Dilip Kumar Deserves A Bharat Ratna

By Manuwant Choudhary

Dilip Kumar - the Mughal-e-azam of Indian cinema - deserves a Bharat Ratna.

Not Amitabh Bachchan or Shahrukh Khan but its Dilip Kumar who is undisputedly the greatest Indian film actor.

The following extract about his early life from Wikipedia is interesting...

"Kumar was born into a Hindko-speaking Peshwari Pashtun family of 12 children on 11 December 1922 in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar area of Peshawar, in what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

His birthname is Mohammad Yousuf Khan and his screen name was given by Hindi author Bhagwati Charan Varma.

His father Lala Ghulam Sarwar was a fruit merchant who owned orchards in Peshawar and Deolali, Nashik, Maharashtra. This is where Dilip Kumar studied at Barnes school but he started out on his own career as a fruit seller and canteen owner in Pune where he was spotted by actress Devika Rani and her husband Himanshu Rai, owners of Bombay Talkies."

From being a dry fruit seller to a canteen owner to a film star, its a journey very few have undertaken and among his dozens of films its is role as Akbar in Mughal-e-Azam that is most appreciated.

Dilip Kumar is in Lilawati hospital after he complained of chest pain so we wish him well.

But I have often wondered why Dilip Kumar did not follow another famous Bombayite Mohammad Ali Jinnah to Pakistan when India was partitioned.

So far Dilip Kumar has received the third highest Indian civilian award the Padma Bhushan and the Dadsaheb Phalke Award which is the highest film award. But it is Pakistan which has given him the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian award in Pakistan.

At the height of the Kargil war Bal Thackeray publicly asked him to return the Nishan-e-Imtiaz to Pakistan. Dilip Kumar did not buckle under Thackerays pressure instead replied that the honour is for his role in bringing the people of the two countries together and that he was not responsible for the Kargil war.

India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee agreed with Dilip Kumar.

But I still wonder why India's government do not give him the Bharat Ratna.

Dilip Kumar is not just a great actor and human being but an active Indian citizen whose faith in India's secularism is firm and deep-rooted.

I recall when the Shiv Sena government was in power in Maharashtra and there were very few to speak up against communalism...it was Dilip Kumar who campaigned in favour of secularism.

As a junior reporter with the Afternoon Despatch & Courier I once called him up for an appointment for an interview and Dilip Kumar was on line...

Dilip Kumar: "You see I have a plane to catch. I am going abroad...but what is it you want to talk about?"

I replied, "Sir, I'd like to interview you on Secularism and why it is so crucial for India."

Dilip Kumar, "If you don't mind could we talk on the telephone itself..."

Me: "But Sir, you have a plane to catch....."

Dilip Kumar, "No, no, I will manage...this is more important..."

And Dilip Kumar spoke to me four two hours....it was I who would remind him about his flight...but he would egg me on to not to worry...

It was a very relaxed interview and sitting in my office I felt at home..so comfortable that it felt like his wife Saira Banu even brought some Darjeeling tea with Shrewsberry buiscuits for me...

But it was an intense interview about secularism and how communalism posed a serious threat to India.

In fact, it was I who ran out of questions...and thanked Dilip Kumar for his time.

The interview was published with large file photos of Dilip Kumar but for a few days everyone looked at me like I had achieved a big deal having met Dilip Kumar!

After the elections a few Samajwadi Party candidates made inroads into Bombay and one of them even came to our office with laddoos (thankfully I was out working).

The next encounter I had with Dilip Kumar when I was a TV journalist with NDTV in Patna.

Dilip Kumar was coming to campaign for secularism at Patna's Gandhi Maidan.

Election time is hectic and all our cameramen were out of town so we hired a freelancer just to manage a few rushes of Dilip Kumar.

Gandhi Maidan was packed...lakhs of people....more than what Sonia Gandhi would get...and the flight from Bombay got delayed.

By the time he reached Gandhi Maidan it was 5 pm - the time when electioneering ends.

We hoped Dilip Kumar would break the election law.

The dias was as crowded as the maidan and my cameraman was hanging for his life from a side pole...literally just his toes were on the 60 feet high dias.

The crowd went wild seeing Dilip Kumar.

