Know It Alls

At a social gathering that day, the trending topic was SRK and his infamous brawl at the cricket stadium.
“SRK was not being a father, he was being a jerk,” said one.

Rather ironically a gentleman holding his drink commented, “Henceforth SRK should be called Bevda Khan.”

Flip the coin and the damnation turns into admiration.

“Give the guy a break. He acted as any father would,” remarked another .

I switched on the television and rather predictably a surfeit of opinions had crammed the news hour. Arnab had assembled his usual court of specialists to pronounce judgment. In fact his judgment was ready much before the discussion commenced. Those who agreed with him got a chance to speak their mind but those with divergent views were rebutted, rebuffed and even rebuked by judge Goswami. While the humor on social media was well taken (SRK did not insult the MCA or BCCI, he simply called them MC, BC…), the impetuous verdict pronouncements were immature.

On another channel, Kirti Azad, in all his wisdom declared that the Wankhade brawl was a BCCI ploy to divert attention from the spot fixing scandal. Well, in that case I salute the ingenuity of the BCCI official who orchestrated the entire fiasco. If I meet the guy, I am willing to prostrate on the ground and salute the genius.

My question is, how many of us who passed judgment on the sorry episode where present when the fiasco happened?

Are we sure that the star was high on alcohol?

How do we know who provoked whom?

Did SRK actually misbehave with a female fan?

Did he mishandle the guard or were his kids manhandled?

No one is sure. But everyone has an opinion.

I have been a victim of a private security guard’s high headed behavior . I wanted to shout at him. Unfortunately I was unable to raise the pitch beyond a certain level. In that moment, I did try to remember all the abuses from ‘Delhi Belly’ and ‘Roadies’ but the freaking fury had clouded my memory. Meanwhile the other residents came and took the errant guard to task.

Having said that, I must add that IF the star was actually drunk in a public place, with the added responsibilities of a dozen odd kids, the brickbats were well deserved!



In any debate on television, condemnation or redemption should stem from conviction and factual knowledge. But does it always happen? Why are we so quick to pronounce verdicts? Is it because any controversy involving celebrities is our moment to snigger at the demigods of power?






Come to think of it, IPL is all about money and opportunism; regional pride is a sham. Else why would dada play for Pune Warriors and Bollywood Bad-Shah bat for Kolkatta? I fail to understand how Dhoni, a Ranchi lad, has come to symbolize Deccan pride? Just because he donned a veshti (or was it a yellow lungi?) in an advertisement?




And as I write an American citizen Zohal files a case against Luke, a RCB cricketer. Some say she is an 'easy catch' some say she is not 'wife material', some say she was used as a bait to malign RCB reputation...Who knows? What is probable is that she might get an offer from Mahesh Bhatt to star in Jism sequel...






Apart from sport, IPL has become a heady cocktail of booze, babes and bucks. Any entertainment event which thrives on big money attracts models, wannabes, fixers, rogue elements and powerful egos. Powerful egos invite drunken brawls. And juicy controversies.