The later you realise it, the worse it will be --- all that collateral damage. Every thumbs up or down for the song teaser of Siddharth Anand’s film Pathaan only feeds the publicity of the makers (of the film) or the ism of the haters, and has little to do with anyone or anything else. Rewind, go back in time, listen carefully and you might even begin to see for yourself that rabble-rouser and home minister of Madhya Pradesh, Narottam Mishra, is quite the keen follower of Bollywood. So what if the Khargone violence happened on his watch, Mishra keeps close track of films — right from the trailer — and film actors too.

The role of an MLA

Why, only the other day, he was telling actor Arjun Kapoor how to improve his work. He had suggestions for the makers of Adipurush — a film that has Prabhas playing Rama, Saif Ali Khan playing Ravana and Kriti Sanon, Sita — on what to do with the trailer. He asked Prakash Jha to rethink the name of his web series Ashram. He rapped Richa Chaddha for her Galwan tweet. And now he has pointed out something about the colours of the swimwear Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan sport in Pathaan. And all this is from the man whose doctoral thesis is reportedly titled “The role of an MLA in the progress of Indian democracy”.

Don’t cheer yet

Now, the role of an MLA is more clear-cut than the role of a superstar. Stars also can afford to just twinkle and be, but superstars come with all kinds of responsibilities and expectations in the universal scheme. This is why an institution like the RBI needs the help of an Amitabh Bachchan to raise citizen awareness about cyber fraud. So when SRK started to speak at the just-inaugurated KIFF 2022 about the enduring importance of cinema and traditional media and then arrived at his critique of social media, one expected it to be just that. He said, “I read somewhere that negativity increases social media consumption, and thereby increases its commercial value as well.” Is it unfair to expect that SRK would have stretched just a little and exhorted fans to counter this malaise? Could he not have shared a tip or two about how to spread the mohabbatein? After all, when SRK weeps, India prays; when he speaks, India listens. But SRK started to talk about the invincibility of the “positive”, and then, just like that, turned back into an actor again; started to deliver dialogues from Pathaan. One moment he was saying, “I have no problem telling you that whatever the world does, you, me and everybody will stay positive.” The next moment came the rejoinder, in something between a whisper and a roar: “Zinda hai.” But we want to do better, Dear Shah Rukh Khan. We want to live and also live well. Perhaps a speech for another time, perhaps some action that will thrill.