REMEMBER THE spat between Bollywood veteran ’Bharat’ (Manoj Kumar) and the creative unit of last year’s blockbuster ’Om Shanti Om’? Well, the war still simmers just like India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir and just refuses to die down!
The saffron brigade took up cudgels on behalf of the septuagenarian and raised slogans outside Shahrukh’s house in Bandra when OSO opened tumultuously. The mob demanded that the superstar of soul-less India must make amends for insulting the nationalist patriot of Bharat! They were outraged after Manoj Kumar had taken strong objection to certain hilarious sequences in OSO making fun of him. The angry old man charged that Shahrukh had injured his soul and cried out: "This is not film making.... My devotion to filmdom for the last 50 years has been insulted." He went on to attribute a communal colour, "It is a plot hatched by fundamentalists like Shahrukh and Farah Khan against a respectable Brahmin pundit like me, for no rhyme or reason, to ridicule and humiliate me." He topped the ranting with, "Would they dare to show (Yusuf Khan) Dilip Kumar in such bad light?"
The Khan duo, choreographer-turned director Farah Khan and superstar cum producer Shahrukh Khan, could douse the saffron ire, perhaps by making a deal with the Ayatollah of Hindutva, Bal Thackeray. The cacophony calling for deleting the sequence faded away. Thereafter, there was no mob response to Manoj Kumar’s repeated cribbings: "Shahrukh or Farah cannot get away with declaring that it is their creative freedom to show whatever they want. I want Shahrukh to delete all references to me in bad light in the film with immediate effect." He sort of went overboard lashing the successful actor and director, "How can he stoop so low to injure my soul by showing a junior artiste who plays my double in the film being beaten up by the cops? Are Mumbai cops nincompoops, who cannot do their job?"
OSO’s first half is set in the 1970s and shows SRK impersonating Manoj, superstar of those days, to sneak into an auditorium during a premiere. Disastrously for him, the ‘real’ Manoj turns up later. But, he is beaten back by the guards. Trying toconvince the gatekeeper, he shows his driving licence with a photo. But, the picture bears a typical Manoj’s pose in movies – his wide palm, incidentally the symbol of Indira Gandhi’s Congress, almost covering the face! In another spoof scene, the Manoj wannabe – SRK – delivers a typical thank you speech in funny tongue.
Industry stalwart Yash Chopra successfully brokered peace between the veteran and Farah -SRK team at his residence that time. The old-time superstar is apparently not satisfied with whatever he was to derive from that controversy. He is reportedly mulling legal action against the superstars of today. Like the United Nations in the Kashmir dispute, Yash finds himself in soup. Manoj told a gossip magazine, "Yash Chopra did come to my place with Shahrukh and others. I made them feel comfortable and didn’t even give them a chance to apologise. It was a delightful atmosphere. They said that portion would be deleted, but they haven’t kept their word. It was Yash’s responsibility since he brought them over. I called him yesterday and he said he was in London." He said, he is left with no choice but to think of approaching lawyers for legal recourse as the ’objectionable portion’ clowning him has not been deleted till now.
It is not, however, clear whether the aging actor is only a letting out his senile ire or whether his grievance is real. For, the parties do not agree as to what was agreed with Yash Chopra – like India and Pakistan with the UN!
Shahrukh had told mediapersons in Nov 2007, "I told him that I am extremely sorry for hurting your sentiments. There was no intention...I overlooked this issue. I also apologised on behalf of my director, Farah. I (also) told him that I should have invited you to watch the movie and I am sorry, I didn’t!" When Farah was asked if portions would be chopped off from the movie, she had said, "I did offer to even cut out the scene if he wished, but he refrained us from doing so. I asked him though that why didn’t he speak to me and scold me if he felt offended by the spoof. After all, he is a senior in the industry." A cajoled and cooled down Bharat had remarked that he was not against duplicates and mimics, and that he admired people like Johnny Lever. He added that he treated Farah like his daughter and joked that he would like to produce a film directed by Farah and starring SRK, if only they were available!
But, now, the former actor-director-writer-producer says that he was okay only with the scene where they showed his look-alike hiding his face. He asks "But, when he’s seated at the premiere, how can the police not recognise him and beat him up? Today if Shahrukh or Salman Khan enter a premiere, will they be beaten up by the police?" When asked why he rakes up controversies in an admittedly comic movie, which spoofed everyone including SRK, Manoj Kumar delivered a long monologue about Indian Constitution! He lectured, "I’m a good actor, I’m a bad actor, a good filmmaker or a bad filmmaker, you can voice your opinion. But you can’t do this. You can’t hit below the belt. As per our Constitution, a film can’t have something like this. Kisi zinda aadmi ka mazaak nahin uda sakte hain. (You cannot ridicule a man who is alive) First, they make fun and second, they don’t even keep their word. That’s upsetting... I’m not Mahatma Gandhi!"
Farah, busy tending to her six-month-old triplets apart from numerous assignments, has no time for such trivialities. She has sought to bring the curtain down once and for all. "I am not bothered about him anymore," she told a reporter when asked whether she and Sharukh had indeed betrayed the assurance given to the grand old man. Incidentally, her brother Sajid Khan has lampooned Dilip Kumar aka Yousuf Khan number of times and has never faced trouble!
