In an era where television news has reduced Bollywood stars to mere TRP-generating figures, Roshmila Bhattacharya's Matinee Men: A Journey through Bollywood gives us beautiful insights into the real characters of these actors. This is her second book. Her first was Bad Man, a biography on Gulshan Grover, which came out in 2019.
Instead of focussing on their controversies forever - the favourite fall-back option of tabloids - Matinee Men takes us behind the scenes to moments which Bhattacharya shared with Bollywood's biggest stars. In the 248-page book, she takes us inside the drawing rooms and minds of 13 of India's most-loved actors, ranging from Dilip Kumar to Aamir Khan.
In the era of Annabelle, Conjuring and an endless stream of jump-scare films comprising 2 BHK flats haunted by possessed women, why would one watch a black-and-white horror movie made 70 years ago? But that's what the chilling chapter on Ashok Kumar's horror film Mahal (1949) will do to you. It tells us about the real-life supernatural incident that Kumar faced, which inspired him to make the movie.
Last year, the film industry lost a gem in the form of Irrfan Khan. Through the book, fans of the late actor would get to know about his namesake, and how at one point before the internet era he was caught in a case of mistaken identity.
Bhattacharya also at times touches on an aspect which is part and parcel of every entertainment journalist's life, 'the waiting period'. You reach on time, but are made to wait for hours on end, and then expected to conduct the interview with a smiling face in whatever time remains. A recurring theme, the reader discovers through different instances how having to wait is not always a bad thing.
A surprising fact revealed about the author is her stance on Salman Khan, who she says is not an ogre, but just pretends to be one. "Who cares if the critics call his adventures improbable and his fantasies impossible, Salman has never professed to be an 'arty' actor," Bhattacharya writes.
Going beyond the done-to-death controversies that surround him, she informs us about lesser-known incidents such as the one where "he had chased a scribe who had written something derogatory about his then girlfriend around the studio, with every intention of beating him up". Or the time when she was to interview Salman, but instead he went for a shower while she waited for him, emerging 30 minutes later from his vanity van.
There are several other chapters that deal with action man John Abraham, 'Badshah' Shah Rukh Khan and the punctuality of Amitabh Bachchan who cheated death in both Coolie (1983) and real life. An informative and exciting read, Matinee Men tells you way more about what the film industry's members are really like, without poking a mike up their nose.