[1]Ek Star hota hai aur ek hoti hai Star Power. I’ve often wondered what exactly is this cheez — Star Power. Kya Star Power stars ko fly kara sakti hai? Kya Star Power stars ko invisible bana sakti hai? Kya Star Power se Taj Mahal ko lift kara ja sakta hai?
No, no, no. So then what is this power? Is it like a Lambretta scooter on which stars and their pillion riders ride to the box-office? Yes, but it’s more than an auto or a two-wheeler.
So then what, I kept asking myself, is Star Power? And then, while I was watching Jhalak Dikhla Ja (Colors) and Dance India Dance Super Moms (Zee), I got it. Arre got kya, I saw it!
Agar aap Star Power ko dhoondhne jaoge toh you won’t find it in the star. Na. You’ll find it in the idiot grins, the animated gestures, the silly babbling of people when they meet the stars. And I’m not talking about our fauji bhai log and friends from Jhumri Telaiya and Asansol. No. I’m talking about our cool-cool city people, and people who are, you know, big-big and do badi-badi baatein.
Agar Star Power ka mazaa lena hai toh randomly let lose a star in a group and see how each one reacts. Some eyes will be fati-ki-fati, some mouths won’t close, some will forget to speak, some will start speaking in baby language, and some will stiffen their spine and say, with their expression and body language, “Huh! Tu star hai toh kya? I don’t care,” and get increasingly angry.
On these two dance shows last week, Shah Rukh Khan made dramatic entries aur tab shuru hui Star Power ki salana exhibition. I saw girls, even moti-moti mommies, totally lose it.
Arre, I have, on my very own telly, watched even the dignified Mr Prannoy Roy babble when he had to interview Amitabh Bachchan, and I have seen the cocky Mr Vir Sanghvi line-maaro Tabu. Agar yeh bade-bade log go nutty, toh aam girls kya cheez hain.
One Super Mom went into Rahul mode and kept serenading SRK. One Super Mom had her mommy fly down from Kolkata just so she could do some lazy-lazy dance movements — that thing which Bengali log do with Rabindra Sangeet — with SRK. One choreographer on Jhalak started crying. Many Super Mommies announced they’d happily dump ghar-sansar and go with SRK if he had space in his car.
And then it was time for the climax. On Jhalak, SRK got on to the stage and, looking straight at Madhuri Dixit, started maroing his dialogue: “Kehdo ki tumhe nahin lagta ki hum dono ek doosre ke liye bane hain... kehdo ki tum is waqt meri baahon mein nahin aana chahti...” And then Mrs Nene rose, walked across, liptoed around Shah Rukh Khan. The camera closed in on them as Shah Rukh started caressing her neck with his face, and then he kissed it. Mrs Nene went back 16 years, and I caught myself smiling, a teardrop rolling.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/t6jpg-850