Dear Aamir,Today, a picture in a national financial daily suddenly caught my attention. The photo caption said, “Aamir turns barber for a day...!” The article further said, you delighted you fans in New Delhi by treating them to a special haircutting session giving them the trademark buzz cut that you are seen sporting in your upcoming movie Ghajini.
That reminded me of the coca-cola ad that featured a long haired, dhoti-kurta clad bangali babu... probably that was the first instance I got to see you donning a new look for your then upcoming flick Mangal Pandey. I wondered, does one really have to grow his hair to play a particular character in an age when you have all the modern cutting-edge amenities to take care of all that. Well, probably here lies the difference between a perfectionist and lesser mortals like us.
You have proven your mettle and versatility over and again by portraying different characters in every new movie you acted in, and your efforts have been acknowledged by both mass and the class. You, probably, are the one and only actor in the country who has been taged as the ‘Perfectionist’.
You, along with Farhaan, gave us an all time cult movie... Dil Chahta Hai. As a college goer, I was swept away by your courage to stand against traditional schools of Chopras and Barjatiyas, and yet making it big in its own way. I started believing that a Bollywood flick does not necessarily have to be narrated in the form of a fairly tale.
But then, what makes you so frivolous that you always go overboard when it comes to promoting your movie? True that in today’s world, marketing of a product is all the more necessary, but even at the cost of diluting your reputation as actor rather than a star. C’mon Aamir, you should be confident enough that your movie, if it is a good product, would do well even without the marketing gimmicks. History has borne testimony to this fact over and again. Then why do you have to resort to these cheap and annoying publicity stints?
You placed your well-toned-bod statue at the theatres, fine; got the employees of Big Cinema’s donning the bald look, fine; walked ramp displaying Ghajini costumes, that is also fine. But the unprecedented hair-cutting session on Sunday has seemed to have raised all bars. Not in terms of the innovation or creativity applied, but of course, in terms of the desperation of hogging limelight. Now, would you please leave some properties untouched, (not sure though if anything is left out) and let the movie work on its own merit?
Why do we get to see you only when there is one a movie release round the corner? Be it a ‘dharna’ at Jantar-Mantar or making an appearance in ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’, or even making controversial statements... you have always been a front runner in whatever brings you in limelight.
You seem to have problems with every other actor around you. You named your pet after your fellow colleague SRK, and then wrote about it in your blog too. And your blog became a hit overnight. You made a comment on SLB-BigB’s magnum opus BLACK, the saga continued for few more days. Recently you made a statement that Himesh Reshamiya is the biggest marketer in the country, as no one could market himself or herself the way Himesh did. But Himesh, I guess, would have to take another birth to get closer to you. You seem to have mastered art of being in news even when there is no news. As we PR guys keep chanting... any publicity is a good publicity, we should look up to you as our role model. Aamir, you rock man!
In fine, I wish you all the luck for Ghajini. Booked tickets for tomorrow’s evening show, and I am sure this time also, as always, we would come out raving about the movie. Still, could not help but writing... your over the top publicity stints and indulging in to awful war of words with Shah Rukh could have been done away with.
Cheers!!!
Sandipan
lovely mate! very nicely crafted
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