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We're one big 'khan'daan: Dilip Kumar and Imran Khan |
Similarly, Noorjehan's throat and Madhubala's beauty belong to no community; no act of extremism can take their talent or power away from them.
Call it a fabulous coincidence, if you will. But many success stories in Bollywood both male and female have been Muslims. This is true of the most mesmeric entertainers of Hindi cinema.
How it began...
Mehboob Khan paid the ultimate homage to the Bharatiya Nari in Aurat in the 1940s and then in Mother India, two decades later. In both cases, the woman portraying the strong Hindu matriarch was a Muslim, Sardar Akhtar in the first version and Nargis in the second.
A well-known critic of the 1960s wrote, "The bindi never looked better on any actress as it did on Meena Kumari. She carried off the traditional Hindu housewife's role in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and the tawaif's part in Pakeezah with such awesome tragic grandeur."
But that was Meena Kumari for you; liberated of the pallu and the veil, an institution free of any religious and cultural stamp.
Question this!
And who would dare question Waheeda Rehman's cultural and religious identity? When as the newly-liberated wife in Vijay Anand's Guide she waved her aanchal in the welcoming breeze, did it matter if she was Hindu, Muslim or Christian (I mean, Rosy, come on!).
Looking at Hindi cinema's long and distinguished history of Muslim super-actors and super-stars, the latest extremist diktat forbidding the Khan superstars from acting in Hindi films, seems pretty incongruous.
Bollywood has never bothered with religious identity. Neither has the audience. If today collectively and individually, Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir and Saif command the kind of fan following that could cram a continent, then good... that's the way it has always been in Bollywood and always shall remain.
Years ago, lyricist Shakeen Badayuni wrote what is the most moving film bhajan â Man tarpat hari darshan ko aaj. Naushad Saab composed the song and Mohd Rafi Saab sang it. All three participants were Muslims!
Blurring the lines
Today's most prolific lyricist Javed Akhtar effortlessly writes lyrics in Awadhi for Lagaan and is also in the process of writing the lyrics for an animated version of the Ramayan. And directors from Mehboob Khan and K A Abbas to Mansoor Khan and Anees Bazmee have given audiences reels of pleasurable cinema.
Wait. Don't go yet. Abhi to picture baqi hai mere naraaz dost. The latest sensation is also a Khan. Does it matter to Imran whether he's Hindu or Muslim? When college kids shriek out his name, which God are they thinking of?
