Life at 60 : No Retirement At The Age Of Retirement

In My Office at Vidur’s Kreating Charakters

MUMBAI – MAHARASHTRA – INDIA           DECEMBER 17 , 2012           11.59 P.M.

Yesterday I got a call from my younger brother , Atul  . He was calling from Lucknow and reminded me that today I would be completing 60 years of my existence . Tomorrow 61st year will start and according to government rule , it is time to retire and take rest .

I was bemused . It suddenly dawned on me that all my childhood friends are now leading a retired life and are busy in asinine activities with their grand-children .

Today , when I returned from my acting institute , I got a call from my younger brother , Devesh . He was calling from Jabalpur and he too gently reminded me that it is very important day of my life and now it is time to slow down .

Throughout the day I got calls and messages from my nephews and nieces . Their calls were also a silent and wordless reminder that they have grown up and yes , I am getting old . Or I am rather old .

Life at 60 is definitely different .

It is the time when you become feeble and vulnerable .

It is the time when any uncouth , uncultured and abusive upstart can abuse and threaten you with impunity .

It is the time when you are looking for help , another muscular accomplice keeps a vigil at the door , so that you can’t get any timely succour .

It is the time when you would like to react but have no physical strength to fight or even oppose the brute , his accomplice and his factotum .

It is the time when a person , unworthy of even becoming your peon or a scavenger in your house , can sent you an abusive message on facebook and you have to behave stoically because you are unable to give a tight slap on his abominable face .

It is the time when people working for you and who are family , can be abused and beaten up , and you are unable to protect them and you have to look the other way .

It is the time when you can be called fake by some people who are themselves unscrupulous and unethical .

It is the time when all the credits are usurped and blames are put on your door-steps.

I laughed at turning 60 . When my friends and peers are leading a retired life , I am waging a relentless struggle for my survival .

When my class-mates are leading peaceful life and enjoying fruits of their hard-earned money , I have to wager my house and other belongings and start my professional life from scratch .

When people of my age are playing with their grand children , I am risking my existence , my reputation and 23 years of my life as an acting trainer , tutor or whatever you can call me , and trying to shield myself from continuous and unabated onslaught of a brute , his accomplice and his factotum .

And then I remember phone calls of my brothers . Is it really a day to plan retirement ? Is it time to call it a day ?

No , my work is not over yet . I have to wager my existence , my whole life and prepare for a new Mahabharat . Sound of Krishna‘s Panchajanya is reverberating in my mind . His voice beseeching relentless war against lie and untruth is filling my psyche . As I am writing this blog Robert Frost’s lines are coming to soothe my frayed tempers :

My horse must think it queer ,

To stop without a farm-house near ,

Between the woods and frozen lake ,

The darkest evening of the year .

The woods are lovely dark and deep ,

But I have promises to keep ,

And miles to go before I sleep ,

And miles to go before I sleep !!

I know that I am in minority but I know that I am not alone . Conspirators have their accomplices but I have my benefactors . Children of a lesser God stood with me in my darkest hour . Apart from these 6 people shown in the photograph , 2 more have joined me in my was against lie and injustice .

Children Of A Lesser God

Bhishma Pitamah stood to fight , when he was 120 years old . I am half his age . Time is not yet ripe for retirement .

Krishna fought when he was in minority . Chankya fought when was alone . But they defeated mightiest of armies .

I thank all my extended family at Vidur’s Kreating Charakters for standing with me . At the age of 60 , when I have become feeble and vulnerable , they stood with me , became my shield , braced all the hardships , worked without money and still they never complained .

I have to re-pay their debt . So even though government decides to retire people at the age of 60 , I won’t be able to take this luxury .

Battle goes on . The Saga still continues .

VIDUR

MUMBAI – MAHARASHTRA – INDIA

www.vidur.co.in

www.kreatingcharakters.net

www.vidurfilms.com

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www.twitter.com/VidurChaturvedi

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I (dont) Hate (such) Luv Storys

As I am writing this blog, I am confronted with a strange fact. I started my twitter account on June 17th, 2009 and till date I have only 83 followers. Its one year now. But Mr. Amitabh Bachchan started tweeting on May 18th, 2010 and he has 2,16,425 followers. Its has been only 46 days. The fact of the matter is that he started his journey on twitter almost 1 year after me. I am not cribbing, or voicing my anguish. I am just stating a fact. This twitter account statistic shows that I have yet to cover a long distance. It shows that I am just a speck in the universe as for as success is concerned. This is fact and I am ready to accept that.

But everything is not that gloomy. There are few occasions to celebrate here and there. Sometimes there is a news to cherish.and rejoice. And today as ” I HATE LUV STORYS” releases in the theatres worldwide , I am feeling that kind of happiness. It is very important film for me. Its main protagonists – Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor and Sammir Dattani are my students. Its director Punit malhotra, who is nephew of Mr. Manish Malhotra, is my student too. The music director Shekhar Ravjiani of Vishal-Shekhar duo, is also a student of mine. When you have 5 students in one film and that too almost in every important departments, it’s definitely a proud moment for a trainer.

