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After Laloo…Chor Mandali in queue

Now that Laloo Prasad Yadav has been disgraced and convicted, let’s take a look at the others waiting for a verdict in similar cases.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who is facing trial in a disproportionate assets (DA).

Former Telecom minister A Raja and DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s daughter and MP K Kanimozhi. (2G case)

Former chief minister Karnataka BS Yeddyurappa and his two sons.

G Janardhana Reddy has been in jail for illegal mining for over two years.

In Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy‘s disproportionate assets case. He might have got bail but not clean chit. Five ministers too fear conviction in the same case. BCCI chief N Srinivasan is also one of the accused.

Congress MP from Pune and former chief of Indian Olympic Association Suresh Kalmadi is also staring at the possibility of being convicted in the Common Wealth Games (CWG) scam.

Former Haryana chief minister and the INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala and his son have already been convicted in the teachers’ recruitment scam.

Former Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh in disproportionate assets case.
Former BJP President Nitin Gadkari involved in the financial deals of Purti Group

Those who got away with clean chit:
The BSP chief and former UP chief minister Mayawati.
SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Solving the mystery around Guru Dutt’s death

I am going to watch ‘Kagaz Ke Phool’ today, at Jagran Film Festival. I missed ‘Pyasa’ this time but have seen it a number of times, including the time it was released. I don’t intend to miss ‘Kagaz Ke Phool’, not that I’ve not seen it earlier.
Press didn’t value him, and in fact ignored him during his life time – partly because he didn’t flaunt his love life like, say, Raj Kapoor. And mainly because they found him a little ‘boring’ and not one of ‘the beautiful people’. He got his due share of limelight when he died mysteriously at 39 and recognition when he was included in Time magazine’s “All-TIME” 100 best movies in 2005 and by the Sight & Sound critics’ and directors’ poll in 2002, where Dutt himself is included among the greatest film directors of all time.
At the same time, I feel sorry for the kind of media we have. There have been books and now someone is making a biopic but there has been no serious attempt to explore the mystery behind his death. Alcohol and sleeping pills – Sonarils.
Continue reading “Solving the mystery around Guru Dutt’s death”

What is Karan Johar doing with ‘The Lunchbox’?

Saw ‘The Lunchbox’.
My first question is: what is Karan Johar doing here?
But that will come later.
Great performances by Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui (though he is a little loud and makes an effort to steal the show from Irrfan) and a restrained performance by Nimrat Kaur.
What I liked about the movie, besides it being a slice of life of Mumbai’s middle class and the ‘small moments’ of real people, is the end.
No climax, no anti-climax, no surprise ending.
Just leave the story hanging.. the way we, who wrote short stories in ’70s, used to do. I remember telling a critic that I end my short story at the point when the ink gets over!
I wrote nearly 200 short stories. I’d almost forgotten them. But seeing that even Karan Johar types are now interested in such stories (remember his Bombay Talkies?) I’m thinking of selecting 10 of mine, updating them and getting them published.
Basu Chatterjee used many stories. ‘Rajanigandha’ was one of them. Basu Bhattacharya made ‘Aavishkaar’. There were others. There were serials too. No, I’m not talking of third class – but popular – Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma or Sharad Joshi’s equally bad ‘Laptaganj’. They were considered trash which they certainly are, but that is also because the people who watch them know nothing better. They read about ‘Oscar’ controversy and watch ‘The Lunchbox’.
I don’t see any difference between them and Karan Johar. KJO is a commercial filmmaker who has managed all the awards and honors in Indi. For sometime he has longing for honors at film festivals and if possible Oscars.
He doesn’t realize that it is difficult to swing both ways.

