Being his father's son

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Without taking anything away from Abhishek Bachchan for being his father's son or his wife's husband, let us all be fair in declaring that there is much more to the man than the fake accent he painstakingly put in Delhi 6. Sadly, the guy has always been at the receiving end, his nemesis being the reputation (at times good and at times bad) that his father carries so humbly on his shoulders. The recent case in point being the WWF Earth Day fiasco.
(Courtesy: img.india-forums.com)

Junior B has indeed been one face (literally!) who is seen in several ad campaigns revolving around environment protection in India. One day he talks about saving tigers, the second day he gets in the garb of a tree for “What an idea sir ji” iDea campaign and then dons a feather in his cap by becoming the brand ambassador of WWF Earth Day campaign. No, he wasn’t required to become a panda for the WWF. He simply had to endorse their campaign and make appearances saying good things about them. But fate had other plans.

If it was not enough that his subdued performance in his solitary release for the year, Paa, was not even discussed while Vidya Balan and Big B walked away with all the awards, Gandhi FAMILY’s (Trivia: What is it that they refer to as FAMILY in Italy?) growing animosity with Big B cast a spell on what was supposed to be his solo celebrity stage appearance as the brand ambassador for the Earth Day campaign. On the day he was to come over to Delhi, his posters were removed and expectedly, no one knew on whose behest it was being done. Much hue and cry was raised, initiated by Big B and Junior B themselves through their respective blogs and tweets. I happened to watch a debate on NDTV where Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the Congress spokesperson was asked if the treatment being meted out to Junior B was actually correct. To this he answered – “Isn’t Abhishek Bachchan his father’s son?” True, Junior B has tortured us all to no end through his game show Bingo and had refused me an autograph on Shimla schedule of one of his films (that film tanked big-time) 8 years ago, but this ain’t just right. Give the guy a break. Why should anyone penalize him for being his father’s son? We can digest it for a fact that the wife of a former Prime Minister can become a party president or his son, who had hardly spent anytime in India, become a part General Secretary without any prior experience but castigating someone for his lineage and that too for a personal issue is not done.

Someone told me that it was strange that there wasn’t much public angst against the injustice meted out to a national icon and his family. But does that mean that the people are approving of the way Bachchans were treated? Yes, it is definitely not much of an issue in the larger scheme of things but just go back in time to the recent past when people came out to shut out Shivsena after SRK’s MNIK release. The film didn't warrant all that undue attention but it still had become a national issue. I am tempted to believe that the less media coverage/lack of public sympathy is not all owing to the apathy of people. The platforms the Bachchans chose to raise their voices had limited reach. SRK came out openly to talk about it and got the support while Big B and Junior B made veiled attacks through their blog.

It cannot be denied, despite whatever he says that Amitabh Bachchan has some political affiliations. He rubs shoulders with politicians, endorses their states, calls one of them his younger brother, his wife is an M.P. and he himself was one and yet he claims to be apolitical. It is not always possible to have one’s cake and have it too. Big B must understand that. Until then Abhishek will continue facing the brunt of it while taking solace in the fact that there are a lot of positives in being his father’s son. He gets to romance one of the world’s most beautiful women. He carries no liabilities of buying a home, clearing off debts and stuff that his Dad had to do. Most importantly he gets to be in the thick of things in Bollywood despite not being as deserving if I may say that.

 
(The author of this piece harbors some ill-feeling against Junior B and enjoys venting it out. The few words of support come out while attempting to be more "balanced" as they say)

4 comments:

Sugandh said...

Had he signed an autograph for you, the effort you have to "balance" your opinion about him would have been less.

Someone, let Junior B about the trouble he has put you in!!!

I enjoyed reading it anyways :)

Sugandh said...

The last comment has few words missing. :(

Use it as an exercise to find and fill in the blanks.

Anonymous said...

A useful guide

Anonymous said...

A useful tip

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