Elder Sister & Her Filmy Darlings

Elder Sister & Her Filmy Darlings

Of late, Tollywood actors have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. But then can one expect anything more from them? I had the misfortune to be drawn into a tele-film and one or two TV serial episodes in order to play myself when my own stories were being filmed and what I saw from close quarters was really sad. Barring a very few our Tollywood film population is a lot one tries to avoid. They bore one with their lack of grey matter and at the same time they frighten one with their inordinate ambitions and greed. They’ll do anything to get a role, sign a contract, make more money or put down a rival actor or actress.

Unfortunately they feel a Wiccan can help them achieve any or all of their goals.  They pursue me---sometimes openly and more often with wile and guile so that their rivals won’t get wind of it. These days when one of the breed phones me---I airily say, ‘wrong number’. I really can’t take it anymore!

What amazes me is how and why a certain lady chief minister pampers them and molly coddles them. At important political rallies they look very sweet, the little, or not so little poppets, sitting prettily on the stage while the chief minister strides around, flapping a white shawl, looking on with pride at the dollies---both male and female. They touch her feet. When asked to, they sing. Elder sister holds hands with them and sways to the music. Sometimes one of them even kisses her on the top of her head and she blushes purple. I believe they draw in the crowds. But does she need them so much? Where’s her own confidence? Can’t she and her own team bring on the masses without the Tollywood Barbies? 

The saddest sight is at Delhi and the Parliament. These poor mites can’t speak a word. They need direction, my lovelies. Direction. You see they had been given tickets to contest the General Elections and due to Bengal’s misfortune, they won a seat to Parliament. But what happens next? They get nice little quarters on South Avenue, they get their substantial salaries but-----they can’t pronounce a word when it comes to bringing up an issue or representing their state. After all, there is no director here, saying  ‘’Action’’  and ‘’Cut’’. These players and performers from the Tollywood entertainment world cut  pathetic figures in Delhi. Poor things. But I’d say they’ve been shoved into this predicament by their mentor, and elder sister in Kolkata. Maybe she felt they would be easier to handle having very little matter up in the head---but is this good for Bengal? We are being laughed at. Isn’t it bad enough that the lady CM is called ‘mad’? Goodbye to the good name we once had for being the intellectuals of the land.

I just remembered a well-known make-up artist once said recently that it’s hard to make the dollies look intelligent. It’s well nigh impossible. Won’t elder sister help? One request. That’s all. Don’t send them to Delhi. I blush for them.