To hear the life story of Anupam Kher has to be one of the privileges for a common man. Not for the fame he has earned but for his strings of failure and his ability to make the small town magic work in his favor to establish a name for him in the Hindi film industry makes you to stand and listen. His acting skills have garnered tons of accolades across forums but the human in him is what connects him with a daily wage earners soul.
Ever since he announced his intentions of sharing his life with the mass through the medium of theatre across India, I was eager to be at one of his shows. Like always in my life the supernatural law of attraction worked and I was in his show.
The ice breaker session of walking around the entire Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Bangalore mingling with people and enquiring about their well being could only be a trait of a person who is clear from heart and has an adequate amount of people sense. His approach was so heart rendering that even the late comers were glorified and made to look special, an intelligent move that created the connecting point between the evening’s performer and the audience.
The two hours show split between a break had not a single moment when the audience was not absorbed. Humor, a medicine that is scant these days was flowing in abundance as Anupam Kher opened up his life book just like a boy opens up his heart to his first love. Being a master craftsman of his trade, he went along the trusted lines of cracking jokes on self to grab the attention of the listeners for the entire duration. If his moment of birth was actually when he came in demand for the first time then his failures in academics influenced his father to enhance his diet so that his mind could be sharp but fortunately those attempts never reflected on the final marks card because had they been then he would not have been sharing his story with the people. His childhood was shaped by failures that ranged from the cricket field to the school drama team but that is where he understood the biggest lesson of his life, ‘failure is an opportunity’ and then there were a string of failed love stories that resulted with varied consequences.
Getting to hear of how his first role on debut had nearly failed to materialize, his inpatient nature of celebrating success a bit early, his attempts to change to ‘fit’ into the Bollywood circuit, his shares of tantrums and cheque bounces and some headless thinking and his tryst with life threatening illness made the evening as natural as it could get. With experience he has understood that taking one self seriously can work against the natural growth mechanism. These accounts gave an understanding of the amount of constant pressure any professional is under and how glamour can be dangerous and expensive. In it there was a lesson for all those who have lived a life to fit into the agenda of someone else. Similarly it communicated that to succeed trying is the paramount tool because acts risk failure but no act ensures doomsday.
The touching part of the evening was when he paid tribute to the people who have played an integral role in what he is today and with that he showcased how easy it is to ensure that triumph is not lonely and the need to be humble at every stage of your life.
More often than not life is dark and is filled with pain and agony but the winner is he who can smartly package his share of stories and allow the world to learn from it because in it lays a sense of bliss that only a broader mind can acknowledge. Anupam Kher communicated how common his life is that to ours but still we continue to celebrate him. The gist of the evening can be summed up by accepting that there is a winner in all of us which needs to be recognized in pursuit of the big picture without losing track by all the clutter that surrounds our daily life.
At the end of the day all that matters is the spirit. If a guy from Shimla can come to Bangalore and enthrall the audience with his personal stories then 'Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai´
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