THE NASEERUDDIN-AZHARUDDIN SYNDROME
When I first saw him in his debut movie Nishant in
1975, I became his huge fan. He went on to do many such stellar roles in what
was called in those days as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema. I watched almost all
of those movies and continued to be his fan. To list all of them would be a
tedious task. To name just a few, Baazar, Albert Pinto ko Gussa kyun aata hai
and Sparsh come to my mind immediately.
He slowly made the move to commercial roles and no
one held any grudge against him for it. Jaane Bhi do Yaaron is still one of the
all-time best comedy movies in Hindi cinema. We loved him even in his negative
roles in Mohra, Mirchi Masala, Sarfarosh etc. I think I saw him last in 2005 in
Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal as a drunk disillusioned cynical character. Looks like
Naseeruddin Shah has not come out of that character.
Moving on to another icon of his day. It is rightly
said Cricket is the religion of India. Anyone who helps the Indian team perform
well is treated as God. So it is natural that when he made his debut in 1984 and
scored a century each against England in the first three tests he played, India,
if not the world, was at his feet. His flick off the hips to square leg was as
beautiful to watch as the square cut through covers played by his illustrious
predecessor Gundappa Vishwanath. His lightning reflexes during fielding, pick
up and throw in one action and hitting the stumps more often than not, won him
fans all over.
As a fellow Hyderabadi, I was really proud of
Mohammad Azharuddin. He continued his good run and went on to become the
Captain of the Indian Cricket Team, the ultimate wish of any aspiring
cricketer. We were happy that coming from a very humble background, he made a
fortune for himself the hard way.
Alas, at the end of the 20th century, the
man who scored 22 centuries became a victim of the menace of match fixing. Most
of us initially believed he was innocent. When some committee found him guilty,
we felt sorry for him but still loved him for his contribution to Indian cricket.
Unfortunately, his bright career ended abruptly.
Films, Cricket – so what next. Obviously politics. The three elements without
which the average Indian’s life is incomplete.
In a surprising turn of events, Azharuddin decided to
(or was convinced to) join politics. What is even more surprising is his choice
of the constituency. Not Hyderabad where he was born and brought up but far
away Moradabad in UP. That’s his privilege. One of his first statements after
that made us realize that here is a politician who has come of age. He said he
was targeted in the match fixing scandal because of his religion! For the
record, two others whose career also ended because of the scam were Ajay Jadeja
& Manoj Prabhakar. Coincidentally, nearly 50% of Moradabad’s population
happens to be Muslim. His statement was to be taken in that context.
After receiving all the love and adulation for almost
45 years, Naseeruddin Shah realized yesterday that he cannot live in India as a
Muslim!
One can be critical of the ruling party, criticize
their actions all you want and one cannot question them for doing so.
But what is this syndrome of suddenly identifying
yourself with your religion and imagine you are being persecuted because of
that?
Their fans were least concerned which religion they
belonged to, until they mentioned it.
So should we identify them with their performances or
with their religion? Choice is theirs.
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