Maximum City: Yeah, I like living where I do, thanks

[dangermousie]

I am reading Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and it's utterly fascinating. It's a non-fiction account by an author, who returned to Bombay for a time, of his time in the city. It's utterly mesmerizing because he met all sorts of people, from mobsters to monks, from politicians to movie stars.

It also made me realize I'd never ever want to live there.

The section of most interest to me was the Bollywood section (of course). Mehta was one of the screen-writers on Mission Kashmir and he became friends with the director/producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. He met a bunch of Bollywood personalities, including Amitabh and SRK, but the ones he writes about most are VVC, Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan (as they starred in the movie so he got to see the most of them).

VVC sounds fascinating, and Mehta's descriptions of contortions one has to go through to make the movie acceptable to everyone (VVC doesn't want the militants to bomb his house, or the government to give it an adult certificate. He can't have fade-outs in his movie because the audience will think the light is going) is crazy. thelana, have you read this? I know you really like Sanjay Dutt, and Mehta talks about him quite a bit, and you can tell he really likes him. He goes a bit into his messed-up background and I didn't know any of it, so it's quite interesting. Hey, aliterati, he likes Hrithik too (you get the sense he feels almost sorry for him though, with all the crazy Hrithikmania, and the mob shooting and Nepal riots).

There are some things I, as a Bollyhollic, found especially interesting. One is that apparently Abu Salem (the exiled gang lord) threatened VVC with death during the movie and it's Sanjay Dutt who got him to call it off (doing the whole 'I went to jail for you, you owe me favors' thing). No wonder VVC seems to be pretty close with Sanjay since: he was in Parineeta, Munnabhai and upcoming Eklavya.

Mehta also talked to Sanjay about his jail time and it's totally fascinating. I found the whole half-adored, half-scornful atittude towards Bollywood people have really interesting.

The ties of Bollywood with the mob are really interesting and Mehta talks about the symbiosis between the two. He also mentions that apparently Hrithik agreed to do a movie for the mob, as a result of his father's shooting, to protect the family. If it did go through, I am trying to figute out which one it was. That would certainly be an alternative explanation to at least one of the horrible movies he did past MK. I know it can't be Yaadein or MPKDH as those are with huge banners, so mob wouldn't need to shoot his father to talk him into it. I wonder if it's Na Tum Jaano Na Hum or AMALL? Being a mob movie would certainly explain the atrocity that is AMALL.

He also mentions various manifestations of Hrithikmania which made me LOL. My favorite was some school principal's proposal to use him for educational purposes, like teaching that 'Bombay is the capital of Maharashtra, where Hrithik comes from' or 'the longest bone in Hrithik Roshan's body is a femur.' ROFL.

Comments

[thelana.livejournal.com]

That sounds very fascinating.

Personally, my guess would be AMALL. Either way, poor Hrithik.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's a really good book, I totally recommend.

The mob thing is unbelievably creepy. Like the off-hand way Mehta mentions that when SRK comes in for a meeting with VVC, he is being deferential to a policeman friend of VVC who dropped by because that particular policeman protected him from some major extortion some time ago. Or when he says that when Mission Kashmir premiers in London, Preity and Hrithik don't go, though Sanjay does, because the mob doesn't want them going until some sort of concert he is considering arranging, and Sanjay gets special dispensation because the mob owes him.

He also talks about filming of Zakhm by Mahesh Bhatt which is fascinating.

And also about some B-or-C movies he saw filmed.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Oh, now I really want it. Zakhm is a very fascinating movie.

I remember the stories about a leaked phone transcript between Sanjay and Abu Salem where Sanjay supposedly begged Salem to leave Preity alone (since Preity is the BW actress famous for standing up to the mob and being open about being pressured). I remember back then I wondered why exactly Sanjay would have a connection to Preity (I thought maybe over Salman, considering the stories about CCCC). I totally forgot that they were in MK together.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting. I didn't know that (re: Preity). Mehta says that Sanjay told him that at least the mob is honest about what they are doing, unlike Bollywood people. But yeah, after reading (and it's only a couple of paragraphs) about the conditions in Indian jails? (re: Sanjay). Yikes.

He also mentions that the school Nargis and Sunil sent Sanjay to when he was a kid was horrific because the teachers wanted to show they weren't being favorites. He got gangrene apparently at one point there. Eeeek.

Mehta talks about how Zakhm is very autobiographical for Bhatt and how he saw that the hero of the movie was 'in love' with his Mother so he hated the father, the man who just came to **** her.

The whole thing is really interesting.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Zakhm? I thought it was very interesting. Which is interesting, because it really isn't my usual type of movie at least (slow, simple, real to life). It's just soooo different from the typical spunky, virginal, sweet or funloving BW heroine stories. It really takes a story that is all about explaining of why a woman agree to be "the other woman" for all of her life, without ever making excuses for her or anybody else. It's really a fascinating portrait. (I still don't get why Ajay got an award for it; he is barely in the movie at all; Kunal Khemu (child actor from Raja Hindustani) carried most of the movie)

I have seen one interview with Sanjay where he talks about the jail time and how his father came to visit him and how his father would sometimes drive up to the jail outside of visiting hours and just stand outside the prison walls so Sanjay would feel him close. => made me bawl badly; Sanjay sure had a fucked up life. I have to admit, I don't really judge his life either way (and I think as people Sunil and Nargis strike me as much more interesting than him) since I really mostly care about actors as actors; but yeah, fucked up.

