Lata Khubchandani: “Salman Khan is our own ‘Dennis the Menace’”

He is our very own Dennis the Menace. The next sentence should naturally be ‘and who doesn’t love Dennis?’ That may lead the reader to assume I’m biased in Salman Khan’s favour. So, I’m not going to say that. Instead, let’s see if we can figure him out.

Salman Khan may not be the greatest actor around but he’s definitely the greatest star. And he’s become a star by merely being himself.

Salman is a bunch of contradictions put together. He’s kind, generous to a fault and loves having fun. Contradictorily, rub him the wrong way and he looks through you so emphatically that you may question your own existence (cases in point—Vivek Oberoi, Arijit Singh). An aside here—he does this only when you have been unfair to him. (Don’t we all?)

Salman is often accused of bullying his girlfriends…and he’s had several. This one really requires looking into. Salman naturally and spontaneously helps people he loves; he adopts them, imports them into his life and gives them the kind of care and attention one would give a beloved. What he may not have admitted to himself is that he expects loyalty in return. He thinks, unfortunately, that he’s doing it all for free. But, being human (pun definitely intended), there is the baggage of expectation lurking somewhere. Loving, sharing, caring comes naturally to him. Any psychologist will tell us, one can only give what one has, so Salman obviously has a lot of love to give. His girlfriends have felt his pulse very correctly, viz that Salman is a giver and an asset to have in one’s life. So, they string him along using him, all the time. When they take a wrong step or reveal themselves, he turns stormy. They in turn leave him, marry someone else and return to him when life gives them a raw mango which they find too sour. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, he accepts them back, relegates them to background scenery but continues helping them large-heartedly. Now he has no expectation of them, so they can’t hurt him.

The last one in this series of girlfriends has managed to surprise even the most hardened cynic. When she was a newcomer, he gave her career a massive boost, turned her into a star and gave her the status of his girlfriend. She got her career going. Then she met another star, fell in love. Now, everyone loves a lover and who can blame anyone for falling in love? In the process, she dumped Salman. This hurt Salman and shocked him along with everyone else but he’s too self respecting to show his hurt, so instead he taunted her every time he got an opportunity but let go of her. That merely ended up showing that he hadn’t gotten over her.

No one knew that her turn to get the raw mango would come so unexpectedly but it did. And what did she do? She returned to him. And what did he do? He let her in. No recriminations, no taunts nothing, only a couple of high profile films with himself, as gifts.

What is Salman Khan made of?

Is this the hardened, bad boy who looks out only for himself ?Or is he a sucker for love? How does one decide ?

Here the balance tips in his favour; he comes across as a little boy who is looking for love and willing to give everything in return. There are other stars who give and are known for their generosity, the difference being they give off their largesse, but Salman gives off himself, so he hurts. And that makes him mad.

For those who came in late, Salman has inherited the writing gene from his father and is also a script writer himself (Baaghi, Chand ka Tukda). He is a talented painter. Pursuits such as these suggest anything but frivolity. He never tom-toms these talents.

To come to the latest problem in his life—for anyone who knows him, his being in jail would hurt him intensely, mostly because his mother cannot bear her son being in this situation. And he adores his mother. He would do anything to save her pain, instead he gets the doubtful honour of causing her pain. He famously continues to live in a one-room apartment just to be near his parents.

Most adult problems have their source in childhood. As a child Salman was often the butt of his father’s strictness, always reprimanded and told that he was a good-for-nothing. Till date his comfort level with his mother is obvious; not so with his father.

Salman at 52 has learnt enough about himself to know that he cannot be diplomatic, he cannot pretend, he cannot act. And for an actor, that is some awareness. That’s why the adulation he gets from fans is for himself alone. He comes across on screen as three dimensional—real. There’s nothing put-on about him. At his age he has not learnt the art of deception. So, if someone hurts him, he gets hurt. He must be hurt at the silence of the other four actors who were with him on that fateful night of the shooting but again being the person he is, he swallows it and remains quiet. For a bad boy that quality is one to be appreciated.

Even observers of the case feel that the other four stars should be asked what was their contribution to the episode that night, so, it is but natural that he must be feeling that too but he keeps his own counsel because they are friends and he believes in loyalty. Again, that may not make him the greatest actor but it makes him something else-that is indefinable The starry aura that he carries doesn’t come merely through stardom. It has been earned through living.

Lata Khubchandani is among India’s best known journalists on Bollywood, and has interviewed possibly every big star over the last several decades. The views expressed are her own