Mansi

A friend sent me this link (http://spaces.msn.com/members/mangalpandey) sometime this week. I got to viewing the page this morning and in response to his email, a flurry of thoughts hit me all at once - which is often a sign that I need to blog.
The subject is Aamir Khan and he seems to regard his 'space' as a medium through which he can keep in touch/interact/respond to his fans. What we get to read in Aamir's responses are his perception of being a 'star' - actor - albeit in my opinion grossly misunderstood - Nevertheless his attempt to connect with his audience / fans ( not sure which is which in his mind) is laudable.

Before I get into the 'slurry of thoughts', let me quickly add that in no small measure, it does delight me to view this page. There is nothing like an opportunity to connect with an artist - in this case Aamir Khan - at some point, I will get to see Mangal Pandey and hopefully then will have my two-bit thrill in commenting on his 'space'.
In the larger context, this is one more door open in to the cultural space of film-making. All of us indulge in the performing arts and with films in particular, sadly, there is a huge disconnect between the artists and the audience. This is, in my opinion, largely due to media companies that monopolize the bridge of communication between film makers and their audiences.
In all art experiences, both the artist and the audience have a meaningful exchange in store that in turn fuels the cycle of art. Enter the media, TV channels, newspapers and magazines, and any 'meaning' towards the former exchange is seriously compromised. In such a scenario, the ability then to connect with Aamir Khan, an actor in the movie Mangal Pandey is quite thrilling - a renaissance of a lost connection - a resurrection of sorts and a restoration of means. While we do have virtual media facilitating the exchange ( MSN), it is far less intimidating than traditional film and paper media houses. So, Mangal Ho! to such opportunities.

Moving on....

If journalism (traditional media houses) sat on one end of a spectrum, Blogging, in my opinion, sits at the other extreme. While bloggers tend to confuse the two (in search of journalistic fame), in my mind, blogging is and can never be journalistic (and thank god for that!)in culture. It's kinda like juxtaposing justice against law. While the latter is the formalized medium to achieve the former, such is not necessarily the outcome. Over years of formalized practice, sometimes we find the business of law can be as far away as possible from the execution of justice.
Similar is the case with blogging and journalism.
Blogging is a medium by which readers get an insight into the blogger. It is governed by a personal morality that within reasonable definition rings true across humanity. Unlike journalism and their presumed sense of morality (all show, no go) it is rarely that you will come across a blog where you are unable to understand the underlying morality map.
Another example to illustrate the divide: American Idol vs INXS Rock star ( tacky name) - - While the former sells an 'IDOL' - somebody that takes on different hues in our media-glazed minds - the resolution of the show isn't necessary. Any one of the contestants could be Idol and we'd not care beyond a certain short time frame - BECAUSE the manipulation is being metered inside our heads. It's like a lullaby, babies don't really get it about the cradle rocking and the baby falling ( how traumatic that one!!!) but it still gets them to sleep. Contrast A.Idol with the INXS Rockstar ( if ever a tacky name in recent television history was created....!!!) where there isn't anything on sale. It's real and performance nights (the only nights I watch) is like going to a rock show (and hating the fact that it's on TV). I will not compare individual performances (Rockstar is far far superior!!!!) but then again, that isn't what seperates the two shows. It's the packaging of cultural intent - glaringly all icing in the former, and simply meat balls in the latter.

At Aamir's space, I was immediately slapped by the Mangal Pandey promotion theme. I was saddened to understand the motive of his 'space' - Promoting Mangal Pandey while connecting with fans/audience. Once that objective registered and was promptly dismissed ( I am not going to rush to watch Mangal Pandey), I got to the 'blogging' part of Aamir's 'Space'.

The ability to blog gives readers an insight into the blogger - Aamir Khan - and to me, he reflects a misconstrued sense of public responsibility.

What does it mean to be a 'star'? Often we see our Bollywood actors pained by their 'star' status. Some of them spend all their spare time in public demanding that they be spared their privacy (No, not their name (a la Crucible) - just their privacy). To me, this is often hillarious. After years of living off steets, friends and spouces, they 'make it' in a career in public entertainment which to me seems like the most personal and most private choice they've ever made. Once here, most of them seem completely inept at understanding themselves, their roles or their career environment. This is often because Aamir the actor becomes Aamir the star.
What is a 'star'? Were I to say that most actors cannot command their starship in any direction whatsoever, it would be a gross understatement. The list of crash-outs are plenty : Sanjay Dutt, Shakti Kapoor, Salman Khan....

Here again in Aamir's 'space' we are treated to one too many servings of misplaced gratitute and holy patriotism. In response to a fan's comment that Aamir is Hollywood material, he akins Bollywood to nothing short of a holy institution. (excuse me???)
Why does Aamir Khan have to assume any 'star' responsibility? Why does he need to handle his fans with kid gloves? Why wasn't he talking to us about his experience of Mangal Pandey, the production woes, the marketing woos??
HEY - you might interrupt - A guy can do only what a guy can do - look, you point out, at the kind of hero-worship comments on the site ..... how can Aamir respond any differently?
There in lies the problem. After years of monopolized bridges, the disconnect is now a deep divide. Even when we do get to communicate with artists, it seems like we're shouting at each other across the grand canyon. And if any of you are familiar with the 'suicide point' experience, the most powerful words are always 'I love you'. So there we are, at it, screaming words of adoration and praise, simply because we aren't sure when we'll ever get to do that again. We're not sure when the channel of communication will be severed again and all we'll have left is NDTV and Stardust!

Serious dialogue on the culture of films and film making will need to adopt informal channels such as blogs. Traditional media will need to be shunned like an untouchable for the damage they have and still continue to wreck on society at large is immense. I don't necessarily mean that all of traditional media is bad or worthless. All I want to stress on is that on more occasions than one, traditional media has transgressed our collective personal justice and worser still they seem to be getting away with it.

With informal media on the rise, we will be able to save the Aamirs and the Aamir audience and in the process re-invigorate the culture of cinema.