Book Review: Devapriya Sanyal's account of Salman Khan combines fawning adoration with scholarly interest

“Where would Hindi cinema be without Salman Khan? Where would all the romantic heroes be? Would it be wrong to say that he taught people how to love?” asks Devapriya Sanyal in her new book Salman Khan: The Man, The Actor, The Legend, published by Bloomsbury.  

If you have written off Khan as an entitled brat who has been unjustly exonerated for his alleged crimes, this book might be a waste of your time. Or it could teach you how to see with loving, forgiving eyes, like fans who call him bhai even though they are unrelated. The book might even give you insights into the nature of stardom, image management, and human perception.

If you are a fan waiting eagerly for Khan’s next release, this book will treat you to an exciting recap of his journey so far with films, relationships, controversies, successes, and failures. Sanyal, who has a PhD in the cinema of Satyajit Ray, has chosen to write this book through the lens of celebrity studies. She is interested in Khan’s onscreen persona and off-screen activities. She examines his life and work with a gaze that is both critical and compassionate.

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The author does not hide the fact that Khan has been in the news for physically assaulting Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, cheating on Sangeeta Bijlani after their wedding cards were printed, threatening Vivek Oberoi, punching Subhash Ghai, being convicted and acquitted in a hit-and-run case involving humans, and a case involving poaching of black bucks and chinkaras.

The book juxtaposes these with incidents of Khan’s charitable work under the auspices of Being Human, a foundation that he established in 2007 to support “education and healthcare for the underprivileged.” The author also points out that many famous Bollywood personalities “owe their launch and subsequent rewarding careers in Bollywood” to Khan. This long list includes Sonakshi Sinha, Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sajid-Wajid, Mohnish Bahl, Katrina Kaif, Himesh Reshammiya, and Sajid Nadiadwala.

Sanyal writes, “Tabloids, stories, and gossip, all tend to collapse him into a general formula that makes him lose all his sense of exclusivity.” She believes that people who cheer him on also want to “see him bear his weaknesses or fall apart.” She wants him to be cherished as “a human being, caught between the transcendence and the trauma of constant public gaze and scrutiny.” The author is quite aware that she might come across as an apologist, and also get some flak for it. Defending herself, she writes, “I am indeed trying to redress a wrong.”

Since funds for the foundation’s activities are raised through sales of clothes, jewellery, and bicycles, Sanyal writes, “Being Human’s potential customers are no doubt aware that Salman Khan is imperfect like the rest of us, and the charity is a reminder that, like everyone else, the actor has foibles that only makes him more human.” She does wonder “whether this charitable institution is a part of his penance for the hit-and-run case.” Khan, and people who belong to his inner circle, are probably the only ones who can confidently speak about this.

The author of this book is certainly not one of them. She concludes, “Of course, it is water under the bridge, since the incident occurred a while ago, with divergent versions of the truth being presented to the court and the media. No one really knows the ultimate outcome.”  

This is not the first book about Khan.  Penguin published Jasmin Khan’s book Being Salman  [2015] on the occasion of his 50th birthday. Before that, Magna published Biswadeep Ghosh’s book Hall of Fame: Salman Khan  [2004]. Sanjukta Nandy wrote about him in the book Khantastic: The Untold Story of Bollywood’s Trio  [2019], published by Rupa, and Kaveree Bamzai wrote about him in the book _The Three Khans and the Emergence of New India_  [2021], published by Westland.

Sanyal claims, “To date, no book has been written that seeks to cut through the many layers of his personality, the gossip, and the tabloids to focus on the star’s aesthetic formulation, and what exactly it is about film and television, the star system and the capitalistic society that has made him the star icon he is.” Is this true? If yes, to what extent? If no, why does Sanyal make this claim? I leave you to assess it on your own because I have not read the other books.

Sanyal adds to this body of analysis and commentary with a book that combines fawning adoration with scholarly interest. Is this combination possible? If you have not read Shrayana Bhattacharya’s book _Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh_  [2021], published by HarperCollins India, this would be a good time. While Sanyal’s book is different from Bhattacharya’s in terms of methodology and intent, Sanyal does draw heavily on scholarly work – Hugo Munsterberg, P David Marshall, Erving Goffman, Mark Gallagher, Peter Burke, and Richard Dyer.

Sanyal’s book discusses a range of Khan’s most memorable films, including Sooraj Barjatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya    [1989] and _Hum Aapke Hain..Koun!_  [1994], Rajkumar Santoshi’s Andaz Apna Apna  [1994], Abbas-Mustan’s Chori Chori Chupke Chupke  [2001], Satish Kaushik’s Tere Naam  [2003], Revathi’s Phir Milenge  [2004], Anees Bazmee’s No Entry  [2005], Prabhu Deva’s Wanted  [2008], Abhinav Kashyap’s Dabangg  [2010], Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger  [2012], and Bajrangi Bhaijaan  [2015]. A detailed study of his role in each film is beyond the scope of this book but Sanyal looks at some of Khan’s defining performances.

Calling Khan “an object of adulation, fantasy, reverence, and culture”, Sanyal waxes eloquent about “his admirable body” that fans have had a chance to appreciate in many films. Sanyal believes that it stands for “a model of masculinity that combines physical strength with sensitivity.” She compares his smooth, cleanshaven chest to Amitabh Bachchan’s “hirsute chest [a sign of machismo] in his many avatars with his shirt buttons open till his midriff.”

Sanyal picks interesting examples to highlight the contrast between the kind of masculinity that Khan has portrayed on screen and the kind that he has been notorious for in real life.

She writes, “Through his scenes with Bhagyashree as Suman, for instance, in Maine Pyar Kiya, we are able to observe Prem’s emotional vulnerabilities, in his craving for a real friend, as he is an only child. We also witness his soft, inclusive nature, which welcomes Suman with a ‘friendship’ cap. She might otherwise have felt unwelcome in that opulent mansion.”

Another film that the author mentions is Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, where Khan plays an industrialist’s son, who opts for surrogacy after his wife – played by Rani Mukerji – has a miscarriage. Sanyal writes, “He displays sensitivity, not only towards his wife but towards Preity Zinta as well, the girl who agrees to be the surrogate.” By presenting these examples, Sanyal manages to destabilise perceptions about who Khan is, and what Khan represents.    

She writes, “A star image is formed keeping in mind several factors. It includes the roles essayed on-screen; stage-managed public appearances, such as awards functions, reality show appearances as TV show judges and hosts; and good public relations, such as taking fans behind the scenes, and giving them a glimpse of the real person or chance encounters at shopping malls, nightclubs, marketplaces, gyms, airports, etc.” What Sanyal does not address is whether there is such a thing as a real person. Can anyone be pared down to an essence?

She also tries to justify why some of Khan’s films did not fare well. Instead of holding him responsible for his choices, she remarks, “Perhaps, he had appeared in too many films one after another without much thought, something his father had repeatedly warned him against. He was not able to refuse friends, directors, and producers who requested him to appear in their films, and the Good Samaritan in him had to pay the price for his pleasing nature.”  

Whether you buy this argument or not, this is one way of looking at the situation. Sanyal is on Khan’s side. She even seems besotted with her subject. But is that really a problem?

Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist, commentator, and book reviewer.

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