'Salman can finally get married': Bollywood rejoices as Bhai's 'achche din' are here

So it’s finally happened. To borrow lines from Amitabh Bachchan’s Don song “Jisska mujhe ttha intezaa,r jisske liye dil ttha beqaarrar, woh ghadi aa gayi.” Salman’s achche din have finally arrived (right when the Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s burey din began in the National Herald case) what with the Bombay Hight Court ruling that Salman was acquitted of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case. It’s been 13 years of agonising wait for Salman and his family for the ordeal to end. [caption id=“attachment_2407580” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Salman Khan. AFP[/caption] True to character Salman showed no emotion when the honourable Judge announced the acquittal. Says a jubilant buddy of the superstar, who he has a close working relationship with, “That’s Salman for you. He won’t give anyone the benefit of seeing him vulnerable, not even the honourable Judge, though he otherwise cries like a baby at the drop of a hat. In fact after the verdict, when the family rallied around him Salman broke down and wept copiously.” Curiously his friends were not willing, at least immediately, to come forward to express their happiness. One of Salman’s closest buddies, Sajid Nadiadwala is beleaguered by an an IT raid. Meanwhile, from the sets of his new film Sultan, which Salman was shooting when the court verdict was announced (he took a break from the shooting to attend the verdict) there was silence. “Has he really been acquitted? We want to understand the case before reacting,” said a Sultan team member. “But I can tell you this much. We (his close friends) never doubted that he would be acquitted. Bhai is a really good guy. The good deeds that we read about are only the tip of iceberg. There is so much more that Bhai does silently which no one knows about.” So are the good deeds an atonement for possible guilt? “Kuch bhi kaho, Salman ne Ganga naaha liya (He has paid for his sins). Guilt, non-guilt, kya farq padta hai (How does it matter)? Everyone will tell you how happy they are that Salman is free. He can finally get married,” says a top-ranking female actor, whom Salman allegedly doesn’t like very much, both as friend or co-star. Salman has very strong likes and dislikes, which he doesn’t bother to hide. In those rare moments when he would allow his inner turmoil to surface in front of close friends, Salman would wonder how he can have normal life with the sword of the court cases hanging over his head. “He once told me, ‘How can I get married, have kids when I could be in jail tomorrow? What will my wife tell our kids? That their father is in jail?’" says a producer/friend of the actor. Salman’s unwed wife and unborn kids must be rejoicing somewhere in the universe. Being Human teeshirts will double their sales. Hours after the verdict, a restaurant in Mumbai named after Salman, is serving food to all, at the cost that the customers decide. The cause of justice has been served. Or, so we’d like to believe.