Chulbul,Chetan and Class..

One of the eternal debate in this world has been the Class act v/s the Mass effect. People use different barometers to judge both of them and then classify whatever they see or feel in these two broad categories.Some days back I had an intresting conversation with one of my colleague about the questions they ask in MBA colleges during Interviews. She said if you are mentioning your hobby as reading,you should name some class authors.”Class as in?” I asked  curiously,”Not like Chetan Bhagat”,she quipped. Most of us know Chetan Bhagat and his stories.His fan base is almost equal to the number of people terming him as “mediocre” and his work as “Not literature”. At this point in our conversation,I put forward a point that its not about words or grammar,its about your appeal to the mass!

Many a times in our day-to-day life we come across people who we look upon as genuinely talented and classy or average,attention seeker. None of the spheres of our world is out of the scope of this debate,be it cricket,movies,literature or politics. Chetan Bhagat as an author is an excellent example of this. He is obviously not a Shakespeare or O.Henry,neither he claims to be one. His populraity is based on his appeal to the mass,he uses their language! If you give one of Shakespeare’s drama to someone today,most of us wont even read half of it because that language is not something that we are used to.We tend to get attracted to things that seems to be like us.20^th Century Literature of “high class” is not anywhere near to the SMS-Whatsapp language that we use today.

Same is the case with Salman Khan movies nowadays.The jury is out on the content and logic of his movies but noone can deny his tremendous success in recent years. His movies most often than not lack that cinematic asthetics or a logical story.But hey,If I am an engineering student working overtime to derive a formula in lab,I wont like overcooking my brains to understand the logic of a movie! On the other side of this spectrum is may be a movie like Black or Savariya,oozing with asthetic beauty but limited in their mass appeal.We live a normal life and hence when I enter a cinema hall, I want to see something abnormal or logicless.Rowdy Rathore flying everywhere like a desi superman is much more entertaining than Camera moving around on empty tea-cups in a Ramgopal Verma movie! 

We cant forget the best entertainment in India while debating Class and Mass,the Cricket. Purists in cricket most of the times criticise Twenty20 as “pyjama cricket” and well,to an extent they are right! If you want to see a batsman applying himself for long hours,testing his patience and grit to fight it out,T20 is not for you.Having said that, in todays fast world where we rarely get time to sleep,watching a match whole day is becoming more and more difficult.T20 provides you with that fast and furious pace that is becoming synonym to our lives in todays world. Batsmen hitting out as there is no tommorow is just like us dancing on weekends in pubs of metros!

We have such instances everywhere around us and they are quite successful as well. I am not in anyway degrading the Literary excellence of a Shakespeare,Cinematic beauty of a Black or the class of test matches. They do have a place in our lives and will continue to do so but the fact is a Chulbul Pandey or a Keiron Pollard will give you more entertainment then RGV or Rahul Dravid.Afterall,as Vidya Balan rightly says in Dirty Picture,"Ye duniya sirf tin cheezo se chalti hai..Entertainment,Entertainment..Entertainment! So Enjoy your Dabaangs and Rowdy Rathores,if you need a break,read some O.Henry..