Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Amazing Bachchan..


It may surprise his millions of fans but it is true that Amitabh Bachchan is just 21 even as the nation wishes him on his 61st birthday. Big B also believes that he is 21. And his belief is based on a simple calculation and a painful reality that hit him in 1982.

Flashback: since July 27, 1982, when Amitabh underwent an emergency operation in Bangalore after the by-now unforgettable accident during the shooting of ‘Coolie’, he had hovered on the edge of the final of a precipice with a team of specialists battling to keep him alive.

For the family, what happened was nothing short of familiar scenes from innumerable Bollywood films. On August 2, in breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, the mega star was declared clinically dead. Panic-stricken, Jaya stood outside the ICU watching the doctors trying to revive him... Apparently in vain.

Suddenly she screamed from outside: "Don’t give up. I just saw his toe moving. Please keep trying." the doctors started massaging his feet upwards. And he came back to life.

"Besides efforts by the doctors, prayers played a pivotal role to keep me alive. I was overwhelmed, people were praying for me on their own initiatives," recounts an emotional Bachchan.

After he was discharged from the hospital, Bachchan was asked to walk with the help of a stick. "They said that if I did walk again, it would be with the aid of a crutch. Jaya didn’t display even a trace of emotion. She projected a bold front and tried her best to encourage me.

"As for me, I wept like a child. I don’t remember ever having cried so much. What had happened to me ? What had happened to the man they called the action hero? Where had he gone?... These questions haunted me day and night. I could think of nothing but of hoping I will be able to stand on my own two feet," big B recalls adding that it took almost six months to face the camera lights and perform.

However, the doctors had told him to start work sometime in August 1983. He reported for work on January 7, 1983, and began from where he had left - the same sequence of ‘Coolie’ that he had to leave unfinished.

"The press and some people called it a publicity stunt. That hurt, for it was untrue. I did it because I wanted to prove to myself and convince myself that I could not be dismissed as useless. It was a personal triumph, something that restored my faith in myself," he adds.

Jaya sent him flowers with a card on August 2nd, saying "happy birthday, Amitabh Bachchan".

These revelations came to light during the interview of the Bachchan family in Simi Grewal’s programme rendezvous on star world last week. Instantly, Simi asked Amitabh: "It means you are just 21." the modest Bachchan replied, "you can say like that."

The star of the millennium said the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) looked like another world with no discrimination. Among the patients there was an actor, a cook and a businessman. "We were all one big family, fighting a common enemy — death. None of the patients ever discussed this.

"One day I came to know that a patient on the bed next to mine, who coincidently shared my date of birth and year, passed away in the ICU. Sometimes I feel that he infused his life into me. It is a rebirth for me."

By coming back from the jaws of death, Amitabh only confirmed what his fans always believed — that their hero was for real. He learnt to live again....Laughing, teasing, fighting and romancing. Earlier, it was through the roles that he portrayed on screen that he amazed everyone. But once he combated death..... He went onto become a living legend.

Post-1982, his role on life’s stage multiplied: A rejuvenated actor, Lok Sabha member from Allahabad to help his bosom buddy Rajiv Gandhi, showman, non-resident Indian and entertainment tycoon with the abcl (later renamed AB corp), TV anchor with ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, and brand ambassador for corporates galore.

With it all came the problems he could not solve as he did on screen. Meanwhile, the edifice of the legend began to show some cracks in the mid-1990s as his films like ‘Mrityudata’, ‘Major Saab’, ‘Kohraam’ and ‘Lal Badshah’ failed to hold audiences for long.

And the reason was that India’s greatest star ever had become the worst victim of his own image. Though the clamour of filmmakers to have his presence in their dream reels never waned, his saleability as a superstar came into question and the Charisma was up for examination.

After everyone had written him off, his mind-boggling bebut on the small screen as the anchor of KBC effected a turnaround in his fortune and gave a fresh lease of life to the man, who was facing professional and financial crises, and he rose like a Phoenix from each of them.

Even after the 34-year-long outstanding acting career — from his debut venture ‘Saat Hindustani’ to the latest offering ‘Baghbaan —the Bollywood Shahenshah feels he still has a long way to go to reach the heights of his profession.

Noting his phenomenal talent, critics observe that the lion in winter is better than all the pulp princes in their prime because the magic continues as the Babu Moshai grows.

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