He did not speak..he just waved to the crowd...and he was driven back to the airport.

At the airport he gave an interview where he asked people to vote for secularism and he blurted out..."Vote For RJD..ohh...sorry...errr."

The Congressmen who had brought him to Patna looked so shocked !!!

Only Dilip Kumar can get away with such blunders !!! (or was it deliberate?)

Accompanying him was the perennial drunkard comedian actor Johnny Walker and I could not help asking him  if  he liked Patna?

He replied in his inimitable style, "Maine kya dekha? Airport dekha, Gandhi Maidan dekha aur tumko dekha..."

One good did come from Dilip Sahebs Patna vsist..we recommended the freelance cameraman for a permanent job in a TV  channel.

It was a day to remember.

Dilip Kumar is still popular and yes more popular than Narendra Modi.

If he was not so popular why would top Indian news channels carry on and on about his romance with Madhubala...The special shows help the ratings for the TV channels...even while Dilip Kumar quietly blogs at his personal blog Dilipkumar.mouthshut.com

Ooo la la la lah..I hear you calling India....

Face-Off - An Ugly Face Of An Ugly Party

By Manuwant Choudhary

I have never liked the BJP and hold it primarily responsible for much of the communal violence that India has seen in the past two decades.

So to see  a person like Narendra Modi being promoted as a Prime Minister candidate doesn't surprise me one bit.

But I am really surprised when Mr. Modi says that because India is going through a critical phase we should vote him and the BJP to power.

In fact, we should not.

And just to make it clear I am not in the Advani camp either.

The difference between Modi and Advani is little...Its just that Modi has bulldozed the National Democratic Alliance, something Vajpayee and Advani had built brick by brick to make the BJP touchable and enable it to come to power.

I am not sure if Advani even wanted to be a PM candidate this time. He is just a cleverer politician and sees the larger picture where without other secular and regional parties government formation is impossible.

The BJP hopes to galvanise Hindu votes behind Modi but he is yet to be tested outside Gujarat.

One newspaper the Hindustan Times said `Modi makes history and Advani is history'.

Well, not yet.

You will see the BJP leaders going to Advani's house after the elections.

Its one thing for corporate houses to want Modi, its quite another for the people of India.

Despite everything money will not win.

But it should worry us that six main Indian political parties got Rs.4,900 crores in donations in the past 8 years and 75 per cent is `untraced' funds which means the donors are not known.

In fact the country desperately wants the Congress Party to go but Modi's elevation helps the Congress.

The debate will shift from the Congress's corruption to Modi's criminality.

For our courts its easier to hang four rapists because the incident `touched the collective conscience of a nation' but more difficult to charge a chief minister under whose regime 1000 people were brutally killed.

How can we trust India to a man who could not control the communal riots in his own state Gujarat?

It went on and on and for days and weeks....India has not seen such violence since partition..

Another newspaper talking about Modi's strength said he has a secret mind.

Exactly, its Modi's secret mind that we should fear.

India knows nothing about this man.

Why is Modi's family so quiet and so distant?

What is his economic policy?

Is he not the chief minister who gave land to the Tatas to build the Nano after farmers threw the Tatas out from Bengal?

Modi is tellingly quiet even when the Congress passes the new land aquisition bill.

I have not met Modi.

On television all I hear is his nasal `Mere Doston'..all I see is his large stony eyes - deadly and cold.

And when he wants his supporters to cheer he waves his hairy forearm from one end to the other...

Just like Rajnath Singh making the clockwise cricket ball gesture at least ten times in 8 seconds to annouce Modi's name as PM.

He is secular in only as as much as his beard and refuses to wear the skull cap.

BJP is now MJP (Modi Janata Party)

What interested me were not the large floral garlands offered to that Modi but one ultra thin garland smilingly given by Nitin Gadkari (former BJP president) of the Poortee Group.

I wonder if they were pearls or Diamonds?

Friday the 13th is a bad Omen...and even according to the Hindu calender this period is not auspicious...Hindus don't even buy a new Santro now......

Wonder how much of a Hindu Modi is?

Whenever there is a churning scums get to the top.

