cream and Lux (a beauty soap) hitherto endorsed by Bollywood beauties.
"I always said that it's about the journey…In Still Reading Khan, I didn't know where to stop, so it became almost like a tombstone – a 4 kilo killer machine you could kill someone with by banging it on their head. I gorged on the design aspect supported as it was with beautiful photographs — it was pure eye-candy. Anybody who is a Shah Rukh fan picked it up because of the photographs. Cost-wise too it was expensive. It was my magnum opus, but then Shah Rukh has a mass appeal and he's young, so I thought of relooking at his journey from Delhi to Don. With this book, you can take Shah Rukh to bed."
The wildly-swerving narrative, Shiekh explains, "Since it was about his journey, I approached it like a travelogue." Visits to Delhi were made where Khan had grown up and the details - friends and contemporaries reminiscing their days in TAG - are present in the book. Charting this unfamiliar territory brings in objectivity and freshness. The attempt, Shiekh reasserts, has been to sift through the vast amount of information he has been privy to (as part of the star's intimate circle) to retain stories that have a timeless quality. "I wanted a timeless quality to the book. The way you struggle is timeless. The way you got your first film is timeless. What Neha Dhupia talked about only sex and SRK selling I don't wish to know. But yes, how does he manage to be so sexually-agile without smooching a heroine, whether it's Kajol, Juhi or Rani, is something I wanted to know about. German women make dolls of him, cut pictures etc. They can watch him sleep on the sofa and find great activity through him and that is what I thought needs to be understood."
It is a pertinent point, considering Khan has been widely hailed as the post-modern romantic hero and one who is examined at considerable length. Chapter 12, which deals with Brand Shah Rukh, is insightful though it merely scratches the surface .
"It's interesting that when I wrote the first book he was called a bad businessman and when I got down to writing the second his IPL leap was a case-study for business schools! Now there are many others like Shilpa Shetty biting the bullet. Or when he got into the bathtub for Lux - all that was not there in my earlier book, so I have tried to understand the brand a little more. I studied brand managers a little more than the last time, like how does he work for a Lux, a fairness cream and IPL? If you are someone who has gone through my Still Reading Khan very closely, the difference would be 35 per cent. I have kept it faster and far more objective."
Shiekh admits he's big on successful underdog stories with fairytale endings. Not for him the lives of those who have things handed to them on a platter-a graph with the high and lows are necessary to excite the author. "I discovered many Shah Rukhs. By way of proof I give you quotes by his friends-when they discovered one they lost another SRK. It is by all counts an inspirational story."
About chronicling lives of stars besides SRK, Shiekh says it would have to be Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt. His next, however, would be a work of fiction and short stories are also in the pipeline. As for the rumoured fallout after Billu, it all falls in the realm of fiction. SRK's endorsement of the book on the back seems to bear him out as also Shiekh's promise that there are many more SRK books in the offing.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment