Decoding our eternal hope for an alternate ending for Big B, Rekha

As an Indian, I love it when things go wrong in Bollywood. Unlike politics or religion, where even a stray joke can lead to threats of jail time, genital mutilation or if you’re lucky, death, Bollywood provides a relatively safe haven for commentary. Artists are used to being slammed for their existence and most opinion isn’t divisive. It is for that reason I would like to thank the Jet Airways pilot who tweeted his picture with Amitabh Bachchan in a week when India experienced cyclone Phailin, news of Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement and Dusshera. In case you’re one of those cool people who drink aloe vera juice and love announcing to the world that you aren’t on social media, here’s the picture in question. [caption id=“attachment_1172337” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Twitter photo that was an internet sensation. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] At first glance, it seems fairly benign. One can imagine the pilot walking up to a weary Bachchan and waxing eloquent about being his biggest fan before finally asking if he could get a picture. Before Amitabh would have had the chance to respond, the pilot would have sat himself next to him.  An awkwardly smiling steward would have fiddled with the iPhone’s camera, unable to negate its bungling chemistry, much like when men try to hug a girl they don’t know well enough and consciously avoid chest to breast contact. Look a little closer, however, and one realises why this photograph broke the internet. Sitting behind Bachchan and doing a terrible job of pretending to sleep is Rekha of ‘ in the night no control’ fame. Indian audiences, used to being reminded of Bachchan and Rekha’s alleged love affair every Filmfare awards thanks to some deft editing, quickly pounced on this supposed coincidence. Captions describing the photograph included, “Wow Dabur Chyawanprash really works!”, “Jet mein kuch meetha ho jaaye” and my personal favourite, “Come breathe in a bit of Amitabh”. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I find our dual relationship with Bollywood stars fascinating. On screen, we want our men (never the women) to be heroic and virtuous embodiments of Indian culture. Yet ever so often when rumours of Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra or Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori having an affair come out, we yearn for them to be true. It’s almost as if for a few moments, we want the stars we’ve put on a pedestal to be human and make the same ‘mistakes’ we make. For those moments, we want to believe they’re like us. It’s why when a starlet comes to a Ghanta Awards to accept an award for worst performance, audiences consider her decision worthy of respect. It’s that fleeting moment of rupture in an otherwise choreographed institution. Our obsession with Bachchan and Rekha stretches as far back as the end of Silsila. Most of us wanted the two to be together and thought of Jaya Bachchan’s character as a spoilsport. Pictures of the two inside the same aircraft help keep the myth of the alternate ending alive. Even if the two aren’t on speaking terms as we’re often told, we want to imagine otherwise because that’s better for everyone. It sells more magazines, it allows for more innuendos to get retweeted and it nourishes our own imagination. Now if you excuse me, I need to find that video of Akshay and Rekha showering together. Hopefully without a Jet Airways pilot.