Babumoshaai!!!!!!!!!

"Babumoshaai!!!"  Probably the most popular one-word dialogue ever uttered in Indian Cinema, with a great visual recall.

Its voice... Rajesh Khanna, the first Superstar of Hindi Cinema, and arguably Indian Cinema.

Rajesh Khanna is not the sort of actor, in my opinion, to have a great recall value, especially when one is not from either of the generations, ones  which idolised him and ones which continued the wake. But a quick survey of his repertoire given in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajesh_Khanna is enough evidence of what he has tried to do as an actor and the euphoria he generated as a superstar. The critical comparison with Kamal Hassan for the same role is even more remarkable (Ref: Sivappu Rojakkal/Red Rose).

What pains even a non-fan of Kaka, as he is fondly called and parodied, is the current ad for Havell Fans. We see a very old Kaka, nattily dressed recalling the days of yore where true Superstardom was defined by the adoration of the fans. A beautiful montage of flashbacks  forms the backdrop for this giant of a Thespian, now old, feeble and perhaps standing on his own legs with the determinism that characterizes true human beings.

 "Mujhse mere fans koi nahi cheen sakta" he summarizes, and the camera pans out to see an auditorium of "fans"...the revolving kind. It looks clever and cheeky at first, and then the disgust sinks in. 

What was the director thinking? What was Havell as a company thinking? Commodification of persona is not new to Indian television. But this plumbs to new low. A new threshold of "Sick".

Why did you do an ad like this Kaka? Is it the pain of watching your greatest rival and successor to the mantle of "Superstar" hawk everything from cultural tourism to chawanprash in every third ad that comes on TV? Is it because someone with a personal agenda massaged your Capricornian ego and said you could do it too, and you gave in? 

Advertisements need to be made in good taste, especially when the person endorsing the product is a little more accomplished than most others around. Else its becomes a pathetic commercialization. Perhaps one of the slickest ad's ever made in India for is BPL TV by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra more than a decade ago and featuring Amitabh Bachchan- your greatest rival and successor. But then, it has been consistently downhill since then for him. Another good set of ad's in the last two years have been by Abhinay Deo, featuring his father Ramesh Deo. Thankfully, he is extremely choosy.

The triangle of Amitabh Bachchan, Ramesh Deo and Rajesh Khanna gave us Anand. In the movie, your candle went out in a blaze that it is one of Indian Cinema's greatest endings ever.

Please remember this Kaka when you say "Theek Hai Re..." to the next advertisement that comes your way. But then, it is your choice, as it is your life and you are its best judge.

I say all this even though I am not a great fan by the yardsticks of fan-dom that you have created..