Bollywood

  Ask the intrepid Mahesh Bhatt if he’s cowed down by the terrorist It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things.
threat he received on Friday, and the prompt answer is, “It’s nothing but a cowardly act of an Questions are the creative acts of intelligence.
aspiring goon. He wants to intimidate me by terrorizing my daughter. This is a sorry reflection of The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.
the times we live in. Does the fearless expression of our belief lead to this?”Mahesh says he and In building a firm foundation for Success, here are a few stones to remember: 1. The wisdom of preparation. 2. The value of confidence. 3. The worth of honesty. 4. The privilege of working. 5. The discipline of struggle. 6. The magnetism of character. 7. The radiance of health. 8. The forcefulness of simplicity. 9. The winsomeness of courtesy. 10. The attractiveness of modesty. 11. The inspiration of cleanliness. 12. The satisfaction of serving. 13. The power of suggestion. 14. The buoyancy of enthusiasm. 15. The advantage of initiative. 16. The virtue of patience. 17. The rewards of co-operation. 18. The fruitfulness of perseverance. 19. The sportsmanship of losing. 20. The joy of winning.
his daughter won’t stop making a socially conscious film like Dhokha. “I like to speak up about the Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.
persecuted people, and I’ll continue to do so in my films and outside them. I’ve spoken about the The man who is brutally honest enjoys the brutality quite as much as the honesty. Possibly more.
Kashmiri Pundits and faced the wrath of Kashmiri militants. I’ve spoken about the brutal murder of When a man venerates those worthy of veneration, be they Buddhas or their disciples, who have transcended all obstacles and passed beyond sorrow and tears — venerating such as these, whose passions are extinguished and for whom there is no further source for fear, no one can calculate how great his merit is.
Khwaja Yunus in custody and faced the consequences. Listen, we all want the world to be a better From every place below the skies The grateful song, the fervent prayer,— The incense of the heart, —may rise To heaven, and find acceptance there.
place but are not willing to take a stand. It’s time to go beyond rhetorics and translate your Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly away home, Your house is on fire And your children are gone.
values into action.” However Mahesh says including his daughter in the threat net has made a Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just stand there.
difference. “Now I don’t just fear for my own life. Threatening my brother and daughter who don’t There is as much wisdom in soliciting good counsel as in giving it. The most sensible people are not reluctant to consider the feelings of other people; and to know how to submit to the wise guidance of others is a kind of wisdom in itself.
have anything to do with my social concerns, is a cunning ploy to muzzle me. But Pooja is unfazed. In handling men, there are three feelings that a man must not possess — fear, dislike and contempt. If he is afraid of men he cannot handle them. Neither can he influence them in his favor if he dislikes or scorns them. He must neither cringe nor sneer. He must have both self-respect and respect for others.
She has inherited some of my traits. She has written to the Prime Minister, the National Minority There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know nothing about.
Commission and Human Rights Commission. If merely making a movie about the minorities is going to I agree that the fear of American cultural imperialism is shared by many people, and I agree with your point about the invasive nature of television culture. But I wouldn’t draw the next inference: that this is negative and therefore it must be stopped. I feel that one should address this influence in a way that takes away the negative edge through a positive counter-response. This way, you reinforce and reaffirm your conviction in the inner values. You harness those beliefs and develop them with a greater degree of self-awareness. That’s the kind of response people should have, instead of rejecting technology.
make her vulnerable to a bullet, how can we hope to deliver justice to that community? The freedom Last week, I went to a furniture store to look for a decaffeinated coffee table. They couldn’t help me.
to address her indignance so fearlessly to the State is possible on India.” He feels the attempt to England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country!
terrorize him is a warning against touching certain sensitive issues in films. “This is a cunning It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
way of telling me not to touch communally sensitive subjects like Dhokha. This is what alarms me. We mourn; we sorrow for our loved ones that go — our wives, our husbands, our children, our parents; we sorrow for them; and it is well and proper that we should moum for them and shed tears for the loss, for it is our loss; but it is their gain, for it is in the march of progress, advancement and development. It will be all right when our time comes, when we have finished our work and accomplished what the Lord required of us. If we are prepared, we need not be afraid to go, for it will be one of the most pleasant sensations that ever comes to the soul of man, whenever he departs, if he can go with a clear conscience into the presence of the Lord.