A Prayer For Tibet

A Prayer For Tibet - a short film by Manuwant Choudhary

Bharat Nirman Or Vadra Nirman Pvt. Ltd

By Manuwant Choudhary

`Bharat Nirman' is like the BJPs `India Shining'...so it seems the time for the Congress regime to go has come.

This cartoon by Manjul from DNA, Bombay, best exemplifies the feelings of the aam aadmee.

And its not that people want Narendra Modi.

But this government must go.

Some 500 crores have been spent on an ad campaign Bharat Nirman to highlight the achievements of the UPA government - radio, TV and print...they are all over.

One ad has a government agent negotiating the `acuisition' of land from farmers....and the farmers look so greedy in the ad...and so happy when they are told they will get four times the market value !

First they took our land for free, then through bhoodan, then through land ceiling, then in the name of development, then for industry, then at market rates and now more than market rates.

But you don't have a choice of keeping your farm.

You have to give...if you don't then 80 per cent of the people in your village will vote that you give ! (according to new laws)

At least 11 agencies were called to the Congress HQ by Rahul Gandhi and ads from Percept were selected.

And now I & B Minister Manish Tewari is gung ho and has asked his AIR correspendents to span the countryside and give a feedback on the deep penetration of their mega campaign.

But when the AIR correspondent asked an old lady in flooded north Bihar whether she had heard about Bharat Nirman, she replied, "Kata hoye chaiyee....eee bharat nirman..." (Where is this Bharat Nirman taking place?)

Sex & Sensex

By Manuwant Choudhary

I sometimes wonder who is more dangerous Arnab Goswami or Asaram Bapu?

In Patna at Kargil Chowk I met some women supporters of Asaram Bapu on dharna and they believe that Arnab is actually  jealous of Asaram Bapu who has more devotee eyeballs at his Sanskar channel than Arnab has on his Times Now.

The rivalries are such that when Asaram was accused of a sexual rape charge....Arnab kept referring him as Godman for two hours non-stop and then suddenly at the end, "No, but why should we call him Godman? Yes, yes, just Asaram.....he is an ordinary Asaram...."

I  suspect there are other reasons why newschannels hate Godmen - one is because they have their own channels, two is because they are richer, and three they don't share...no..they don't even give 10 second Ads to Times Now.

Godanchors hate Godmen.

And lo and behold..I was watching CNN-IBN and suddenly instead of Godman Rajdeep Sardesai there was Godman Sri Sri Ravishankar.....and at the top a tiny Advt was displayed....but sorry Godman Arnab you lost this round...Rajdeep got the mullah !

These days every bania shop is discussing the sex life of Asaram Bapu...(they haven't removed his photo even and more flowers)

Like how does he heal women at night?

They always believed he was a GOD but they were not sure of his manhood.

So it was a pleasant surprise and many are happy to know that Asaram Bapu has passed the manlihood test.

A woman told me that can you believe Asaram can rape a 16 year old?

Does he look like a rapist?

And I replied in the negative. Definitely he does not look like a rapist. In fact, there were other Godmen on Prime Time TV...some of whom actually looked like rapsists.

But in such matters one can't go by looks alone...

The police have arrested Asaram's servant and he told the police that Asaram met women alone at night.

But the medical report says there was no rape...just molestation...

This is crazy....and I have been reasoning why the Congress Party is happy with Asaram's arrest while the BJP is not.....

And why should a holyman in Rahul Gandhi's Amethi cut off his own genitals although he did not rape anyone?

We really don't need the Taliban?

In all this sex stuff...the Sensex has been forgotten....

If only a handsome RBI Governor could sex up the Sensex.

But dollars don't come in that way....our Prime Minister has been busy in St. Petersburg asking his poor and rick freinds to help a friend in need.

Instead of going to the IMF he is helping create another dollar reserve to `source' up the Rupee.

Its like telling Japan...let me go on spending like mad...and if it all dries up..then can I borrow some from you?

Just to honour Madam Sonia's Food Bill, "Its not a question of not having the money. We have to find the money..."

Our Prime Minister should have told her "Money does not grow on trees..."

But he didn't.

So we have the Food Bill, the Land Theft Bill, the Save the Convicted MP Bill, the Dearness Bill, the Pension Bill....

And now..the Mental Bill 2013.....

Its madness....