The Megastar in His Dreamlessness

- Amrit Jyoti Mahanta
Programme Executive,
Doordarshan Kendra, New Delhi.
(Assamee original : Kavyashree Mahanta)

A young actor made it big in Bollywood. Till then he was known as a child born into n refined and aristocratic family, good in studies as a student. After he hit the headlines in his very first film, offers came to him flooding. With masterful acting he stirred the emotions, mores, taste and dreams of an entire generation of Indians. He became the hero of a million young women’s dreams. Many charming actresses yearned to co-star with him. Story-writers scripted stories imagining him in the lead-role. Directors designed treatment keeping him in mind. Producers invested huge amounts hoping big returns with him as the protagonist. Music directors composed numbers matching his body movements. Thus, calling the shots in the Hindi filmdom for an entire era, he transcended into another age, another plane.

Time passed by. In the film world too, many things changed- techniques, craft, cine goers’ taste... hut nothing dimmed the appeal of this superstar. Only his image underwent some transformation. From the principled angry young man of the initial years, he is now a celebrity commanding attention and ovation at the same time. He is a mega star now. He represents, defines and signifies many highs and lows of Hindi cinema, its demand, popularity, glamour and taste for last so many years. In family life too, the actor is many times happier than most husbands of actress wives. After all, his immensely talented wife withdrew from acting primarily in the interest of his career.

He got everything, name, fame and big money. The megastar now planned for his children’s future and launched an enterprise. After living so many years in the world of glamour and money, he was not equipped to think about making a career outside this arena of glitter. Now came his worries. The venture entailed a lot of dues in terms of taxes and insurance premium. He was not prepared for such a situation, He was further pushed to earn more. He signed up with a private T.v. channel for a big budget mega serial. The face that hypnotized the countrymen for several decades on the big screen easily succeeded on the small screen also. The winning participants in the programme would earn attractive cash prizes. His intelligence, refinement and the magnetic voice made the serial a big draw and sponsors came rushing. The participants were from all walks of life- businessmen, students, housewives, unemployed youth... The megastar settled his dues in no time. His venture too clicked. The serial he anchored topped the popularity chart.
Now he is perturbed by something else. With his taste and education the megastar had all along acquired a disciplined, academic knowledge about the country and her people. In the preceding quarter century he effortlessly enacted so many characters-thief, labourer, mechanic, lover, broker or angry son of impoverished parents. Acting for him was not simply a passion or profession, it was his emotion, his most sustaining element, a symbolic expression of his inner soul. So long he had held that his study and his acting helped him know this country, the people living here, and their culture. He thought he understood them well. This conviction encouraged him to have small chats with the participants in the TV. show. What would he or she do with the prize-money? He often asked. “ I’ll build a beautiful home”- was one answer. ‘’I’ll make a tour abroad”-another replied. “I’ll invest in my children’s education”- a parent said. These innocent answers filled him with a sadness he had never felt before. These people carry on in their life with dreams like these! A house, a foreign trip, children’s education... which one of these dreams can be fulfilled by a prize-money like this? He himself does not know how much each of his mansions cost. He lost count of foreign trips he had made so far. And he never needed to know how much his children spend in a month. These simple answers of the ordinary folks shattered his boast of knowing the country, its poverty, its problems. A college student once answered him that if he won a few lakhs, then he would spend the money to treat a widow in his neighbourhood. The poor woman had three small children. Her husband was a coolie at the railway station who was killed in a bomb blast. He was overwhelmed by the no-nonsense reply of the youngster He was reminded of a role he did twenty years ago- that of a coolie. Before the shooting schedule he minutely observed the coolies, how one walked, how he lifted the baggage smoothly on to his head, then the balanced strides through the crowd, then the wiping of the face with the gamcha , counting the changes... he was then preoccupied with one aim only- he should do great acting, without the slightest imperfection, after all the film must click and this role should be regarded as a turning point in his career by the posterity. But did he see the uncertain future of the real coolies? Where a magnanimous gesture of someone else could usher in a glimmer of hope? No, no, no he did not see. He never saw poverty of this land. He does not belong to the dreams, aspirations, joys and frustrations of millions of countrymen.

The megastar was restive. He could not concentrate on his daily schedule. He appeared a stranger to himself. When in the morning he would walk to his swanky car escorted by security-men, he would remember those faces In the set of the TV show who said ‘I’ll build a home’, ‘I’ll buy a posh car’... He would look back to his palatial mansion. He does not have count of the millions he invested here. He even does not remember how many rooms it has. Only a few dozen in this country have this car he lately acquired. What is life-long dream and struggle for millions in this country is just another spend for him. How deep is his dream then, what is its reach ? He wanted to break free from this pain and suffocation. He just went missing. With long years’ of acting he did this with such a perfection that even his security men were foxed. By the time his family came to know about his ‘missing’, he was strolling at a distant suburb. A person of international fame was along the street of a small town unnoticed. He himself did not know what grief, what deprival pushed him to this. 

It was another morning and there were a few pedestrians in the street. Birds flew off from the garbage dumps and drains beside. A man on a bicycle passed him by. He heard an infant’s cry from a house nearby. A few working women in brisk paces passed him by. He just went on looking around all these. Nobody can make him out here. He can freely indulge his five senses here. And they were athirst to taste the free world around.

He moved around the place without any purpose for two full days. In the evening of the second day, he overheard some people talking about him at a roadside rendezvous. He perked up a bit. Yes, a few youngsters were engrossed in an animated discussion where his name too was popped up. He listened a bit attentively. All he understood was that his missing is a national news now. That is the hottest topic for everybody to discuss.

Nearby at a shop there was a small crowd in front of the colour T. V. Slowly he walked towards them. People are attentively viewing the special bulletin of Doordarshan on his missing. The sound byte of chief of country’s top intelligence agency... The Prime Minister appealing to the insurgent outfits of the country words of sympathy from the Heads of States of the friendly countries . He saw all these with stunned attention. A suppressed excitement prevailed amidst the assembled crowd. Two teenagers brushed passed him to have a better view. The bulletin now shows a clipping of one of his early films some twenty five years ago. A lanky youth with a vacant look. He has seen himself many times in many active, articulate, glamorous roles in the company of family, friends and VIPs. He was often thrilled at his steady transition from those nameless days to becoming the most familiar face in the country. But today the megastar gets to see his initial days in this most unlikely company. Well, the only difference is that was the unassuming young man without fat and fame and today he is ‘Big’, famous and rich. But he read another difference in that gleaming pair of eyes of the young man. Like tiny drops of water there glistens in that gaze a determination to realize some undefined dreams and desires in the future, to put an end to many frustrations. Today for him there is no need of that any more. And that led him to believe that these simple people are deprived and suffering. But they are not. It is his dreamless existence today that led him to draw such a conclusion. Dreams and perseverance are the invaluable treasures of human life and that enriches the nameless millions in this country.