Rajesh Khanna

The actor for whom the word superstar was coined. He ruled the roost in the early 70s when nothing could go wrong for him. He was the man with the Midas touch. The song Mere Sapno ki Raani from Aradhna almost became the national anthem of the country. He gave a succession of jubilee hits. With one shake of his head he created a sensation and with a blink of his eyes he made an entire generation of women swoon. He was a phenomenon.  

But as we ride on the wave of success, we forget that we are mortals. We begin to feel that we are supernatural. We consider others as inferiors. We become dictators keeping everybody on tenterhooks. As long as we don’t lose the Midas touch, others bear with us. But silver clouds have a dark lining too. The golden touch gradually begins to ease, the euphoria fades, the hits turn to flops, the same movement of the head becomes torturous to see, the descent is swifter than the ascent, and soon the superstar finds that there is no demand for him.

Kaka in his superstardom-ness forgot that it was the public who had given him so much elevation. That same public dumped him when his egoistical ways became too much to handle. No one should get bigger than his boots; that’s the message we get from his life.

Even though Khanna couldn’t manage his superstar status, as long as he was riding the crest, he was way above all; there was nothing like him before and there has been nothing like him after. 
- NZ
31.10.2019
BN: 174



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