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They too watch movies…
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Offbeat When political bigwigs want a break from the routine what do they do?
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Films fascinate (Top) “Shrek 3” and (below) “Indiana Jones — Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
As Barack Obama and John McCain won their expected official nominations at the Democratic and Republican Party conventions, the media breathlessly listed several tidbits on their personal lives and habits. One of the earliest movies which Obama had l
iked was “Born Free”, the story of a friendly lioness while McCain’s favourite was “Bambi”, all about a deer. As for current favourites, Obama listed “Shrek 3”, while the Republican nominee liked the latest Indiana Jones movie.
U.S. Presidents do watch movies. Former cowboy actor-turned-President, Ronald Reagan, continued to enjoy Westerns at the White House. Favourite actor? Of course, “Duke”, John Wayne. John Kennedy loved James Bond movies though he also watched with interest serious political movies such as “Seven Days in May” (Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas) which dealt with an unsuccessful bid by the armed forces to take over power in Washington. During his early days in the White House, Kennedy, bored with routine work, sauntered across the road to a theatre which was showing the epic “Spartacus”. At the intermission, he saw a familiar figure three rows ahead, his Secretary of Agriculture, Orville Freeman. Tip toeing, the President reached out, tapped his shoulder and as Freeman turned back, whispered, “Nice way to run the agriculture department”!
As for Indian leaders, movie watching is a ‘waste of time’ from their task of ‘nation building’. No leader would admit he had spent time watching a movie and if at all that happened it would be a ‘patriotic’ one. Perhaps Deve Gowda would fall asleep watching even the most exciting movie. We are told former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri liked Manoj Kumar’s “Shaheed” and encouraged him to make “Upkar”.
But times are changing and in Vilasrao Deshmukh, we have a Chief Minister whose son is a Bollywood hero. The Shiv Sena leadership is fascinated by Bollywood; Bal Thackeray’s daughter-in-law is a producer of some talent and most of the stars are only too willing to pay obeisance to the Sena Chief. Tamil, Andhra and Karnataka political leaders were often close to cine stars. In fact, quite a few of them, (latest being Chiranjeevi) had a filmi background. But that is different from simply watching a movie and telling people how much they enjoyed it. In this context, I liked the story where Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, at the end of some hectic poll campaigning, took time off. When the media asked how she relaxed, Dixit said she had been to a movie, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hain”.
Now, that is one chief minister, I would support!
WATCHLIST
Did you know?
Lal Bahadur Shastri liked Manoj Kumar’s “Shaheed” so much that he encouraged him to make “Upkar”
Sheila Dixit enjoyed watching “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”
V. GANGADHAR
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