Ashok Kumar on his out of body experience

Ashok Kumar, everyone called him Dada Moni, was not well and couldn’t attend the launch of my book ‘Simply Scandalous: Meena Kumari’. But, he told me, “I want you to come to Union Park with your book. I am very eager to read it.”
He had loved my biography of Madhubala. I had quoted him extensively in both the books.
Taking my photographer friend Bhupi (now he has changed the spelling of his name as I advised him) I went to his bungalow. This was in 1998.
On this day, I saw the child in him and also a thinking person. First of all, he wanted to read where I had quoted him. I showed him those parts. He was a fast reader and read everything. We chatted for an hour or so. He was proud that, even at the age of 87, he still had some amount of sexual energy and freely introduced me to a woman he had kept. His wife, Shobha Devi, had expired 12 years ago.
“Do you know that you are getting scoop pictures?” he told me. “No one except Bhupi has shot me with grey hair! We all are conceited people. Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Raaj Kumar….wo to wig pehnta hai! Oonche Log ke samay maine socha tha ke uski wig lekar bhaagoon…But it wouldn’t have been nice.” He laughed like a child and then became serious, “I have decided to stop coloring my hair. Where is the need? I was not well so I didn’t color for some weeks and then decided never to do it.”
“But you still have a good head of hair!” I said.
“Haan, tum to meri umar mein bilkul ganje ho jaaoge?” He laughed. He was right.
“Tell me, do you fear death?” he suddenly asked me. He turned philosophical.
“Not really. Life keeps me so busy that I don’t get time to think of death.” I replied.
“I’ll tell you a surreal experience I had. I was not well and was not in senses. My people told me later that, lying on my bed, I appeared miserable. I was turning and twisting in my bed as if in unbearable pain. They all were worried and thought that dada was in great pain and may die. But somehow I survived. I opened my eyes. And here I had had an entirely different, wonderful experience. It was like being amidst cloud. It was so calm and peaceful. I have never felt this kind of bliss. Now that I look back I realize that when they saw me in agony, I was in a different, a happy zone. It was an out of body experience. I think I was close to death. It didn’t happen. It will happen sometime. But I am sure it will be a beautiful experience.”

