Divya’s Birthday tomorrow … Happy birthday and lots of happiness for you from the entire EF .. hope that is ok EF’s .. took on the responsibility of adding you all on ..

Engulfed in the creative eagerness of the younger lot, I am so happy and astonished at what this generation thinks and designs for film. They design and think on many other creative aspects, but my contacts with them have been particularly intense, these last few days and I am so happy to hear all of them in their excitement, narrating stories and scripts, that possess great novel ideas and thought.

There is a sense of extreme confidence in what ever they do and say. It is precocious at times for people like me of an earlier generation, when I look at them and their enthusiasm. But this is the way they are. This is the way they shall be and this is the way for them forward. Now .. many purists and keepers of the faith often question me about declining standards, and the whole question of morals falling to depths of despair. They could be right and worried, but I feel each generation should be given the space to express themselves and allow the realization to sink in of own accord, before shooting them down. A civilization that has had a history and culture and ethos lasting for more than 5000 years cannot simply turn away and get polluted overnight. A country enslaved by foreign rulers for most part of its existence needs the freedom now to settle in and devise methods on its own integrity with equal dignity and respect – one that I believe shall never be overcome by any modern or Western culture.

If our films have contained unrealistic situations, escapist routines, color and dance and music not proportionate to reality, there is no harm in it I feel. Indeed I strongly feel it is reflective of what, despite all its shortcomings, it pines to achieve. Art of any kind shall reflect the state of the nation and its people. We may be a developing nation and one that is referred to as the ‘third world’, but in depicting fantasies does not take anything away from hope and expectation of our people. In fact I find that despite all the cynicism, it has been one country and one culture that is seen to be unaffected by all the horrors that the West goes through at this very moment. Entirely unaffected would be wrong to state, but comparatively the difference is seen, being seen and being applauded. We may be very far away from utopia, but then even the developed is far away too. I think our resilience through hundreds of years of subjugation has come useful now. We tolerate better, we know how to take the knocks and come out smiling !!

Not all of us are that capable. When knocked down we remain down at times. But knowing the general temperament of our countrymen, they shall want to crawl their way back up, to be ahead, the first. In a very silly way I notice it in the way we conduct ourselves in traffic. There is an impatient desire to jump the lights, to move ahead, to not be in line of the waiting traffic and to slide slip by breaking a cue to get to the front. Indisciplined yes, but inspiring in a way too. It is the general tendency to be first, to go past the other that waits and follows rules. Ha ha !!

I have promised to get back to routine from this very moment and I must follow it through …. before others overtake me !! So off I go and wish you good night and the sweetest of dreams .. love and more … !!

Amitabh Bachchan