Only For die hard SRK fans!

First things first: I never even thought that SRK would occupy so much bandwidth here. But it did for some weird reasons. So here's the (last here) story on MNIK controversy that appeared in a national daily on Sunday, the 21st Feb!
(I know it's getting lame and i already apologised while posting it on FB, but it has become necessary to Wake Up SID!, so you may ignore this one, if you not SID :-)

Before I mention it, do want to convey, that un/fortunately i am not the author behind it. The complete resopnsibility rests with the author himself : D .

Here it goes:

By Vrinda Gopinath

Shiv Sainiks walked into SRK’s trap by reacting to his statements on the exclusion of Pak players at the IPL auction on the eve of his film’s release

WERE you lifted by a sense of moral euphoria as you bought a ticket for the movie-of-theweek, My Name is Khan? Did you believe that by this single act of defiance you had put those nasty, brutish Shiv Sena types in their place? And, with that, you had let the breath of freedom waft in the air as the streets emptied out with lumpen Sainiks? If you tick all three, you have just entered the world of simulated patriotism and hammy heroism, played by none other than King Khan.

It must surely be a demented and ageing Shiv Sena patriarch, Bal Thackeray, and his gawky heir and son, Uddhav, who believed they could take on Bollywood Brandasaurs Shahrukh Khan and Karan Johar in a mega brand war between Bollywood and Sainikdom. How could they even believe they could match the relentless battering of corporate marketing and public relations and a formidable media machine on the former’s side? For, at the heart of the fortnight-long raging public brawl was the stirring emotional cry of Indianness, craftily let loose by a box officesavvy SRK, while willy-nilly laying out a trap that the foolish Thackerays walked into with typical loony gusto. And as SRK’s simulated patriotism unfurled public discourse and debate, pitting well-meaning, woolly liberals versus ranting nationalists, it was a gullible public, or should we say moviegoing public, who were made to believe it was about protecting free speech, individual freedom and liberties, being vaingloriously defended by King Khan, against the onslaught of the savage Sena.

With one masterful stroke, suddenly both SRK and the Sena were in business. Three weeks ago, on January 24, the day it all began, SRK burst forth on a TV interview on the “humiliation” heaped on Pakistan’s cricketers excluded in the IPL auction. Of course, no questions were asked why he did not pick one himself, instead the hat was doffed by the adoring questioner, and applauded by an idolising audience.

SRK, however, stuttered on how there were “issues” but the IPL should have dealt with it “respectfully,” that he was thinking of Pak cricketer Abdul Razak, but with crores at stake, “ D’uh, so should I?” ( risk getting a Pakistani in his team?). Soon, all hell broke loose when a frenzied Sena leadership jumped in to demand that SRK apologise immediately for his “ unpatriotic” utterances.

But let’s talk about the unmentionable — there were several niggling factors that did not match up to Bollywood Badshah’s new social and political consciousness. First, SRK made the outburst in a news studio for the promo of My Name is Khan, along with his co- guest, best buddy and director of the film, Karan Johar.

The IPL auction fiasco was raging in Pakistan at the time and was being seen as being anti- Pakistani, and threatening to be projected as being anti- Muslim by fanatics on both sides of the border. Khan, an IPL team owner, could not duck the accusations, and it was time to make amends. After all, who could risk the hostility of the Muslim world for a film that was riding on Rs 100 crore, and was going to have a world premiere in the desert kingdom of Abu Dhabi? It was also a stunning surprise that King Khan had made a fervent statement on public affairs.

Now, why does SRK sound suspiciously fake when he talks about public good? Because it is astonishing that the Bollywood Badshah made a statement on public affairs at all, when all these years he has kept a deafening silence on every front. S RK HAS rightly said that he does not have to say something on like, say, the Gujarat riots, because he’s a Muslim, but he has also never failed to tell persistent reporters ad nauseum that he gives a damn about public good because he is “ just an entertainer, a prostitute, that too self- centred, selfobsessed, money- loving, unprincipled and always compromising.” Surprised that he suddenly woke up to the injustices on Pak cricket players? It was not soon before the public brawl between SRK vs Shiv Sena turned into a media lovefest for SRK — no one in their right mind could take the Sena’s side — with TV news channels tripping over to promote King Khan. If there were any loose ends on King Khan’s side, it was airbrushed for breaking news.

As viewers were carpet- bombed with back- to- back exclusives with Khan, the star even tried to make amends to calm the belligerent Sena, diffusing his earlier passionate statement with mock bashfulness when he stammered how he was not “ really powerful and that real power lay elsewhere,” that he was “ just a movie star who loves his stardom”. The media’s love affair with SRK was not one- sided. A TV news anchor got special mention in the credit roll, so were several news channels featured prominently, perhaps to give the film some credibility, prime- time realism, as well as announce the collaborative deal of marketing, promos and PR between movie moguls and the media.

Suddenly, both the Sena and SRK look strangely similar, even though one uses brute force, the other, cute righteousness — for, just as the loutish Sena grabs eyeballs for a cause that serves its purpose, Bollywood’s Brandasaurs also uses the media to delude and lure the public.

In a marketplace that uses contract conditions to give oneself an unequal position, rolls out the gigantic battleship of PR, marketing and media conglomerates to create a monopoly, uses mega star power to stamp out any fair dissension, that, SRK, is also called fascism.

— The writer is a freelance journalist based in Delhi