Rejoice, All Ye Who Struggle

On the not-so-shocking exit of Shamita Shetty from films

Among the earth shattering events of the last one week, which included a hunger strike being given up in Haridwar without the courtesy of an idiotic excuse, the daylight murder of a crime journalist in Mumbai, an E coli epidemic in Europe threatening to spiral out of control, was also this: Shamita Shetty has quit Bollywood.

True, the earth did not tremble with muted grief, the oceans did not part with impotent rage and while it rained, it was not the skies weeping at Shamita taking up interior design. But it was also not as inconsequential as Twitter bullshitters say. Ms Shetty’s long pending and overdue exit affirms that while in this country you can, like Ramdev the Baba, with sheer persistence manage to sell anything, sometimes, just sometimes, there is such a thing called justice in the realm of the gods.

This country runs on the principle of the silver spoon: there are those who are born with a red carpet and there are those who have to suck and spit their way into life. In the first category would be all the young MPs with their crooked fathers, the star daughters and sons and sisters and brothers, and all the assorted young ones from all the leaders of assorted professions unto whose tender shoulders have been given the responsibility of managing this brave new world.

In the second category would be the rest of the unfortunate world, including the Amar Singhs and Dhirubhai Ambanis, who get their moral right for doing what they do from the fundamental inequity of success. When one such Shamita Shetty falls by the wayside, it is, therefore, time for rejoicement and not mockery.

It must also, however, be said that Bollywood is in fact more egalitarian than many other professions. You can force someone down people’s throats for a while, but you cannot do it forever. Salman Khan’s two brothers got the same breaks but are more or less feeding off him. Aamir Khan had a brother who didn’t make it good. There’s a reason you don’t remember Rajeev Kapoor from Ram Teri Ganga Maili despite his being from the first family of Bollywood.

Abhishek Bachchan gets a hit every five years and still gets into the movies of the best filmmakers in the business. Some silver spoons can feed for a long time.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

•