Nevertheless I squirm every time Shahrukh-The Entertainer is on screen, being eager to please.
But then again I remind myself that this is the way it works and that subtlety never was a virtue of the All-Indian entertainment for the masses.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t mean to apply western standards. Sometimes it’s just hard to bear that complete lack of cynicism when you are so used to it.
Everyone laughing because Republic Day is celebrated on a quiz show by standing up and singing the national anthem? No, not at all! On the contrary, it is the most normal thing in the world. Visit Regal Cinema in Bombay and you will know what I mean.
So when I see Shahrukh as a person of public interest it is always a mixed blessing.
An interview that pleases me, where he is outspoken and witty (and yes, sometimes even cynical or - God forbid - vulgar) is not necessarily the kind of interview the average fan will digest. Thus I like him for giving those kind of interviews and I hate him when he adjusts (at least I think it’s adjusting) by saying the things he is expected to, by being humble and nice.
But then, he has to for being liked universally .
I think I’m able to “share” him, even with people who have a completely different take on him than I have.
And I’m even able to cope with the thought that I will have to share him with more than a billion people, though I’m rather the “independent” type.
I like him being liked.

Strangely enough is quite the other way around with Kajol.
I cannot stand her. Not anymore, I have to add.

I started watching Hindi movies with K3G.
I liked it but never thought I would get addicted once. Only when I watched it a second time King Khan began to spell his “magic” on me. And I liked Kajol.
It seemed to be the perfect pairing.
But then all hell broke loose. Just visit a German Bollywood forum and you will get my point. There is Anjali, and then there is Anjalli and Anjali_1 and, yes, Anjali_2, shahrukhandkajolforever, shahrukh&kajol…
Posts were all of the same kind just as the writers’ names implied. There was just one actress in Bollywood, actors not to mention and there was just a single movie: K3G.
So all my hate, all my desire to be different and to stand out from the crowd which seemed to snowball that time projected onto a single person: Kajol.
I know that it’s not her fault, that she is a brilliant actress (though limited in her choice of roles, but so is Preity, for example) and perhaps even quite likeable, but I cannot help it, I simply cannot stand her.

So, I’m a Shahrukh-girl.
But I’m a Kajol-hater.

Does that make me a bad person?

So, again thanks for your efforts not to be a hater - rest assured that yours is the right way (well, at least the way I am prefering *g*)

I like a good intellectual exercise as much as the next obsessed Bolly-blogger - but sometimes I just want to enjoy a movie.

Shah Rukh’s immense popularity engenders defensiveness on both sides. In my own critiques I try really hard not to be a “hater” because I want to avoid that defensiveness in the discourse. It doesn’t always work.

Now I’m wondering about the connection between watching a film with a critical eye and the ability/willingness to be entertained. How do those impact each other? Just because I find Shahrukh incredibliy entertaining, does that mean I cannot be as objective about him as someone who does not necessarily enjoy him all the time? Hmmm….