Still Reading Khan
Contents: Foreword. Author\'s Note. 1. X chromosome. 2. Mere pass maa hain. 3. Destiny\'s child. 4. Rough crossing. 5. City of angels. 6. Love in the times of stress. 7. Crafty moves. 8. Smacking lips and sizzling sex. 9. Acting pricey. 10. Very angry young man with dimples. 11. Ha ha hee hee. 12. I am the best. Ting tong. 13. Kabhi alvida na kehna. 14. The others. I. 15. The others. II.
From the Author\'s note: "Shah Rukh Khan is not a superstar because of his looks, or because he is the best actor we have or even because of the energy he has of a treadmill. Shah Rukh is a superstar because of his great connectivity. He becomes a member of your family. People don\'t go to see a Shah Rukh Khan film to watch a star perform; they go to see a family member succeed. He has the knack of making you feel that he lives with, that he is just an arm\'s length away. And he connects in the same way with a million people all over the world.
I don\'t think he even knows how that happened. I don\'t think he really worked towards it, because you can never work towards something like this. His stardom has to do with the fact that he becomes a part of you. There is a difference between awe and love. And he evokes love, not awe. That\'s what makes him the mega-star that he is.
I met the man almost eleven years ago when I was a cub reporter from "G" magazine. I don\'t really know when a mere acquaintance turned into friendship and when friendship turned into a special bond. But he has always been there for me and that\'s what really matters. Dates have no value with this man because Shah Rukh comes with no expiry date. Anyone who has encountered this phenomenon called Shah Rukh will vouch for that. This book is my journey with the man. Call it a travelogue, call it arresting happiness in pages, call it an attempt to catch times passed. Call it anything you wish. I am still trying to give it a name.
He\'s watchable, because he\'s fantastic. He\'s endearing, because he delivers. Every time people meet Shah Rukh, thy say, "Kitna dubla ho gaya hai". That\'s because his aura on screen is almost magical. He\'s such a big movie man; he\'s a big screen guy. You can\'t take that away from him. All five-foot, nine-inches of him with scruffy hair is the biggest, widest Mount Everest you\'ll ever see on screen. Looking at him on screen, and off screen, you realise how he just absorbs every bit of space celluloid has to offer.
When writing about a man like this, you start to wonder who the real Shah Rukh Khan is? Is he the the one who spends two hours in the loo because he likes his own space? Is he the one who likes toys more than his own son, or the one who says I\'ll be back in five minutes and returns five days later? Or is he the man who, when guests come to his house, spends more time dropping them to the door than greeting them in? Does the real Shah Rukh expose his soul when he plays with his dogs, his kids or talks to his wife? Or will you find him in the actor who\'d rather his film flops as long as he does not lose in his game of Pictionary? Does the real Shah Rukh want to own so much space because he felt the lack of it all through his childhood, or is his inherent need not to make a home for his family but a castle, because family is all he actually has?
I found so many Shah Rukh and lost so many in this process or reading him. An everlasting dichotomy, this man never stopped to amaze me in my travel with him. By far, he is both the most selfless and selfish man I have ever met in my life.
Whatever your claim on this man, one thing is for sure: In the pages that you are going to turn, you are in good company."
