Aajkal Ya Kya Aaj Se Pehle Bhi Showman Subhash Ghai Itne Dharmic Aur Gyani The

Ali Peter John

I have been following the journey of Subhash Ghai since the time he came to Bombay fresh from the FTII and was one of the leading strugglers who walked from studio to studio and from one producer's office to another and finding no work and sometimes finding all the reasons to pack up and leave as he realised that he stood no chance in this good, bad, mad and sad world of Hindi films and how his aunt who was living in Bombay stopped him from going back to Delhi to find some other job in some other place...

I had seen how he was also signed as a leading man in at least eight or nine films, but had succeeded in having only one complete film as a hero, Guru Dutt's younger brother, Aatmaram's “Umang"which he made with all those youngsters who had come from the FTII with high hopes. Subhash Ghai was the hero and was given the treatment worth worse of a hero. He was as I known paid six hundred and fifty rupees a month, a first class railway pass between Andheri and Churchgate and a room to live in which was a small part of his bungalow in Juhu. “Umang"turned out to be a disaster and Subhash had to settle down to playing character roles, the most prominent one being as Rajesh Khanna's friend in “Aradhana"which turned Khanna into an overnight superstar, but left Subhash as the same struggler looking for work. I saw him taking to writing films like“Aakhri Daaku"and other films and he had another failed actor turned writer,B.B Bhalla as his partner. The team however didn't last long and Subhash went around as a writer on his own and turned out to be not only a successful writer but also a director which was something he had never dreamt of. His first two

films,“Kalicharan"and“Vishwanath"were very big hits and the rest as they say is history. Ghai formed Mukta Arts and made big and successful films like“Ram Lakhan", “Hero", “Karz", “Khalnayak", “Karma", “Kaal"and many others. Subhash Ghai and Mukta Arts had grown synonymous with big-time success and Subhash Ghai was known as the Showman...

At a time when he should and could make many more big films, the Showman decided to build his own film school. He had to go through a heap of hurdles and his critics and ill-wishers were all set to write off his ambitious and unique dream, but the Showman was now not in the frame of mind to accept any kind of defeat and he saw Whistling Woods International, his sprawling school standing and shining in all its splendor in the midst of Film City and WWI as only been growing from success to more success and be known as one of the ten best film schools in the world...

I now saw him as an educationist and he was doing everything that he could do to give education a new dimension, even if it meant to taking a long break from making films, a break which still continues....

A man who had walked through fire had all the chances of turning spiritual and getting closer to the power above, and that is what I saw Subhash Ghai turning into at this stage of his life. He showed the first signs of giving his inner self peace was seen when he had a stark white marble image of Lord Ganesh at the entrance of the main building of WWI. He went over step further and built a ‘Prayer Room'where anyone who entered WWI could spend time in coming in contact with the power that controls the world and the minds of people. The ‘Prayer Room'had become one of the major highlights of WWI and is the Showman showing the youth of today the way to their souls, besides nurturing their minds.

The Showman was never known to be so close to the divine, but it is in the last few years that he has shown his strong inclination towards the spiritual and the divine. He has been a staunch believer in the teachings of Osho (Bhagwan Rajneesh) and often quotes extensively from the preachings and teachings of the Bhagwan and has been trying his best to spread the teachings and the messages of the Bhagwan to as many as people possible on social media. He is a regular visitor at the Osho Ashram in Koregaon Park in Pune...

Lastly he did something which could not be easily associated with the man who created masterpieces as films and son songs like “choli ke peeche kya hai"among others. He took a dip in the Ganga and then spent three days and nights with sadhus, saints and religious leaders from all over the world and has returned to tell stories about the importance and significance of his spending time with holy men in the holy place...

What next Mr Showman? There have been stories about the most worldly-wise people turning into Sages, Saints, Shankaracharyas and Sadhgurus. Will I who have seen you in your many ‘roops'see you as a Swami or someone like the character you created for Dharmendra in one of your most misunderstood or under-understood film,“Krodhi"? Will I see the transformation of the Showman to the Soulman?

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