My love-hate relationship with Bal Thackeray

Bal Thackeray was always in awe of the English media, the way it was. He knew how to counter the Marathi media – he belonged to them – but he thought English language newspapers were a different kettle of fish. It may have had something to do with his early job as a cartoonist in Free Press Journal, and a little to do with the fact that his schooling had been in the Marathi medium and he had seen stalwarts like Frank Moraes and Shyamlal in English journalism.
I saw all this when I did my first interview with him.
I’d read the interviews he had given to several opportunist editors who, misusing their editorial independence, went on to make a pile of money and grow in their career. I didn’t want to do that. As a freelance writer, I was a Special Correspondent for Delhi Press’ flagship, ‘Caravan’, and while ‘Caravan’ didn’t sell as well and didn’t have the kind of glamour some Bombay glossies had, it was respected.
I sought an interview with Bal Thackeray, who assumed that I was coming from Delhi (connection: Delhi Press) and was quite enthusiastic to give one more interview. My interview was more on the lines of a ‘court martial’. He’d get angry and reply and I would ask a counter-question. After the interview, he asked me to accompany him to one of his rallies. It was in Kumbharwada. I sat next to him on the dais. I noticed the holes in his socks! I told him that I liked that!!! He smiled. The hostility between us melted. When he got up to deliver his speech, he introduced me to the audience as ‘a journalist who has come all the way from Delhi’ to interview him and touted that as the growing success of the Shiv Sena.
At the end of the rally, he asked one of his sainiks to drop me home.
The loyalty he commanded and the rousing reception he got was a testimony to his popularity. The Marathi manoos was in love with him. I had been quite impressed with the rise of a cartoonist to a phenomenal leader.
The interview was published verbatim, and I sent him a copy.
Within hours, I received a call. He wanted me to come to Sena Bhavan, the same evening. I was ushered in immediately. The issue of ‘Caravan’ with him on the cover was lying on his large desk.. I had thought that he’d be happy to see the colour picture of himself with his famous pipe, taken by his friend Mohan Wagh. Apparently, he was not.
He accepted my hand in his hand – an artist’s delicate hand – and I sat in front of him. He had underlined the captions and sub-headings that he hadn’t liked.
“You saw the response I received, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And you ask the question on the cover: Is Shiv Sena a spent force?”
It was a foolish heading what with the picture of a massive gathering of Marathi Manoos on the cover. But what can a freelance writer do about it after an article is published?
I tried to defend the indefensible. I had known and had written that Sena is going to be in the running for decades. But I tried defending my position with, “I am a freelance writer and cannot control the editorial freedom of renaming an article.”
“But you article is too critical of Sena.”
“You are already aware of what I think of a party based on communal lines. I had asked you those questions and you had answered them. I believe that a communal party with a name like Shiv Sena has no place in a secular democracy.”
“What secularism and what democracy are you talking of?” He asked. The argument went on for some time. Seeing his anger, I didn’t argue as fiercely and let him ‘win all the arguments’.
“And now, what are these foolish lines?” he asked me.
There were several critical references to him and the Sena in the photo-captions, and some lines had also been added to the intro of the article. I had faced similar problems with the interviews with Dawood Ibrahim and Arvind Dholkia too though not in ‘Caravan’.
“As far as I am concerned, my responsibility is limited to the interview. Have I misquoted you anywhere?”
“I don’t care about being quoted or misquoted. I am asking about these lines… here… here… and there…”
“But they are photo-captions. I am not responsible for that.”
“Your name goes with the article. You are responsible for every word.” Thackeray said sternly. He still had no problem with the hard questions and answers as they were accurate. “I know what you asked me and liked your bold questions. You asked me questions I replied to them. But these are not acceptable!”
I countered, “You too worked in a newspaper once. Don’t you know how they operate?”
He believed that a journalist can and should insist on complete control of his article.
“You can argue with me, but you couldn’t argue with your editor,” he taunted me.
“Didn’t you face a similar situation when you were a cartoonist?” I asked. Somehow, that made him very angry and he said, “I don’t want to argue with you. Before I tell you to get out, GET OUT!”
And I got the hell out…
But it being a small world, I’d bump into him. By then, having started his own daily, he had started understanding the limitations under which a freelance writer worked. The next time I bumped into him he smiled, “Caravan journalist…Mohan Deep?”
I was happy. He hadn’t forgotten me. Much later I realized that politicians, dons and film stars never let themselves forget your name.
“I must say that you are gutsy.” He said. I thought he was referring to the same interview but he was talking about some articles about the underworld of Mumbai I had written. I did a few more interviews with him. His Dopahar Ka Saamna even serialized my book “Simply Scandalous: Meena Kumari” and a my exposure “Daastan-E-Dilip Kumar.” My friend Sanjay Nirupam was the Executive Editor at that time.

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Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja…bills and ordinances

Vinaash kaale vipreet budhee.
In a knee jerk reaction, UPA has given a ready to use weapon to all Right Wing groups and parties with the anti-superstition ordinance. With one single bill the government has isolated Hindus, Muslims, Catholics and all others!
According to these reformist – Dabholkar included – all religious rituals are superstitions. They can’t afford to be that radical and have been vocal only about some practices. But the bill has a wide canvas. Like DNA reports today, even describing something as ‘unlucky’ can get you a jail term and / or a fine of Rs 50,000. The practice of tying lemon and chillies to ward off and hundreds of similar practices can be termed superstitions.
Going a little further, the conclusion of almost all Hindu kathas – including Satyanarayan Ki Katha – is that if you leave the ritual of listening to a katha midway, without accepting the prasadam, calamity can strike you! So, all kathas spread superstitions!
I don’t know whether UPA government will raid the stalls outside Haji Ali Dargah for selling taaveez but according to this bill, every stall owner could be charged and penalised.
Similar ‘superstitions’ exist among Christians, Sikhs, Budhhists, Jains and all the other religious groups.

