Finally Its over

In the end, then, Mumbai got to see My Name is Khan and the Sena had to retreat, tail between legs.Even 24 hours before the film was finally exhibited, this seemed unlikely. The state government had advised cinema owners to show the film keeping the first three rows empty, presumably to prevent hooligans from damaging the screen, and to employ private security guards. Cinema owners asked, reasonably, who was going to pay for those empty rows and extra security? And what if someone got up from the fourth row and damaged the screen? What if there was damage, not to the screen, but to the seats? On the eve of the release, it appeared that the film may not release in Mumbai at all.

This was followed by late-night confabulations. Shah Rukh Khan, in Berlin to promote the film at the Berlinale, held a video conference with the city’s multiplex owners, and it is reasonable to assume that he or someone on his behalf lobbied the government as well. The film was finally exhibited, prompting another poison editorial by Bal Thackeray.

It is unquestionable that the people of Mumbai deserve much credit for the film finally being exhibited on release date. They lined up outside cinema halls in large numbers from morning, and this gave confidence to the owners. The state government too got into the act, even if very late, with a minister himself going around cinema halls to oversee security and give confidence to owners. The rest of us heaved a collective sigh of relief.

That the people of Mumbai showed collective will does not cause surprise. That the government of Maharashtra trundled along confusedly does not cause surprise either. That Sharad Pawar, in a game of one-upmanship with the Congress, thought it fit to offer an olive branch to a thoroughly isolated Bal Thackeray, promising him a presentation on the IPL, causes no surprise either. What does cause surprise is that Shah Rukh Khan stood his ground and refused to apologise.

We think of film stars as powerful people. We see them endorsing this or that brand, we see them supporting causes like AIDS awareness or animal rights, we see them hogging television and newspaper space with platitudes on everything ranging from global warming to the cuteness quotient of Barack Obama’s smile. And yet, when it comes to real opinions about contentious issues, film stars are, as a general rule, conspicuously silent.

Strong political opinions are inimical to carefully crafted public personas. On these personas rest fortunes. When Tiger Woods was found out to be a serial philanderer, his persona, which rests critically upon constructing an image of a man so driven that nothing on earth would shake his focus, a man who never deviates from the straight and narrow, was shattered at one go. He earns many times more from endorsing brands that have built his image than he does from the sport he plays better than anyone else on the planet. If his marriage shatters, this image shatters. No wonder he’s offered his wife millions to stay married to him!

Stars are prisoners of a golden cage. The bigger the star, the more fragile the cage.