Wasfia Jalali

New Delhi: She is known for taking 'politically incorrect' potshots at the who's who of politics, business, Bollywood and what not!

As writer and columnist, Shobha De, dons the mantle of an author for the fifteenth time, she takes upon the task of debating whether India can yet be accorded the superstar status, or the failings of this nation are still too many to outnumber its achievements.

She doesn't spare anybody, including the national capital, going to the extent of calling it a "hydra-headed monster" that "remote-controls the rest of the country" and "a symbol of the corruption and rot that have destroyed the image of India".

However, she sounds a little soft on Raj Thackeray, not on the ugly 'migrant' debate he has stirred in India's economic capital, but on the average Mumbaikars' concern about the over-burdened condition of their city.

"Even though I am entirely pro-free movement, and condemn balkanization of any kind, may be Raj Thackeray had a point. Pity, he didn't make it convincingly enough. In the bargain he triggered off a national debate on 'outsiders in our midst'," she writes.

Though she had no sympathy for Raj Thackeray and his movement, but an understanding of the issue he has raised, De claims.

"You have to be in Mumbai to understand the rage if there is any," De said, while in the capital to release her book recently.

From Mumbai to Bollywood, the writer who has founded and edited popular magazines like Stardust, Society and Celebrity is completely floored by the unabashedly bold image dawned by Kareena kapoor in the recent Yash-Raj flick 'Tashan'.

The writer whose second novel 'Starry Nights' revolved around the story of a Bollywood starlet, would not look for inspiration beyond Kareena, if she were to write another novel with a Bollywood actress as a protagonist, she confesses.

"An intensely charming fourth generation Kapoor, Kareena has single handedly redefined the image of a woman in Indian films through her unapologetic mean role in 'Tashan'," she says, adding, her move has to a large extent "changed the paradigm of what Bollywood actresses should look like, beyond an object of desire".

De is equally impressed by the iconic status attained by Shahrukh Khan, and goes on to predict that the actor might be contemplating a stunt in politics.

"While Amitabh Bachchan flirted with politics and stepped out at the right time, Shahrukh's love affair is about to begin. Who knows you might see him contesting from UP on a Congress ticket," she says, adding, "he represents change and dynamism, and is hugely intelligent."

However she adds a word of caution to her prophesy and says, "Mind it, its just a prediction".

While the name of her latest book 'Superstar India-From Incredible to Unstoppable', may sound like a pompous raga of what she calls 'India's phenomenal journey from a pauper to superstar', it is however laced with an equal amount of salt and pepper.

The book, not only compares the wide disparities between India's growing middle class and the 'other-real' India, but also questions our attitude of showcasing to the outside world our recently acquired might, while ignoring the stark realties that exist in the hinterlands.

"The India we are lauding forms but a microcosm of this vast land. It is the India we want the rest of the world to see, because we are so damned ashamed of the other. We want to carefully crop out all those unflattering, ugly details that spoil the picture," she writes.

The author also calls Mayawati the inevitable future of India, which the 'real India' has been waiting for sixty long years.

"Well the rest of India- the 'real' India, as it has been classified, has been waiting for a Mayawati for sixty years. It wasn't about gender, unlike in America. It was about a person capable of galvanizing the masses and launching a movement," she writes.

Armchair intellectuals might be uncomfortable with the idea of Mayawati representing India's future, writes De, but, "for all we know, Mayawati will be just what the doctor ordered. Breath held, fingers crossed".

Source : PTI