Book Review: King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema by Anupama Chopra - Page 2

The Legend of the King

Perhaps Shah Rukh Khan’s origins set him apart from his superstar colleagues. While almost all are good actors, some better than others, they happen to be beneficiaries of the film industry’s naked nepotism. As sons, brothers, nephews or grandsons of film legends, their little fists clutched on to credit cards and signed contracts even as they emerged from their mother’s womb. Shah Rukh’s father, in contrast, was a poor poetry lover who was, in his wife’s words, “an honest failure.”

Born in Peshawar, Meer Taj Mohammad was trapped in Delhi following the Indian partition. Even though he later married for love, and had two intelligent children, his life was too disappointing and ended too soon. When young, he went to Bombay to become an actor but sensibly returned back to Delhi after a few days of humiliating struggle. Courtesy of dishonest partners, almost all his business ventures ended in loss with the family constantly shifting from one dowdy rented apartment to another.

While dying of oral cancer, Mr. Mohammad’s body weakened, his tongue bled, and the proud Pathan could not go to the toilet by himself. That this man who could not afford a private ward in an inexpensive government-run hospital had a son who would one day become famous and so rich that he could buy an entire luxury hospital if he so wished, is surely the stuff fairy tales are made of.

The fairy tale, some allege, is full of fairies. Although the star has two kids and is believed to be happily married to his childhood love, the rumors never dissipate and rumor mongers love connecting the dots of his supposedly queer life. As child, Shah Rukh imitated the coquettish mannerisms of the sexy actress Mumtaz; his first screen role was that of a gay college student; one of his closest filmmaker friends is openly gay; he himself once spoke of someday winning an Oscar for playing a gay role. He remains Lux beauty soap’s only male model in India! In a culture where alternative sexuality has no place and no honor, it is astonishing that this actor, the object of much speculation, can be accepted so heartily from grandmothers to granddaughters-in-law.

Shah Rukh’s unique place in Indian filmdom becomes more curious because his defining successes went against the convention. He started his career by playing the crazed kind of villains who bumped off unsuspecting girlfriends from high-rises, murdered friends, and stabbed the luckless husbands of attractive women. His graduation to good boy roles was equally maddening. In a time when films were about college couples eloping to escape from frowning families, Shah Rukh’s character, in one celebrated classic, instead insisted on asking proper permission from the heroine’s angry dad. Such portrayals of a hip beer-drinking guy, thinking in English, and espousing uniquely Indian values (like not taking advantage of intoxicated Indian girls) endeared him to all those, in all parts of the world, who want to look modern but feel foreign with western sensibilities.

Article Author: Mayank Austen Soofi

Mayank Austen Soofi owns a private library and four blogs: The Delhi Walla, Pakistan Paindabad, Ruined By Reading, and Mayank Austen Soofi Photos. Contact: mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com

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