These rituals and practices have always existed in all societies. Whenever any dictator or dictatorial government has used state powers against them, these practices have gone underground.
There are many Dabholkars who consider God a superstition. And praying at the feet of peepal tree or visiting a temple before an examination or an interview too would fall under the same law.
This is perhaps for the first time in the world – as an English daily from Mumbai DNA crows – that such an ordinance has been proclaimed.
This ordinance, along with an entrance examination and licence for journalists (and describing every piece of writing including a letter to the editor, tweet, post on any social networking site, blog as journalistic activity), diluting RTI and weakening the bill to protect whistle blowers….
Ugh!
Gandhiji, who died with ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips would be turning in his grave – not that he was buried – but had he been alive, would have cringed at the thought of Khomeini
type of rulers who live by draconian bills!

When Haji Mastaan bummed a fag from a cop!

Whatever the glorified image of Haji Mastaan, he was a weak character and it was his friend Yusuf Patel who berated him for that.
On the first night behind bars, Mastaan on the dirty hospital kind of bugs infected bed looked at Yusuf Patel. Yusuf sat on a wooden stool that might have been there from British period.
“Yusuf, bahut talab lagi hai.” Mastaan said.
Patel disliked any vices but said,”Tera 555 ka packet tha na?”
“Wo khatam ho gaya.”
“Raat bhar ki baat hai. Kal bandobast karenge.”
“Arre, mujhe ab talab lagi hai aur tum kal ki baat kar rahe ho.” Mastaan got up and went near the grilled door.
“Hawaldaar.”
Police constables knew him by reputation and said “Salaam Walekam.”
“Salaam…tere paas cigarette hai?”
The cop was flattered. The ‘great’ Haji Mastaan was bumming a cigarette from him!
“Haan saab hai…lekin chaar minaar hai.”
“Chalega…” Mastaan grabbed the entire packet. Arrested suddenly, on the eve of emergency, he didn’t have any money on him.
Yusuf watched the entire episode with disapproval. “Main isi liye kehta hoon ke kisi aadat ki ghulami achhi nahin hoti.” He started but Mastaan ignored him.

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Bollywood menu: Rs 50 lakh and a role for a fuck, Rs 50 for the soul!

Indiatvnews.com carried my interview yesterday. Deepti Kaul, who did the interview is shocked with the dark side of Bollywood, has loved my one-liners. She specially mentions my favourite line, “Bollywood is where they pay Rs 50 lakh and a role for a f**k and fifty rupees for the soul!” I am thrilled as it took three rewrites before settling on this line.
I’d dedicate this quote to every Bollywood aspirant who was used and discarded.
Here is the entire text – unabridged:

New Delhi, Jul 20: The controversial author Mohan Deep has come up with a new novel ‘The Five Foolish Virgins’. The book reveals the dark side of Bollywood, the gory details about tinsel town’s connection with underworld and casting couch. The author talks to Deepti Kaul about his book and what went into it in a brief interview.

You’re already a controversial author and now comes this book ‘The Five Foolish Virgins’…Comment.
It is true that the tag of ‘controversial’ is always added before my name, whenever I am mentioned in the media. I liked it as I stood apart. I liked my individuality. I was not a conventional author. I had broken traditions, again and again. But I haven’t broken the traditions for the sake of it. I broke new grounds when I wrote the three star biographies. Industry might have been aghast at my treatment of Madhubala, Meena Kumari and Rekha but that didn’t matter. Nor did it matter that Rekha didn’t like what I wrote. What the hell would Rekha, a primary school dropout, know what a biography is usually all about? It was sheer coincidence that I wrote about Rekha.

