On Location, Shiro, a night club in the converted mill area in Worli, Mumbai

November 17, 2008 4:19 pm

I wrote those lines. I do not know why I wrote them or what their purpose is. Some words kept coming to my head. I typed them out. I did them just before retiring last night and slept.

I sent them off to a friend by mail without any particular intent. On reading it again in the morning I thought it deserved a ‘post’.

Below now is an article that came to me on my Google Alert. On sensibility. It talks of a recitation of mine on the subject, which I have failed to recollect. It interested me not so much for the reference it had, but the general drift on the subject.

I invite comment on it.

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Me and my sensibility

IT MIGHT seem strange, but there are people in India who will watch every movie and every TV channel (with the commercial breaks) all day long. It must be a tedious job, and people who do this tend to lose their mind. Film reviewers must watch every movie because that is their job and the reviews they write shows that most of them are delusional.

So why should anyone do this willingly? I mean, if it was not your job, why should you watch all day the trash that is shown on TV? And become mad, in the process?

The answer has to do with sensibilities. Ever since Amitabh Bachchan recited the poem, “Me and my loneliness” people across India have translated this to “Me and My Sensibility.” Sensibility may be a kind of dog that sits besides you all day; (only he is imaginary) looking for things shown on TV that might hurt him. Both the person and his sensibility have no other job, it would seem.

We do not know about the person concerned, but his sensibility gets hurt very often. One fine day somebody’s sensibility got extremely hurt when Jaya Bachchan made a harmless remark about speaking in Hindi. Not many people saw the telecast but someone did, and the next day his sensibility was splashed all across the papers. Jaya’s apology could not soothe the sensibility and it was only after Amitabh apologised did the sensibility get pacified. By then the “offending remark” has been telecast several times over and over again. Surely sensibility should have been hurt many times over, but it seems it has the capability of getting hurt only in the first telecast.

Then there was the movie “Jo Bole So Nihaal” with an actor dressed up as a Sardarji. Now that too hurt sensibilities so much that the film’s release was cancelled. Nobody knows what the offending remark was. Yet the producer must have made quite a loss on that one because the sensibilities would not allow the film to be released. Ironically, the film continues to be shown on television many times, but now the religious sentiments are not hurt anymore, because the purpose of the sensibility was perhaps to inflict a loss, nothing else.

The religious sensibility raised its head again when “Singh is King” was to be released; the stars descended on the Delhi Gurdwara and the religious people were too awed not to be hurt anymore. Whatever it was in the movie that hurt the sensibilities in the first place, was ignored and the film became a hit and lots of people must have seen that movie. If more sensibilities were hurt, we do not know about them.

Then a cricketer was dancing around like a mythological figure, and that too hurt sensibilities. The chap was just having fun, but it was enough to hurt people. An apology was made, but the scene was played out several times on TV, so that if anyone had not seen it, was sure to have his sensibility hurt again and again. But that was nothing, because an apology had been made, and how did it matter if anyone else’s sensibility was getting hurt?

Yet there is another sensibility that one must take care of. That is media’s sensibility. You see the media usually makes a nuisance when dealing with celebrities. They ask stupid questions in countless interviews, follow celebrities around, and often prevent film shooting from taking place. So if an actor loses his temper at the constant harassment, their sensibilities are hurt! Saif Khan could not shoot in Punjab, but found himself apologizing because some sensibility was hurt.

Angelina Jolie, who had come to shoot in India, too discovered the fragile sensibilities of the media.

The list is endless. The question is: if your sensibility, religious or otherwise, is getting hurt, why not switch off the TV? Why make a fuss so that the offending scene is telecast repeatedly?

The answer is that anyone who has even a little say thinks that everyone should pay homage to him. So the priests in a Gurdwara, or the politicians who have the support of some goondas, or the media which can write anything – all these have people who are simply stupid. Hurt sensibilities also arise from petty jealousy. How dare anyone have more fame/money? We will teach him a lesson, which is the underlying reason for hurt sensibilities. It is easy to gather some idle people who can go around damaging property, so the sensibility gains a threatening stance.

Will someone tell the religious types, the media types and the goonda types, to stop misbehaving? If something hurts you, avoid it. Switch off your TVs, take a walk and get some fresh air!

….I am off to take my dose of fresh studio air.. they just called me for my shot..

Nothing to do with sensibility. Just being sensible, before I get thrown out of the film..

Love,

Amitabh Bachchan