Will is the key to all that we do imagine and conceive Big B

Jalsa , Mumbai     Sep 2 , 2011           Fri  11: 57 PM

Will is the key to all that we do imagine and conceive. Will it and it shall appear. Will it and it shall happen. Will it and something will give. But will it. Do not pretend that you have willed. Do not just say that you have willed when inside you know that you have not. Willing is not an easy task. The strength of your conviction, the strength of your sense and the strength of your import, counts the most.

I shall will it if there is reason enough to use its propensity. I shall will it if it were to be utilized for a common cause - or really for a cause not mine. That would be a more pragmatic view. One that would not smell or stink of selfish desire. Indeed I wish if i could will it for someone else all the time. The satisfaction that it would give me would make amends for all the wrongs that I may have indulged in.

Yes my condition on the chest is bad - I seem to have lost my voice completely. A husky whisper is all that I am able to muster. And as I rise in the darkness of the early morn, the one thought that gives me concern is the worth of my work that is follow for the day. It is not my own condition that alarms me, it is my commitment to the job that I have been contracted for. Home and hearth insist that I remain back and rest and medicate myself. I do. Not stay back but do medicate. But work I must. And so I leave and so I envelope myself in my work and so I make effort to deliver. May not be the amount that I would have liked to but still, deliver in some form. It is not my best that I can do under the circumstances, but it is something that I can do and have done ! It is not the quality of the work that matters, it is the desire to complete an assignment undertaken. Yes there shall be arguments that shall be contrary to what I write, but in the end the world will have to be seen from a perspective that caters to all and not just one. Its the ‘boxing ring’ effect which I have often described in my earlier posts. Many shall scream and shout and advise and direct and give their own version of how the guy they back inside the ring needs to defend or fight. But they are not the ones inside, they are outside without any gloves, without an opponent. I am the one inside. I am the one getting hit. I am the one that shall need to fight back and defend myself, to asess and deploy my own strengths to ward off an attack.

I shall always find myself in that situation. And all others that sympathize with me shall always find themselves in their own situation. You will cheer and love and promote and wish, but I shall have to fight for it to all come true - if at all it does !!

Ok enough of ‘gyaan’ given … ha ha ha !! Time to listen to some of the saner voices that trouble me from the inside …

” get to sleep they say” ! I think that that is a wise decision !!

My love to all of you and more …

Amitabh Bachchan

There is something so mesmerizing about the Godfather Big B

Jalsa , Mumbai  Sept 1, 2011     Thu  11 : 54 PM

There is something so mesmerizing about the ” Godfather ” that even after so many years of its making and release, it still remains fresh and attractive every time you see it. On a rare off day today, I remained that lazy unperturbed bird, curled up on a couch and back to back watched the Godfather Series - perhaps a version which was the directors cut and so a longer version and having scenes that were not seen before.

I remember the first time I saw the film. It was in England long after its release. Those days the film releases from USA did not arrive in India for months. Salim Sahab and Javed Sahab were with me in London for a short break during the shooting of ‘Sholay’ and we were desperate to see the film at the first opportunity. Some time had elapsed since its release and it was not running in any theater in the city. We discovered that a nearby town was screening the film in a small unknown theater and we caught a train to get to the venue to catch the film. It was spell binding ! It is one of those films that remain with you for eternity - Godfather, Gone with the Wind, Kaagaz ke Phool, Limelight - just their mention brings so many moments back to us.

The selection of the players in each Part of Godfather, the locations and the performances simply flawless. And even today decades later there is still so much to learn from them. One imagines that with the passage of time, craft and technique would age and become stale or irrelevant. But no, not a single frame or performance or moment in the film seems like it can be replaced with anything better. No never. And that really is the truth about classics.

And the funny part is that after viewing an impressionable film or series, you begin to get so involved in them that you actually start behaving attitudinally like the characters in the film .. Ha ha ..

So right now I may be typing out a quick message for the Post on the blog, anxious about getting to bed soon for the KBC shoot tomorrow, but you live with Vito Corleone and Michael and Brando and deNiro and Pacino - your walk your attitude and your speech suddenly acquire the likes of the greats above, much to the consternation and surprise of the staff, who wonder whether it was better that ‘Saab’ had gone to work than have stayed back in the house !!!

I must retire. I know that I have been inconsequential in my content these past few days, but my timings have gone somewhat out of control and as soon as I can gather them up, I shall be more concentrated and collected and perhaps more expansive ..

Till then .. my love with you and my thoughts …

Amitabh Bachchan