It's just so odd to hear some stories like Hrithik's and then see for example him and Suzanne on Simi Garewal, being so calm and happy. It's almost scary/amazing how one can get passed that and/or build up such a facade. At least with Sanjay the whole backstory is out in the open and openly talked about to some extent and he just has the kind of face and kind of style that looks like he carries it around with it. But somebody like Hrithik..., if you don't know the backstory (his father got shot after all), you could really think he was just a bland, glitzy, could never have any serious trouble bollyboy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Zakhm. It sounded interesting, but not interesting enough for me to have it really high on the list. After reading MC I will probably check it out though. I didn't even know Ajay was in it btw.

I think as people Sunil and Nargis strike me as much more interesting than him

I don't know much about Sunil and Nargis, except for the fact that he was an actor who became a really successful and popular politician (Mehta quotes some worker he met who, when asked which party he was going to vote for, said 'whatever party Sunil Dutt is in') and Nargis was Raj Kapoor's muse/lover who married Sunil who saved her during Mother India filming where he actualy played her son.

how his father came to visit him and how his father would sometimes drive up to the jail outside of visiting hours and just stand outside the prison walls so Sanjay would feel him close

I got the sense Sanjay was really close to his father (I remember those horrible pictures during Sunil's funeral.)

He was also talking about Sanjay's drug use in the book. Eeeeek.

see for example him and Suzanne on Simi Garewal, being so calm and happy...if you don't know the backstory (his father got shot after all), you could really think he was just a bland, glitzy, could never have any serious trouble bollyboy.

Well, I think people can sort of internalize most things (and this is years after the shooting, of course). But also I think it ties with what you expect. To someone like me, the mob thing is shocking and the whole 'bolly-people-as-puppets' thing is creepy, but it's probably not very surprising to someone who actually is in Bollywood. That's how things are done, so while it might be emotionally horrid, it's not unexpected. Am I making sense?

I have to say, Hrithik had to sort of come to some sort of internal balance he is comfortable with or he would have really lost it big time, before that interview time period anyway. Not just because of the shooting of his father, or because of all Bolly people being so integrally tied to the mob, but because of his rollercoaster of a career: the crazy mania (Mehta mentions that women literally fainted in the theater during KNPH, or that he was having lunch at some restaurant with Suzanne and then a bus pulled up and literally emptied out and there was a mob scene because people were trying to get a look at him) and then all those flops and being written off for good until KMG (which is what, years, after KNPH). That's a hell of an up-and-down. I think whatever issues there were, he's had to work out or get under control by the point of the interview (which was when, last year?)

I also found it really interesting, the bit about Nepalese riots over what he supposedly said: because it's like the flip side of the mania, people literally dying over words put into his mouth. Mehta was also saying how it turned out that the fake quotes were a result of Pakistani intelligence using Hrithik's new fetish status to bring some destabilization to a country friendly to India. Talk about the crazy mix of entertainment and politics and a mini-cold-war and everything.

The crazy Godlike status for the stars, combined with their dependency on the media and mob, is something that I find really interesting and really scary. Bolly people must either be the most fucked up or the most put together people ever.

I was actually struck during the Simi Garewal interview how Hrithik would totally deflect/deny, in a very polite fashion, every time Simi would try to give his life some drama (e.g. there was the whole bit where she was doing the whole 'you have had a tough childhood, you did you did, you did' and he was 'no it was totally normal, it was it was, it was' and it was as if he trying to be the most normal he could be).

I remember the mention Mehta made about going to some area which is a scared enclave and you can't even go there without permission, and the woman was talking about the new sacred history (Mehta's words): "Here is where Shahrukh Khan was, when filming Koyla."

The book is really fascinating, not just because of Bollywood (which is a relatively small section,, actually).

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Zakhm has two parallel plots, the one where Kunal grows up and the whole love story of his parents as seen through the eyes of the kid and a plot set in the "now" set during the big Mumbai riots. Ajay plays the grown up Kunal and got a national award for his role even though, to me, that "now" story was really tiny.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Zakhm does sound good. I'll definitely check it out. I am usually not big into Indian arthouse (I like loud garish Bollywood for a reason) but sometimes it's nice to have a change of pace.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the indiffernce on arthouse cinema. I'd definitely rather watch some cheesy fun, heck even bad fluffy BW cinema instead. But somehow I liked Zakhm. I think it's because Kunal Khemu was really good and touching in it.

And of course the biographic insight is pretty fascinating.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I remember reading much about Chori Chori Chupke Chupke being made with mob money (and some people really dissing Salman over that, I even recall somebody saying they wouldn't go see any more Salman films because of the ordeal and someone refusing to buy CCCC on DVD..) but everybody knows about that. It's an odd thing, Bollywood and mafia.

He can't have fade-outs in his movie because the audience will think the light is going
Really fascinating. It's tough to think about the different sorts of artistic limitations Indian directors have - certain things that the director can't even really influence. I should look up this book from the library or something.

PS. I'm gonna watch SeI tonight!!! :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Re: CCCC brou-ha-ha. I think it's so weird people would refuse to see it/Salman because of the mob connection. Maximum City confirms what I knew anyway: there is no Bolly star who didn't have to do a favor or dozen for the mob. I can't blame them for it either, as you get the sense that whatever their views on illegal activity, they had to do it for sheer self-preservation.

If you want to stay away from anyone with mob ties in Bollywood, you'd have no one to watch (I also happen not to care for personal lives, but am interested in movies, but it's a separate matter).

This is a really good book I totally rec.

And YAY on SeI. I am seeing it again tonight, actually.