Why India loves Shah Rukh Khan
BENGALURU: Pathaan has been declared a blockbuster, and social media is awash with posts dedicated to the man. I watched the film on the first day and wasn’t particularly impressed. But the cheers and hoots in an upmarket multiplex gave me a sense of relief.
For the last two years, Bollywood has been burning so much money at the box office, you’d think Nero himself was the producer of those movies! It felt good to see Bollywood get a reprieve after so long, but there was no denying the fact that the movie is running successfully only because of Shah Rukh Khan.
As a child in the ’90s, there was no escaping Shah Rukh Khan. From fairness creams to private banks, SRK adorned every hoarding, magazine and newspaper. Everybody I knew was a fan of his. My ex-girlfriends, my relatives, and my aunts are across the age and religious spectrum. Was it envy? Who knows! I don’t even remember the person I was back then. But I knew that I didn’t like the kind of movies he made.
Those soppy tearjerkers where he stretches his arms out and weeps, and all is well with the world again. I was an angry teenager behind an internet cafe computer typing away on my blog and held a certain distaste for the SRK brand of movies.
It was only years later that I realised what Shah Rukh Khan meant to his fans. If you had the misfortune of watching Hindi films from the early ’90s, you’d know that the ‘hero’ would be jailed within two days in the real world.
This was a guy who’d go to college in a jeep and trouble the girl that he liked. The kind who would bash up competitors in college, and chase people with a knife in hand, while soaked in blood. Shah Rukh Khan changed all that. Of course, he HAS made those kinds of movies, no doubt.
But he also played the kind of hero that we could relate to. One who had no qualms about crying, apologising, and going down on one knee to mend personal relationships. Gradually, SRK films came to symbolise everything good about the world - love, friendship, and family.
Along with Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan was a symbol of a new India in the ’90s. A self-made nation charging forward through grit and talent. He was the first superstar who appealed not just to Indians, but to Indians overseas – who saw in him a sliver of what they left back home.
Shah Rukh Khan also represents a secular India where a Muslim actor is known by names such as Raj and Rahul. Perhaps he reminds people of the pre-social media era. When you didn’t have to put out EVERY opinion for the world to hear. When trolling, name-calling and conspiracy theories are as acceptable as pomeranian dogs umpiring cricket matches.
As a standup comedian, I appreciate that there is a star who is witty and well-read. Listening to film actors talk is usually a gratingly painful experience.
As a film critic, I have to walk into a theatre every Friday to judge a movie. Most Fridays, I wish that humans had not evolved beyond bonfires and hunting, just so that I could avoid watching the movie. I went to watch Pathaan in theatres – the first movie after my opinion of the man had changed. Even though the film was quite silly, I didn’t feel the weekly anger surging through me. After years of flops, ridicule, or being judged unfairly by the media - the man probably deserves it!
(The writer’s views are his own)