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An Assault Utterly Uncalled For - Rajeev Masand
Courtesy: open magazine
At the opening night of one of Mumbai’s most popular theatre festivals recently, a debutante actress who made a powerhouse debut earlier this year in a unanimously acclaimed film got a taste of vintage Bollywood boorishness. The actress, who was seated at the same table as a mostly retired senior actor and director (who also happens to be the eldest son of a legendary actor-filmmaker), made polite conversation with the veteran before he launched into a verbal assault on her film, leaving the poor lady visibly shaken.
First the senior actor praised the young lady’s work in the film, then proceeded to dismiss the performance of both her male co-stars, insisting they delivered nothing one hadn’t seen before. But he reserved his choicest adjectives for the film itself, which he insisted was “slow” and “boring” and “moved at the pace of a snail”. Referring to a recent controversy involving the film’s failure to be selected as India’s Oscar entry, the senior star reportedly chided the by-now-horrified actress for all the “bickering” and “complaining” on part of the film’s makers in response to their failure to make the cut. “Why must be care about the Oscars? What’s the big deal?” he bellowed in full view of other guests at the star-studded event.
The veteran, known to enjoy a drink or two (or three or four) every evening, had clearly had a little too much by now, and once his grumbles grew louder, the traumatised actress politely excused herself on the pretext of needing to use the restroom... never to return.
