The Good, The Bad and The Celebrity

It is amusing to realize how easily, at times, we start believing. How quickly we start idolizing. How passionately we start revering what we find enigmatic. And it amazes me to see how casually senses override sensibility, as belief transforms into idolization, idolization metamorphoses into passion and passion evolves into hysteria.  

In this age of steadily changing society dominated by people who are promptly awed by achievement and glory, fame is bliss. Almost regardless of where it stems from, it is a drug that addicts like nothing. For, it takes some giving to rise to the cynosure of all eyes and when you’re atop the precipice, a whole new world beckons you.

It is equally astounding to realize the number of ‘celebrities’ we have in our midst today. From the gaunt sportsman to the macho movie star, from the rising neta to the sensuous actress, from the legendary singer to the haughty soap vamp and from the wealthy businessman to the renowned artist, everybody is a ‘star’. And they are all around- Page 3 updates, drawing room chats, breaking news, friendly gossips, invading all parts of a common man’s everyday life. If you possess the much desired and envied ‘X-factor’, you have it in you to make it to the pinnacle of stardom.

Exactly WHO/WHAT is a ‘celebrity’? Technically, it should imply someone we ‘celebrate’. But what really is it in a ‘star’ that we tend to glorify? Flatly, it is merely what we perceive- the mesmerizing charisma of a Shah Rukh or a Salman, the sizzling figure of a Kareena or Katrina, the Hulk-ian frame of a John or a Hrithik and the captivating beauty of an Aishwarya or a Priyanka. Our precocious image of these demigods of tinsel town is only a function of the persona they wield on the celluloid.

Sure, these titans may have made it big on the silver screen, incessantly redefining stardom as we know it. But what we sub consciously neglect in our whim of frenzy and fanfare is whether they justify their celebrity stature out of the cinematic reel.

While these ‘performers’, let’s say, constantly amuse us by portraying the adorable lover boy ‘Rahul’, the girl next door ‘Simran’, the sturdy hero ‘Vijay’ and the valiant revolutionary who rises against crime on screen, their behavior turns out to be quite antagonistic out of it. These big screen heroes of ours turn out to be proponents of various social malaise  involved in ugly scams, shoddy court cases and notorious scandals. They are accused of resorting to malicious ways of gaining popularity/unprecedented achievement, instant sensationalism and attempting to rewrite history books in ink- once and for ever. But once the cookie crumbles, the journey from the zenith of glory to the abyss of oblivion is made at the fall of a hat. In reality, however there are only a few ‘heroes’, those who carry their onscreen magnanimity into the real world, away from lights and camera, even after ‘pack up’. Who stand for what they show and speak.

In this nation of a billion, with its typical paradoxes and poverty amidst plenty, only a few make it really BIG. Those who do must therefore make sure they give back to the society.

My favorite Superhero lives by the dictum-

“With great power, comes great responsibility.”

It is a responsibility to justify stardom and live up to the expectation of those millions who look up to them to the heights of fanaticism and euphoria. For- ‘if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an idea and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely- a Legend.’