Imperfect tale of a perfectionist

[1]

By Christina Daniels [2]

Rs 495

There are two main reasons for writing a biography — either you love the subject or can’t comprehend what makes someone tick. Irrespective of where the author stands, this is how biographies often germinate.

The real success of a biography is the author’s ability to take the reader to a place that isn’t completely white or too dark and Christina Daniels’ I’ll Do It My Way: The Incredible Journey of Aamir Khan completely fails on this account.
A book on Aamir Khan and his amazing journey needs to come up with something more than mere compilation of interviews given by the actor in the last two decades. For a filmstar who hasn’t really talked to film journals for a better part of his career, everything that we can learn about Aamir, decided Daniels, is contained in his old interviews to glossies such as Filmfare, Stardust and CineBlitz. Daniels also speaks extensively to some of his directors, like Mansoor Khan, Mahesh Bhatt, Indra Kumar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, all of whom played an important role in shaping his career to discover the real Aamir, but everything seems orchestrated to paint a very rosy picture, as there isn’t anyone who really speaks “against” Aamir. For instance, the part where the book talks about Taare Zameen Par changing directorial reins, Daniels mentions that “once shooting finally began, there were two versions of the events that unfolded” but only quotes Aamir’s version from CineBlitz, completely ignoring the other side. Daniels mentions that Aamir’s office helped her with suggestions, encouraging her to re-visit the directors she had included in the initial interview list; whatever that means.
The book uses 21 landmark films along with someone connected with those films, the directors or co-stars, to narrate Aamir’s journey. But, surprisingly, she doesn’t include Ashutosh Gowarikar or Juhi Chawla, people you’d think would know Aamir slightly better than Asin or A.R. Murugadoss (co-star and director of Ghajini).
There isn’t anything wrong in using old interviews to tell the tale of an icon who at present not only happens to be one of the three biggest stars of Hindi cinema but also the most interesting personality of Indian cinema. But Daniels’ knowledge, or the lack of it, of her subject and his field is what ails the book.
A corporate communication adviser for a leading global technology company as well as a cinema columnist for Citizen Matters, a Bengaluru magazine, Daniels clearly doesn’t know much about Bollywood or why else would she suggest that, “Following the success of Rangeela, Raja Hindustani catapulted him into the league of actors who could be counted on to deliver commercial success.” On the same page she writes, “Aamir was different, yet also finally successful.” If this isn’t enough, she believes that Ghajini is what “established Aamir Khan in the league of Hindi cinema’s superstars”. As far as Hindi cinema is concerned, Daniels can best describe Shekhar Kapur as “Hindi cinema’s most international director.”

What makes Aamir Khan different from the pack is his ability to take a stand, no matter how extreme, and stick to it. How many actors do you know who would take out an ad in trade magazines to professionally disassociate themselves with their own father? In July 2000, Aamir posted a legal notice distancing himself from the business dealings of Tahir Hussain Khan as his father’s production house was supposedly raising funds in his name. Aamir’s ability to look at himself as a third-party, like in the case of his now on air television show Satyamev Jayate, where he scrapped the original format after months of hard work as he felt he wasn’t connecting as well as he could with the material, and his almost obsessive dedication to his vision have helped him reach where is he today. Aamir is aware of the price that he has paid for being the way he is; he has lost friends like Amole Gupte and Anusha Rizvi, because of his controlling, perfectionist ways, and yet that is what makes him a hero in the eyes of millions of Indians. Yet, Daniels never bothers to explore this facet of Aamir’s journey.
For a book that is assembled from archival material, I’ll Do It My Way has far too many factual inaccuracies. A photo from Parampara is credited to Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Rangeela is said to be “Ram Gopal Varma’s second attempt in the Hindi film industry” whereas it was his fourth Hindi film. But what takes the cake is Aamir being called the brand ambassador of “Times of India’s Lead India Initiative” when in fact the campaign was called Teach India.
Barring a sweet passage from a rare 1993 joint interview of Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir that many may have forgotten and informing the reader that Akshay Kumar was one of the initial choices to play Deepak Tijori’s role in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, the book doesn’t really have anything that you don’t already know about Aamir Khan. Funnily enough the best part of this book on Aamir Khan is the hilarious 10-page long interview with Dharmesh Darshan where the director elucidates why Raja Hindustani is an all-time great. Read it if you must.

Gautam Chintamani is an
award-winning Indian
writer/filmmaker with over
a decade of experience in print
and electronic media