To me, writing was important. Being close to the Bollywood personalities I had little choice. At one stage I’d fondly hoped that Rekha would be grateful as, someone of my caliber wrote her life. But it requires an educated and cultural background to value a biography. Stars are a spoilt lot. She would have been happier with a coffee table book, make up, fashion statements, close-ups and large, glossy air brushed photo-shopped pictures.
‘The Five Foolish Virgins’ is a natural step in my evolution as a writer. It is a novel with a large canvas. It is a story I always wanted to write. The migration of 20 million refugees during the partition in 1947 is one of the biggest historical happenings. My story is rooted in this period. It is the story of Sindhis and Punjabis and how the experience changed the entire character of these two communities.

“Bollywood is where they pay Rs 50 lakh and a role for a f**k and fifty rupees for your soul” – Yes your book is a fiction… But this line makes a strong statement… Comment.

It makes you think. Isn’t it? I was just wondering why we don’t have such lines coming from people like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan! Amitabh Bachchan’s are banal quotes from his babuji’s writings. Aamir Khan’s idea of wit is to spit in the palm of Madhuri Dixit! They go on and on, pontificating, lecturing, but no one says anything profound…

Don’t you think your book will tarnish Bollywoood’s glamourous image? As it shows the dark side of this glamour world.

Bollywood is a world full of glamour and I had no intention to ‘tarnish’ its image.

What is the reaction of the industry people?

Industry first reacted to the title. ‘The Five Foolish Virgins’ has a curiosity value. Is being a virgin foolish? Do the foolish girls remain virgins? The producers thought in terms of sex and sleaze. More than one producer offered to organize an item for the launch. They wanted the item to be with five young girls. I declined. I didn’t want that kind of image for the book. By now scores of filmmakers have read the novel and seem excited. Their excitement is with the story element, with the intrigue, with the inside stories and a gripping theme. The best compliment that I have received is from an experienced filmmaker. He told me that I have worked out everything. The director and the actors would have a ready script in their hands.

The novel can be turned into a Bollywood movie… So, have you already sold the story?

No. It is important that my novel is read. It is an experience between a writer and reader. Movie from my novel can be an exciting idea. Even a long running TV serial is possible. But I’m happy with being read.

You have referred to some actual incidents. Did friends in the industry raise eyebrows over it?

I have used the actual incidents as a part of timeline. I know for a fact that a drunk Raj Kapoor sat crying at the feet of Haji Mastaan after his ‘Mera Naam Joker’ bombed or that CBI discovered a transmitter when they raided Dilip Kumar’s bungalow and accused him of being a Pakistani spy. He never got a clean chit. A part of industry may not like it but it doesn’t matter.

Thank God I am not a film producer!

For the next few days – till I launch my novel – this blog is going to be your window seat to the exciting happenings around it. Getting a film star to launch one’s book or a magazine, as I have always got done, is an interesting experience. It is not easy if you have labels like ‘controversial’ and ‘maverick’ stuck to you.
Ajay Devgn had launched my book ‘Feng Shui for the Bold & Beautiful, the Rich & Famous’. Raveena Tandon inaugurated ‘Nehru & the Tantrik Woman’, the controversial play that the Government of Maharashtra did not permit to be staged. Shekhar Suman unveiled ‘Eurekha!’, which created a storm, and Manisha Koirala did the ritual for ‘Simply Scandalous: Meena Kumari’, which remained on Page Three longer than any Indian book during that period.
In anycase, I always end up thanking my stars that I am not the editor of a film magazine, who has to organize a cover story interview every month or even every week. A mainstream magazine can get away even with piles of garbage on the cover – like Khushwant Singh did as the editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India when he carried, “Why are Indians dirty?” or “Are the Indians dirtiest people in the world?”
I too had got ‘Island’ to run my story “Bombay’s 100 Worst” list with an ugly picture!
To return to film magazines, it must be a tough job for those who edit magazines like ‘Stardust’ and ‘Cine Blitz’ to organize photo-sessions with the same half-a-dozen stars after abusing them / exposing them. It would be like walking on a tight rope, or worse, a slippery, oily tight rope.
I also thank my stars that I’m not a producer – these days producers are only ‘executive producers’ though as the stars insist on a partnership and the corporate sector has taken over the job. The very thought of matching the dates and moods of temperamental stars leaves me cold. I have always admired the patience and tact of people like Ramesh Sippy, Subash Ghai, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, and even Rajkumar Kohli who made multi-starrers like ‘Sholay’, ‘Saudagar’, ‘Naseeb’, ‘Kala Pathar’ and ‘Nagin’. Just see ‘John Johnny Janardhan’ in ‘Naseeb’ and you’ll see the biggest star-outing, with rivalries forgotten.
As a waiter, Amitabh mouths the lines and dances with his co-stars, and the guests include his then rival, Rajesh Khanna, with Sharmila Tagore, Raj Kapoor with Mala Sinha, Shammi Kapoor with two heroines on his arms, Dharmendra with Simi Garewal, Rakesh Roshan, Randhir Kapoor, Vijay Arora and some more.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJjMtDxGPMo
I have seen Subash Ghai running breathlessly between the makeup rooms of Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar when he was making ‘Saudagar’. Yash Chopra would add one more ‘dishum’ to placate one of the two heroes (Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha) of ‘Kala Patthar’.

