caa demonstrations

Attended two rallies yesterday.

At azad maidan to talk to some protestors. Met some young people ( students), and some elderly people ( could have been students of jnu, but since this is mumbai, I knew they weren't). Asked them what issue they were protesting against, and as expected, they had no clue. They seemed happy shouting slogans. (some had seen my 5 seconds role in dabhang 3, so they took selfies with me). I call this picnic activism.

Also attended the rally at August kranti maidan. Declined invitations to come and sit in the front and sat at the back with the crowd. Talked to a few people. Even they didn't seem to know exactly what they were supporting. ( took selfies with me, inspite of having seen me in movies).

Gave interviews to scores of people who recorded on their moblle phones. And then to all the TV channels, who were looking to talk to only familiar faces. Next to me was a learned professor, next was a law student, I asked the channels to talk to them but even media just wants known faces. That's such a shame. 

This is the gist of my observations.

1) taking out rallies is futile. Everyone supporting or opposing ( more so if you are opposing) must study the issue, talk to knowledgeable people, find out legality, morality etc by doing a deeper study. Just joining demonstrations, holding placards made by someone else and shouting slogans is not enough. That's picnic activism.

2) government should have sense to communicate to everybody rather than just passing laws. In advertising we do pre and post research before launching an ad campaign. Here you are dealing with major issues.

3) media should realize that celebrities are not knowledgeable in everything. Film stars and directors are mostly ignorant about things which are out of their fields. So talk to educationists, lawyers, people who study these issues. Don't take quotes from idiots like Arundhati Roy who say things for self publicity and make sub-juvenile , childish h statements like lie in your forms and say your names are ranga an billa ( criminals who were convicted for kidnap and murders of innocent young siblings  in delhi). Ignore her. There are millions of sensible people in this country, you don't need hair brained idiots to comment on serious national issues.

People like anurag kashyap are small time directors, they know how to make films ( if at all). When he publicly calls a democratically elected p m of the country, deaf, dumb, Nazi and then says that this government is fascist and intolerant, he forgets that if it really was intolerant and fascist, he would be in jail  by now, at best. So don't talk to them just because they are known faces.

3) I am not fully supporting caa. I think as swargiya balasaheb thakreay had said 20 years ago, we are a poor, developing country. We have a large section of people who are under poverty line, we have problems of basic needs like food, water, shelter and jobs for our existing citizens. Our farmers are committing suicides. We can't afford  the luxury of humanitarianism towards additional refugees. In crores. We shouldn't take anyone, Hindus, Muslims or any other religions. First provide for  our existing  citizens and then show humanitarian magnanimity.

All in all an evening we'll spent. 

satyadev dubey

satyadev dubey died. i never worked with him , but many of my actors , harish patel , vihang nayak , mohan bhandari , and some friends like ambarish puri , came from his stable , so to say . i had difficulties , initially , to break them into my kind of theatre . where you pause when audience laughs , and don't treat them like a fourth wall, as dubey had taught them . for dubey theatre was god , to me audience is . two extremes and yet we got along well . to my surprise , he loved bottoms up .said it had more experiments in it than most experimental theatres had . he saw all versions of bottoms up . liked them ( he was frank enough to say it if he didn't ) . i saw some of his plays . didn't understand them , didn't like them (wasn't frank enough to tell him ) . but always admired his conviction and commitment to theatre . there are not many like him . hats off dubeyji !. he will be happy in heaven , when he meets a few people like him . he never needed a big audience , just a few like-minded people ,and a few like me , who didn't understand his plays but understood him .

maharashtra politics

A lot of people have been asking me about my take on what's happening in maharashtra politics. 

We need to take a step back and take an overview of our state politics and leaders. 

I was a huge admirer of balasaheb thackeray and was quite close to him. I used to meet him quite frequently , every year  at the celebration of , what we called ,his punarjanmadiwas ( the day he had his by pass surgery), and othereise at matoshree. I used to be amazed at the sway he held over the masses without stepping out of his house for so many years. ( i dont know of any other leader who could do that year after year).

I have seen udhhav as a reluctant politician, who grew tremendously as an astute politician and managed ,quite successfully ,to fill the huge shoes of balasaheb and steer shiv sena successfully to victory in  elections after elections  ,in spite of desertions of many stalwarts. 

I have known raj for many years and used to regularly have the most delicious breakfast at his house when i was helping him in preparing the photobiography of balasheb .i still think that after modi ,he is one of the best contemporary orators i have heard. 

I have seen aditya since he was a young boy ( he used to love my red toyota high lux surf car and always used to say he wanted a car like that  ) i have seen him grow extremly well ,through his university days and now plunging into active pilitics at state level. He is young, ,intellegent ,well spoken and should do well .

As a well wisher , i sincerely feel that shiv sena shouldnt straightaway catapult him into the cm s chair .( thats the same mistake sonia gandhi has made with rahul  .putting him straight on top without letting him learn the ropes ). Aditya should be given a smaller ministry ,so he learns how to handle the opposition ,the politics and power games within his own party and coalition parties ,the tight rope walk with the beurocracy which is quite a task, and then with that experience in hand ,get into bigger things. 

I worked very closely with shri pruthviraj chauhan when he was a cm. Used to have meetings with him regularly at varsha. He is an extremely intelligent and well educated politician. A submarine expert from the u s etc. Extremely hard working ( would work till 2 am every night ),and a very pleasant personality. Half his tome went in warding off effirts to dislodge him by his own party leaders. 

Shri sushilkumar shinde ,i have known for many years and know that his life story is what legends are made of. Rising from nothing to hold some of the highest posts in the country ,with sheer determination and hard work . Extremely pleasant and with amazing organisational skills. ( he came for one of my plays and said he had also done lead roles in marathi plays, in his younger days.) 

Suddenly the media is projecting sharad pawar as a larger than life political leader in maharashtra. And we need to apply a bit of logic here .

He has been in state and national politics for nearly 50 years. He started his ncp ,because he refused to accept Sonia gandhi ,a foreigner according to him at that time ,as a leader .( Thats the NATIONALISTIC in the N of ncp ),but soon enough he ate a humble pie and worked under her and her party at national and state levels. 

As far as maharashtra goes ,he has been a multi time chief minister and headed other ministiries for nearly forty years. 

In 1980 when bjp had some 10 or 15 seats ,his party had 55 seats. Today when bjp has 105 seats ,ncp has managed just one extra seat at 56 .

One seat extra after 40 years. That doesnt speak well of any giant state leadership.

So lets think logically  and not get swayed by media hypes. 

My only worry is that even if bjp and shiv sena finally form the government, next five years are going to be more acrimonious that the last five years. 

And thats worrisome for our maharashtra.