They ‘killed’ the He-man

Illustration/Uday Mohite

What a tumultuous week has gone by, a devastating bomb went off at the Red Fort in Delhi, bringing back horrific memories of 1993, when we in Mumbai, were hit by 12 explosions, beginning at the Share Bazaar and ending at Sea Rock Hotel. But this week in South Mumbai, we had a far more "serious" issue. It was announced that the great Dharmendra had been admitted to a hospital.

The hospital went berserk, cameras seemed to be placed everywhere, the spy cams were inserted in glucose drips, in bed pans, they were inserted in BP machines, in stethoscopes, in ECG machines, 2D echoes, in ventilators. Ward boys were shooting the matinee idol for a fee, there were more cameras trained on Dharmendra, than in his entire career, in over 300 film shoots.

The "social media experts" came out in full force, the news brigade had a handle on the He-Man's health. "He is recovering, he is relapsing, he is reminiscing, he is resting". In these times of "news that hovers between life and death" there are those that seem to know everything. They have info as specific as "oh, actually he has passed, but the family is just waiting for the ‘right' time to announce". And then there's the most reliable source of all, "his team", who announced that he had in fact "passed".

This was the moment that national mourning "commenced", all hell broke loose on the internet.

The tributes came pouring in. The memes read "Dharmendra 1935-2025", with young shots of him as a hunk in Satyakam, with Meena Kumari in Phool aur Pathar, and pictures of his two daughters from his first marriage, his first wife, was unearthed, placed side by side with Hema Malini, gossip even at time like this.
The media went yamla pagla deewana…

Within the hour, Dharamji's colleagues had all spoken about him. Shotgun spoke about they'd begun their careers together, and contemporary colleagues spoke of his kindness and earthiness. The nation was shedding collective tears.

The He-man was no more, they had "offed" Garam Dharam… why would we question this tragedy?

My own memories came flooding in, my back pocket being picked outside Novelty Cinema when I went to watch Pocket Maar, a pickpocket had flinched my wallet, aged 12, "Jay Jay… tu thik hai na?", as Bachchan lay dying in Dharam's arms in Minerva, him dressed in all black atop a bridge in Yaadon Ki Baraat, he'd graced every screen, in the Lamington Road area - Imperial, Naaz, Alankar…

"Oh no, not another death, first Asrani, then Satish, now Dharmendra," we all said.

But there was a "kahaani mein twist". The family announced that Dharamji was alive. "The media has killed our ‘Garam Dharam' prematurely," they complained.

Dream Girl Hema Malini, was besides herself with anger called everyone "shameless", calling the fake news "unforgiveable". Dharamji is not dead, Sunny Deol shouted at the media, louder than he had yelled at the enemy in Gadar. "We want our privacy at this time."

What followed I found most interesting. No one felt guilt, no felt remorseful for having killed Dharmendra' prematurely. "Happens na."

The general sentiment seemed to be "what's so shameless about fake news" - it's news right? "Who needs to fact check if it makes for sensational reading?"

A real bomb had exploded outside the Red Fort, people had actually died, this time it wasn't a terrorist, but a doctor, surely that was real news that needed some reporting - one newsman said to me, "usmein kya news hai, its bound to be an attack by Pakistan, there'll be a retaliation by us, same old same old, similar things have happened in Mumbai in 1993… no biggie… this is real news, hoax or not, this is what gets eyeballs, Boss."

The cynical assessment was, "it's the Deol PR machinery at play". It's true, the cat was out of the bag, national mourning had begun, ‘the kuthhe kamineys' had begun their eulogies, their epitaphs, their editorials, the horse has bolted - when a horse has bolted, surely you can't lead it back.

Yup, the half-eulogies continue, the semi-epitaphs continue, the editorials have semi apologised… but while Dharmendra battles to regain his health, we are always NEWS - a Nation Endlessly Waiting for Scoops.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, filmmaker and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com