Last sat April 24th was kinda special . It was the birthday of two great ‘legends’ – Sachin and the local hero here in Bangalore called Dr. RajKumar. Both are supposedly ‘ heroes’ in their own rights….. I sometimes wonder what is it that makes a simple actor “a hero” for us Indians.
The starting scene from Slumdog Millionaire where the kid fanatically takes Amitabh’s autograph comes to my mind when I think of “ hero worship”. A population of over a billion people, a million plus demigods to worship, over a couple of thousand languages spoken in a land that is supposed to have been one of the oldest civilizations known to mankind. Earlier , heroes used to be gods or characters from ancient texts. We had Chanakya for his wisdom, Krishna for his romance, Ram for his loyalty and justice, Ekalavya for his dedication and focus, Karna for his sacrifice and so on… I sometimes get so convinced that its because of these reasons , that Hinduism as a religion is not monotheistic. We are a pluralistic society and one of the most democratic religions but how is that something so virtual, most of the time unbelievable ( heroes jumping over skyscrapers or taking bullets through their body like some paintball game or breaking prison door chains when wanting to escape ) that when we meet them in real life, we are so in awe of the person in front and truly almost believe that the character we see on screen is the same multifaceted person in real life and go all gungho and crazy.
Looking at ourselves and the daily struggle an average Indian goes through, at the end of the day he really needs someone who can look at things and solve it for him. Look at the issues that surround us. We want Clean water to drink, continuous power supply, good roads to drive, good food to consume, safe and secure environment and good night’s sleep and somehow, with the burgeoning population, it seems very surreal to satisfy all these needs. So ,we turn our attention to something that gives us all this. Books, religion and movies. We are not a very book loving country, though books have some of the most imaginative narratives, I think we Indians are a lethargic lot and believe in visual depiction. We have a very vivid imagination that comes across through folklore, martial arts , paintings, stories that actually got passed on through streetplays, dance, musicals and puppetry . For today’s urban generation , the easiest quickfix solution is Movies .
Our directors take us through the plushest of landscapes ( Yash Chopra movies ), grittiest of crimes ( RGV productions ) , overpowered super emotions ( the KJo kind of sagas ) or the ambitious students ( Aamir in 3 idiots ) . They give us actors who can can beat the bad guys up, someone who can build an utopic world for us to believe that it is possible. I have no element of doubt in the optimism of their stories , but I guess with the number of movies that we get exposed to , we start believing that the person behind the screen is actually capable of doing what is visible to us… Our mind makes us false believe that the actors are the heroes in real life and then get obsessed with them. I aint saying that it is not common in the west, but the limits to which we Indians do is far beyond any rationale.
We have titles such as Power Star Punnet, Rebel star Ambarish , Realstar Upendra given to heroes in Karnataka ; We have temples for Jayalalita, Khushboo in Tamil Nadu, fans do milk abhisheks ( ceremonies ) for the movie stars , some even commit suicide and burn themselves when actors die. And then there are memorials built, roads renamed and anniversaries celebrated long after they are gone into oblivion all from taxpayers money . Do they really deserve so much attention ?? I really wonder…
First of all, if you cut out the strut and the hype, they are not what they appear to be. They’ d probably be weaker than the guy who doesn’t even have a roof and sleeps on the road. They are guys who enact roles, slip in and out of characters written for them by others, directed by others, for vast sums of money risked by others. So how do they become heroes. I think Real heroes are very different . Real heroes are like the the tea boy in Mehboob Studio. He’s no longer a boy. He’s 57 years old but is still hanging around waiting for that singing break he had come to Mumbai for 40 years ago. Talk to the models in tiny dorms in Andheri, sharing their beds in 8 hour shifts, looking for work. They are brimming with hopes and dreams even when their lives are full of failure and disappointment. But they soldier on bravely, like the bar girls from Bengal who are still waiting for their clients to get them the film roles they had promised years ago. Their jobs are outlawed. The police harass them. Landlords throw them out when they hear of what they do, neighbours call them filthy names. But they don’t give up. Their dreams, ambitions, hopes keep them going, fearlessly. Each and every one of us is a hero in our own respect and its time to look around for ppl around us who go about doing deeds that go unnoticed. They are true BraveHearts. They lose every day and yet return to battle next morning. The auto driver from Saharanpur. The zari worker from Birbhum. The daily wage construction labourer from Salem who builds skyscrapers without wearing a harness. The farmer from Vidharba desperately seeking a job, any job. The college student from Meerut. What about the soldiers who guard us against foreign intrusion, some of them lose their lives to protect us. The banker, the stock broker, the white collar executive, the reality show contestant, the writer, the painter, the street dancer and not some person we see on screen for 2 hrs .
Its time to wake up !
