Twinkle Khanna slammed Naseeruddin Shah over his remark on Rajesh Khanna being a “poor actor”.
This is what he said, “It was the 1970s when mediocrity came in Hindi films. That’s when the actor called Rajesh Khanna joined the industry. For all his success, I think Mr Khanna was a very limited actor. In fact, he was a poor actor.”
Personally I find Twinkle Khanna to be an extremely intelligent woman who with her throat slitting sarcasm and wit gets her point across with ease that might pinch a lot of people at times. Her opinions are very interesting to read and she tries to be as objective as possible by making fun of almost everyone. Indeed Ms Funnybones!
Now this issue being about her father was obvious to get her to react (with the expected bit of bias), especially when he was called a ‘poor actor’ despite being the superstar that he was. It is absolutely okay and understood on her part to be offended. Naturally!
But what got to me was the reaction of people from Bollywood and even on the Internet (as usual).
“The quality of script, acting, music and lyrics deteriorated. Colour came in. You could make a heroine wear a purple dress and hero a red shirt, go to Kashmir and make a movie. You didn’t need a story. This trend continued and I certainly think Mr Khanna had something to do with it because he was God in those days”, added Shah.
Seeeee… he generally criticized the Hindi Film Industry at large in the 70s. Just that, he particularly chose an actor’s case saying, “he was God in those days”, which we might interpret to mean blindly followed by the masses.
So when this is the case where there are crores of people who like him, can’t we expect ONE (just one?) person who does not abide by the popularly held belief. People on the Internet, as usual, started commenting things like Naseer being “jealous” of Rajesh Khanna because even after such a long career, supposedly he does not have a superstar status.
Okay, for the umpteenth time, calm down PLEASE! How difficult is it for people to have a nuanced argument and try and listen to another person’s opinion patiently? Oh yes, It’s called an opinion and everyone has a different ‘opinion’ over various issues. You may or may not agree with him. Get it?
I was so surprised that people could spill venom over such a hugely respected actor and person.
Leaving aside internet, which one can expect to be this venomous, even Karan Johar tweeted saying that Shah’s comment was in bad taste. Excuse me? May I ask why? I did not see Shah using a wrong language or attacking the actor personally. It was just ONE person’s opinion on his work. Yes, work! He didn’t go personal or cheap with either his language or his opinion. He brought out his point in the most frank and blunt way possible, that’s it! How difficult is it to digest?
The point that I make here is that does the man have no freedom to express himself? Once if people are dead, is it ungodly to talk about them?
Moreover, I might understand Twinkle Khanna being offended but I do not understand her argument that “mediocrity is attacking a man who can’t respond”. Someone explain this?
Firstly, the sort of atmosphere we have in this country presently is that you can’t criticize living beings because they will be after your life (quite literally) and now, you can’t criticize dead people because they “can’t respond”?
I see that people are gradually mistaking mere criticism (which can be healthy in various ways) to be ‘an attack’. And this is a dangerous trend!
Whom do you criticize? Because whoever it is, will obviously fall into one of these two categories – living or dead.
Sadly, after so much pressure on Shah, he had to clarify himself and apologise saying, “I apologise to those who were personally offended, my intention was not to attack him (Rajesh Khanna).”
Does your superstar status give you right to be excluded from any criticism?
When you enjoy the overwhelming love given to you by the people, why is it difficult to tolerate a tad bit of criticism, forget hate?
There are people who love Shah Rukh, there are who despise him. But he cannot be excluded from the criticism, right? Even Amitabh Bachchan has not been spared.
Long story short, your seniority or legend status (living or dead) should not get you any brownie points.
If you are Salman Khan……. Aaah forget it! Let’s not even get into this!
If you are Rajnikant, ONLY THEN, Yanna Rascala. MIND IT!!
