Thirty six years back, when I was in the engineering institute, I eulogized Dharmendra. To me, he not only had a perfect personality but an ideal character also. Not only mine, he ruled the hearts of millions. He was always portrayed as an absolute gentleman who stuck to values, never hurt any body, true at heart and a sober but passionate lover. Movies like Satyakaam, Aadmi aur Insaan, Aankhen, Lalkaar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh left a deep impact on my mind.
It never occurred to me that Dharmendra was not tall. Those were the times when height was not an attribute. Amitabh Bachchan was rejected by film industry as too tall to be a hero and had to struggle a lot. You don’t find flaws in a personality you admire and adore. Dharmendra always looked perfect to me and I would often try to follow his roles.
Another handsome actor who had caught my fancy was Dev Anand. He had an inimitable style of laughing, walking, talking and running. I would don a muffler in Dev Anand style and talk like him to my friends. My mould today imbibes a lot of what Dev Anand and Dharmendra presented on the silver screen during those days. Their images are frozen in my heart. During my visit to Leh few years back, I stood over a snow clad mountain, wrapped a red muffler around my neck, leaned to my left in Dev Anand style and got myself photographed!
With the passage of time, the physical personalities of Dharmendra and Dev Anand wilted. Their drooping faces, flaccid bodies, shrinking heights and stammering speeches, whenever appeared on the TV, made me sad. The frozen images, that my heart carried of them, were shattered every time I watched them trying to play young and act young.
With age, the body withers and you can’t hide your age. Why didn’t the two, once so great actors, understood this simple truth and phenomena? Why didn’t they simply bask in the glory of their peak days and the charisma they once carried and lived the balance years of life gracefully and peacefully? These questions always intrigued me whenever I watched Dharmendra or Dev Anand on the screen.
I got the answer to these questions when I read ‘Absolute Khushwant’, written and released by Khushwant Singh. Khushwant is unequivocal and blunt in the book and has revealed many a truth in an explicit manner. Even at 95, he expressed that many desires were left in him and he lived in fantasies! He earned so much name and fame yet there were unfulfilled yearnings left in him!
Man never grows with age, I find. Watching himself in the mirror every day, he fails to notice the gradual alteration in his face, the new wrinkles and crinkles that the age adds to it, converting its vigorous and healthy look to a sagging and drooping mug. He lives under an illusion that he still carries a magnetic physique. As people acknowledge him, owing to his past achievements or present status, his self- conviction is reinforced further.
The bodies retire, the brains don’t.
The bodies retire, the brains don’t.