PUNIT MALHOTRA : This well-behaved nephew of ace designer Mr. Manish Malhotra, was my student years ago. At that time he was assisting Mr. Karan Johar and was dreaming to make it big as an actor. He assisted Mr. Karan Johar in ” KABHIE KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM “. Then he was assistant in ” KAL HO NA HO “ and ” PAHELI “ also. After that he became a model and did one ad with Mr. Shah Rukh Khan. He was working hard to become an actor but Mr. Karan Johar gave him an offer to direct a film. I advised him to put aside his dream of becoming an actor for the time being and take the plunge . He started scripting and as soon as script was complete, ” I HATE LUV STORYS “ rolled. It got completed and got released on July 02, 2010. It created a lot of positive buzz and Punit’s career as a director is launched. I am happy for the newest director of Hindi film industry.

SONAM KAPOOR : I trained her during ” SAAWARIYA ” days.  I was already training Ranbir Kapoor at that time. He mentioned my name to Mr. Anil Kapoor and one day I got a call from him. I went to meet Mr. and Mrs. Anil kapoor and soon started training Sonam. She is an accomplished Kathak dancer and worked really hard for ” SAAWARIYA “. It’s unfortunate that film tanked badly and got bad press. But Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor were praised for their acting skills. Sonam’s second film ” DELHI 6 ” also tanked and it was sad to see this beautiful girl’s efforts not bearing fruits. Fortunately ” I HATE LUV STORYS ” will change the scenario.

SAMMIR DATTANI : I used to go to his Malabar Hills apartment to train him. In those early years of my career I had a Bajaj Super scooter and I used to commute on it. From Andheri to Malabar Hills, it was a tiring ride , but I used to go to his place because of the tremendous respect which his whole family has for me. He started working in Kannada film and made his debut in ” NANNA PRITIYA HUDUGI ” in 2001. Film was a smash hit and launched Sammir in the Kannada industry . He is known there as DHYAN. After that he worked in couple of Kannada films, such as : ” MONALISA ” , ” JOOTATA “ and ” AMRUTHADHARE “. In the last mentioned film even Mr. Amitabh Bachchan played a cameo. Sammir worked in a Tamil film also. Its name is ” KUTTY ” . I have seen all his regional films as he used to have private screening of all his films in Mumbai and never ever forgot to invite me.

Then he was signed to play main lead in a Hindi film called ” UFF KYA JAADOO MOHABBAT HAI “. It was a Rajshri Production film and Sammir was signed for it along with 3 other new comers. Tanishaa was the female lead but later on she opted out of the film. I was assigned to train all of them and I started going to Rajshri’s office. By that  time I had Bajaj Pulsar and I was commuting on that. Film got released and was a damp squib at the box office. Undeterred Sammir signed another Hindi film ” PYAAR MEIN TWIST “ and after its release he thought that he needs some more modulation and voice training . He again called me and I started going to his place once again. Even after so many years, the warmth and respect of Sammir and his family was same for me. It is yet to diminish. Before IHLS , Sammir did some other  good films : ” CORPORATE ” , ” MUKHBIR “ and ” WELL DONE ABBA “ are some of them. His last one is my personal favourite. I was invited for the private screening of ” WELL DONE ABBA “. I went there in my car. So from a rickety Bajaj Super scooter to Bajaj Pulsar and now a Maruti Swift, my relationship with Sammir has seen all the shades and colours of my life.

SHEKHAR RAVJIANI : I got a call from an assistant of Mr. Aditya Chopra and was informed that I have to train Shekhar of Vishal-Shekhar duo. I started going to his  Khar apartment and worked with him. He is a talent music director and a charming human being. He is a good singer and has wonderful screen presence. He made me listen almost all the songs of  ” I HATE LUV STORYS “ and I knew that his score is going to top the charts. He used to work with me in the morning and worked on the  musical score of ” I HATE LUV STORYS “ in the night. Both the work were going on simultaneously. I am happy that I was privy to all the scores of this film even before the official release.

IMRAN KHAN : He is the only one among all the 5 , who is not my private student. He was in the regular batch and after completing his training left for U S A. I lost touch and years after, when he surfaced in Mumbai and made it big with ” JAANE TU YA JAANE NA ” , I am yet to make contacts with him. He is master of special effects and did many such things in the class. Once I made a remark about his voice and told him that he have to work on it. I have an inkling that he felt bad and resented my remarks. Though he didn’t show his displeasure. His subsequent films – ” LUCK ” and ” KIDNAP ” did not get success at the box office but I think he will touch gold with this film. Though his films as child artiste – ” QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK ” and  ” JO JEETA WOHI SIKANDER ” were more successful.

” I HATE LUV STORYS ” has been released with much fanfare and is getting all the positive bytes. I am happy at the moment and as I am about to retire for the day, I am going to sleep as a contented man but remembering these famous lines of American poet Robert Frost :.

The woods are lovely dark and deep ,

But I have promises to keep  ,

And miles to go before i sleep   ,

And miles to go before I sleep .

Vidur

Mumbai

http://www.vidur.co.in