This is censorship beyond the official censorship. If the terror network succeeds in reining-in All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.
themes like Dhokha then our film industry will continue with ’safe’ themes.” Strangely the alleged It is not enough to reach for the brass ring. You must also enjoy the merry go round.
gangster made no direct extortion threats to Mahesh Bhatt. “The money was only an after-thought. He He stood beside a cottage lone And listened to a lute, One summer’s eve, when the breeze was gone, And the nightingale was mute.
didn’t mention money to my maid or daughter. During one incoherent conversation with my servant he Good and evil are typified by light and darkness; therefore, if we bring light into a dark room, the darkness disappears, and inasmuch as a soul is filled with good, evil disappears.
told my staffers to flee from the office because their boss is going to die. There he mentioned “Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get.” Number Six in the Top Ten Most Famous Movie Quotes. —The Guinness Book of Film
money. He has never spoken to me although everybody has my number. I’m so accessible to the world. Top of the morning.
Why hasn’t this individual called me directly? Never in my life have I received any extortion calls Time goes, you say? Ah no! Alas, Time stays, we go.
from anyone. My brother was asked for money way back in 1997. Maybe this individual is trying to Made still a blund’ring kind of melody; Spurr’d boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin, Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.
terrorize other business persons by pretending to get money from me. I think he should be treated Reber [Johnson; a violinist] also got off another one, after I’d played over the Second Violin Sonata for him—that harmless piece. “After stuff like that”—he said—”if you consider that music, and like it, how can you like Brahms or any good music?” That is a very common attitude among almost all the well known lilies. They take it [i.e., that attitude] for granted—a kind of self-evident axiom, a settled-for-life matter, ipso facto, admitting of no argument. The classical is good for all time, the modern is bad for all time—so if you like one, you can’t like the other. Describing the reaction of a typical professional musician to his, and other twentieth-century, compositions. “Lilies” was one of Ives’ names for most of the concert goers of his era, who expected all music to be conventional and pretty.
with contempt.” Mahesh remains unfazed. “I’m further emboldened. I’ll speak my mind even more As for the differences of opinion upon speculative questions, if we wait till they are reconciled, the action of human affairs must be suspended forever. But neither are we to look for perfection in any one man, nor for agreement among many.
vociferously. If speaking up for my fellow human beings make me a target, so be it. I’m ready to Thomas Jefferson’s Decalogue of Canons VI. We never repent of having eaten too little.
face the outcome.” The calls started coming in the morning on Friday. But Mahesh was asked to keep When you are old, at evening candlelit, Beside the fire bending to your wool, Read out my verse and murmur, “Ronsard writ This praise for me when I was beautiful.”
quiet so as not to give the accused any publicity. “But then the goon went on air because television Just as so many rivers, so many showers of rain from above, so many medicinal springs do not alter the taste of the sea, so the pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man. For it maintains its balance, and over all that happens it throws its own complexion, because it is more powerful than external circumstances.
channels find such people attractive for the TRPs. Then I had to speak up. Otherwise my silence A broken bone can heal, but the wound a word opens can fester forever.
would’ve been construed for possible guilt. The intention of the individual is to stigmatize me so Love, such as in society, is only the exchange of two fantasies, and the contact of two bodies.
that whenever I stand up for a particular community motives will be attributed to me each time.” Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.
Amidst this bleak babble of bullying Mahesh Bhatt got a warm call from Sanjay Dutt. “Sanju was very Law it is . . . which hears without ears, sees without eyes, moves without feet and seizes without hands.
concerned about me. I told him I’m as concerned about him. The ghosts of 1992-3 hover over both our To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and, by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die: to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips an scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember’d.
heads in different ways.”  

Original post by Pankaj