The Greatest Show on Earth: Writings on Bollywood
Ed. Jerry Pinto.
Penguin Books. Pages 452.
Rs 499.
I have been reviewing books on Bollywood cinema for the last many years and after going through innumerable books on cinema, I find it easy to slot the books into specific categories. I have found that the books are either academic treatises on the sociology and politics of cinema or are elaborate film reviews spanning several decades or are dedicated to the life and times of Bollywood celebrities. But Jerry Pinto’s book, The Greatest Show on Earth, is a bit like a googly ball in cricket. It belies categorisation. It covers the entire ambit of Bollywood cinema, be it writings on stars, filmmakers, music and, yes, even on the gossip that runs rife in this milieu. The academic analysis of censorship and sexuality, fictional write-ups on the casting-couch syndrome and the no-holds-barred yellow film journalism also find place in the anthology. It is an eclectic collection, as Pinto himself admits, "Bollywood at its best was eclectic."
Jerry Pinto has cobbled together some interesting articles on Hindi cinema by authors as varied as Saadat Hasan Manto, Khushwant Singh, Ismat Chughtai, Salman Rushdie and Shobha De. Some articles come with interesting taglines like "Cat House Natter" or "My Fifteen Minutes with the Filmwalas", while others like "Marrying Hema" or Jairaj`85.And his Three Kisses" scream their gossipy antecedents. Pinto’s section on "The Stars" is perhaps the most intriguing with its vignettes on film celebrities. Vinod Mehta’s portrait of Meena Kumari and Madhu Jain’s portrait of Raj Kapoor aptly entitled "The Showman in love" are especially interesting as they narrate hitherto unheard incidents in the lives of the artists. In the "Introduction" Pinto tells us how he discovered Vinod Mehta’s writing on Meena Kumari from the raddiwalas in Mumbai. An excerpt from Pinto’s own book Helen: The Life and Times of the H-Bomb also adds to the heady reel-life cocktail.
Pinto asserts that "by using popular culture, we ease away from the strain of self-expression" and confidently proclaims that the book is a "celebration of all that Indian cinema has done for us". A somewhat tall claim, I feel, but be that as it may the book undoubtedly showcases Pinto’s passion for Bollywood cinema big time. The book has emerged phoenix-like from Pinto’s personal library of Bollywood books which he collected "in the way that people collect stamps". But one wonders at the sudden though recent upswing in the trend of publishing anthologies on cinema. Perhaps, the books on cinema have also been touched by the multi-starrer magic. If the recent super-hit Golmaal and its sequel could have three sets of stars, why not a book which reads like the "who’s who" of film writers and also boasts of varied silver-screen perceptions strung together like baubles? But we hope an original treatise on cinema would come to us soon from this author who won a National Award for the best book on cinema.
Published in the Tribune dated 20th November 2011
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