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Choosing the new Prime Minister of India

The subject in school used to be “If I was the Prime Minister of the country.”, but I’ll change that to “If I was to choose the Prime Ministerial candidate.”
And my answer:
No, not Manmohan Singh. NoMa sounds like NaMo but that no, never again. In fact, I’d ask everyone to swear off bureaucrats, specially the married ones. They are so used to being obedient and quiet that they could only be rubber stamps. Manmohan Singh seemed promising, but he lost an opportunity no bureaucrat had ever got in the history of our country.
No, not L. K. Advani. It has nothing to do with his age. I would not choose even a 65-year-old Advani. If the label, ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’ suits anyone better than even Narendra Modi, it is Advani. It was his ‘Rath Yatra’ that started the bloody communal hatred with the Babri Masjid demolition, and we continue to pay the price for it. The stupid political system rewarded the BJP for that communal divide, but neither did the BJP, nor Advani do anything for the country that would merit a positive mention in my thoughts. Advani (of ‘Mandir vahin banaayenge‘ fame) didn’t even build the temple, not that I care. No other yatra has done more damage to the country’s harmonious fabric than this one man’s yatra.
Then there is Mulayam Singh, who always reminds me of the Hindu rajas who didn’t go to school.
And no, not Rahul Gandhi, either. Not even if the corrupt regime of the UPA returns. Prime Ministership is not like a career in the movies, where a pushy father goes on producing (even benaami) movies for his untalented Abhishek / Uday / Tusshar / Ritesh baba.
I would not consider Sharad Pawar, as he is not considering himself, either. He is contesting the elections only to be the boss of the Mumbai Cricket Association.
No, no one from South, either. Narsimha Rao had turned me off playing the fiddle (the actural term is harp) like when the Babri was demolished. And H. D. Gowda was just an accident that needs to be forgotten.
I considered J. Jayalalitha, but history shows that (1) women rulers have always been more tyrannical than their male counterparts, and (2) they have their petty agendas. Jayalalitha doesn’t like Chidambaram and if she becomes the Prime Minister, her one-point programme would be ‘Get Chiddu’. Her second and all other points would be acquiring 4,000 saris and 4,000 pairs of expensive shoes from all over the world…for herself.
For reason number 1, I’d not want Mayawati or Mamta, either.
Please don’t mention Arvind Kejriwal. The TV channels might have made him a little more famous and he might have behaved like he was going to rule the country, and the crowd of dancing youngsters might have thought of him as their messiah, but now they’d rather have Narendra Modi. But I don’t like Narendra Modi for the same reason that I don’t like L. K. Advani even if he was 65 years.
So, I think I would rather write about “If I was the Prime Minister of the country.”
*****