This is an excerpt of a column written by film journalist Nishi Prem, who also happens to be the editor of Cine Blitz.

Personally, I have nothing to say about the Bachchans here……and I mean it.
I’ve a simple logic. Only people who respect themselves can hope to get any respect from others. And in that matter, the media has only embarrased itself before the Bachchans (and so many other big stars). The haughtiness of the Bachchans is again a direct result of the media attitude towards them. No one’s gonna let you meet their eye once you’ve licked their boots, simple!

Editor’s view

Remember this is a comedy

During the production of Federico Fellini’s film 81/2 Fellini hand wrote a note to himself and pasted it on the camera below the view finder so that he could see it constantly. It read: Ricordati che e un film comico.— Remember this is a comedy.

Non –stop Entertainment — That’s what the Bachchan family has become for us. Feeling low? Switch on the television and go to the great Bachchan show. It’s on 24/7 and it’s the funniest show in town. It is difficult to tell however, who are the bigger entertainers, the Bachchans or the byte hunters. So much for their barely concealed disdain for the press, they manage to remain in the center of a very welcome media circus almost constantly —with their dark glasses on of course! Remember this is a comedy!

After looking clueless on the issue for over a year, they rushed into an engagement two days after the tepid release of Guru. What a sweet coincidence! What was more amusing was the pantomime that followed. Next morning, after the curious engagement, the master himself sat on a white plastic chair outside his house, smile-less in a white shirt, jeans and dark glasses to address the gleeful members of the press whom he had obviously invited to talk about what was hitherto a “private and personal” matter. And honey, did they flock around the B like bees to honey?

So there he was, the emperor in dark glasses, at the back of his house, on a Monday morning, sitting on a white plastic chair (probably borrowed from his watchman), somberly doling out alms of classified information. Wrapped chocolate for the press to unwrap and suckle on. But don’t litter my lawn with the wrappers please! The barrenness of Mistah B’s face perfectly matching the bareness of the white plastic chair he sat on.

A herd of eternally thankful, red faced, runny nosed, blabbering lieutenants of the fourth estate in a state of uncontainable frenzy, and in the midst of this furore sits the man who manufactured the furore himself –impassive, indifferent and cold, alive only to his purpose. Chalo ek ek kar ke aao…haath badhao..yeh lo, tum bhi lo, aur tum bhi lo, sab ko milega….

In the last couple of weeks, Bachchan senior has shed so many proud tears and pointed superlatives on son Abhishek’s performance in Guru making it extremely embarrassing for anyone else to disagree. They are not taking any chances this time. Dhoom 2 has shaken them up seemingly badly! And that’s natural….I can relate to that. Most families have gone through the nervousness of seeing their loved ones falter.

He wants to paint a picture of infallibility and ironically he wants me to help him paint it. And for that he needs me to be a green juvenile. A non-questioning moron! Some of us comply.

For all the excitement of getting some selected byte from the Big Bachchan that morning, did we actually get anything? Can’t we see that all we ever get is bits and pieces that suit their purpose! That there is nothing in it for us.
I am about to relate a bizarre scene from the media-dance that followed the Ash-Abhishek engagement.

Mistah B, as I have said earlier stated, on his white, plastic chair… and this wheatish complexioned, stocky, plumpish news reporter sniveling with gratitude. Big B, austere, dark glasses on, talking to the obliged journalist with a seemingly disinterested expression on his face even as he poured out all those eulogies on son Abhishek and bahu Aishwarya. Finally the beaming journalist asks the old man sweetly, “When will we get to eat the shaadi ka ladoos?” Mistah B, apparently referring to the night earlier says, “Arre, kal bahar bheje toh the laddoo…aapko mile nahin…”
And what do you think the young man from the leading news channel replied? He said, “Pepsi mili thi…magar laddoo…”

Why are we constantly making such fools of ourselves and setting ourselves up for ridicule?

Big as they are, I would call them miserly who cannot spare even a warm smile towards people sitting in their own courtyard. Big as they are, I would call them ungenerous who are unable to accord a fraction of that respect and dignity that they assume is their birthright. This is not acceptable to me and I fail to see how it can be acceptable to anybody.

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