I love Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), the King Khan of Bollywood, there cannot be an entertainer like him. When I am referring to his entertainment credentials, it’s off screen and not on screen. Here I am not referring to the latest hype created around his Wankhede row. SRK, truly is a man who is democratic, who can charm his way to people’s hearts. A man who made it on his own, this big in life and in an industry where decade is considered to be a career and a lifetime. But SRK is and continues to remain strong for last 25 years. He is best performer, entertainer, media grabbing of his team, Kolkata Knight Riders and the most profitable as well. In a country where Cricket is Religion and Sachin is God, there the owner of the team is the HERO.
The most amazing part about his personality is his charm and his sense of humour. Whatever he says is a QUOTE, it’s a CLICHÉ. “SRK said it”. The way he can make fun of himself, always. Couple of years back, Pakistan’s cricket team was visiting India after a long hiatus and SRK is hosting the show for welcoming both the teams. What better man to represent both India and Pakistan. He says, I don’t feel anything whether India wins or Pakistan wins. My mother came from Pakistan and father from India. So if Pakistan wins, I say Ammi jeet gyi and if India wins, I say walid sahib jeet gaye.
Anyway this post has nothing to do with SRK, Cricket or Bollywood. A couple of quotes/words have come out of SRK’s stable after his team won the IPL-5 title that actually touch your soul and the way he has put it, we all feel something like this, not many times in our life. It is not fun from the funny man. Rather when funny people talk serious, it showers rains. Like Charlie Chaplin said, “I enjoy walking in rain coz nobody can see my crying”.
Follow the news story as it appeared:
Shah Rukh Khan is not elated, thrilled or vindicated by his team's victory over Chennai at IPL 5 this year. He even penned a quiet soliloquy to himself at 5 am the next day, after the post-match party on May 28.
He reveals his pre-match frame of mind, saying, "I have never been in a zone where I have prayed so much. I pray a lot, but on that day I was praying a lot more. I had to make this happen in my head and heart. I write whenever I am alone, and don't know what else to do..."
But post the victory, it was a different feeling for Shah Rukh. "I didn't feel anything after the win, so I tried to put across what I was feeling on paper. I was feeling empty inside. Any of the things I thought I would feel after winning the IPL were missing. I've realised I have never been able to learn cold-blooded objectivity. I'm extremely subjective — good, bad, selfish, self-centered. I don't behave how people think I should — a role model."
He says he's also realised that people exist in very small boxes of judgement and limitation. And they hurt him. "For years they have hurt me, though they have no power over me. Whenever I see those people, I react because I am honest and they symbolise my hurt. Why? I am a middle-class guy and I have wanted nothing more than to be accepted and seen as a good actor. I have always wanted to be universally loved. That's an issue. I have always given and they have always taken. Then they have asked for more and again I have given... When they asked as an entitlement, I gave them again. In the last six months, a few people close to me have hurt and betrayed me by their actions... I am not scared of anyone, but I have given because I have felt that I will be liked by them all the time. And yet they don't see it because I remind them of the things that they didn't have the capacity to do themselves. And now my anger has passed..."
After the win, he was going to jump off the balcony of the VIP section and he genuinely felt he could fly! "People will think I am narcissistic to talk like this, but it's not that. I am one of the few people in the world who has been made to believe that I can do this!"
He goes on to add that while he has the influence to make people happy, he is anything but a role model. "I don't tell my children to be what I am. A role model is someone who can take on the onslaught of being in the public eye and still stand for correctness. He plays a role. Sachin Tendulkar is what a role model should be,.. He's the perfect human being and I am not. I don't want to be. I will never be a God of reality... I only sell dreams. I will do a cartwheel or tear off my clothes when I am happy if I feel like it."
Everyday, when some news comes out about him (like the Wankhede stadium fracas), he has to make a joke out of it. "My kids need to know that it's not serious. I have to reassure Suhana and it's very difficult. I get angry and disturbed then... but why do I feel empty now? Winning the IPL is perhaps the greatest thing, it is my victory but this is not the happiness I worked for. I don't feel vindicated, or like a champion or winner!"
Man, do read it over and over again.
(One of the rare photographs when SRK looks down and out, always smiling and smoking)
