Of Shahrukh’s Bollywood Quotient and a Lazy Sunday

It’s a lazy Sunday, I have promised to work on the novel and nothing else. Except for writing this post. I would do anything to see it through to THE END. Well, some sins are forgiven as the sinner doesn’t know that he is sinning. So got up at the usual time, read the Bible (as I couldn’t attend church), went for a walk, had a bath and sat down to work in my study on the top floor. Hm. The newspaper, I didn’t do the mistake of opening, or, I would have been stuck for another hour, the television is blaring downstairs, Ronnie is watching some show. There is plenty of hammering going on, and I can see the blinding blue sky and the Parsik Hills from where I sit. The days are turning hot though there is a cool breeze now and then. The coconut palms nod and quiver playfully, and the barking of dogs echo dully.

Here’s one more thought on what I said yesterday about My Name Is Khan. I have these moments of clarity as afterthoughts, quite a few of my posts are written thusly, I confess. Obviously it (the movie) is an attempt to ape Forrest Gump. So, why can’t Shahrukh say “Mamma says, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’” simply like Tom Hanks says? See why can’t we be more simple and not totally Bollywood-like? Why does he have to turn his head this way and that and look blankly, as if he is mentally retarded and not suffering from Agoraphobia, which is a common enough malady? I am not blaming the actor, I guess the director should have thought along those lines and watched enough of Forrest Gump before filming. A good film and storyline has been ruined by something trivial and mawkish.

About originality and all that, why do we have to imitate Hollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood, etc., with such regularity?  I guess it is the Bollywood Quotient that is speaking up.