Amitabh Bachchan seemed very impressed with (‘late’ ) journalist Ali Peter John’s sharp, recall memory

A humble homage-tribute by  sr. film-journalist  Chaitanya  Padukone

Jeevan ke safar mein raahi, milte hain bichhad jaane ko, aur dey jaate hain yaadein…’  This haunting melody-track song from old Dev Anand-starrer movie ‘Munimji’  started playing in my disturbed, saddened mind . This was when  I heard the sad, tragic, shocking news that veteran film-journalist-columnist-author-writer ALI  PETER JOHN, who was unwell,  had left us forever and passed away into eternity.

Just a few weeks ago, Ali-jee was cheerfully chatting with me and Javed Akhtar-saab at this event hosted by composer Lalit Pandit and his composer-singer son Rohansh Pandit to launch a music album ‘Say No To War’ at The Club.

It was wonderful knowing dedicated, passionate journalist Ali-jee for over past 30 plus years and I used to read his column ‘Ali’s Notes’  in Screen Cine-trade weekly newspaper. With his creative poetic, flowery yet honest writing Ali-jee had his own unique style. What was interesting, that he would not only write authoritatively about iconic legends like Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand,  Gulzar, Lata Mangeshkar etc but also promote promising aspiring newcomers in his widely-read Screen column.

By nature I found him to be quiet, reserved and slightly introvert,  but a sharp silent observer who kept making ‘meticulous mental notes’  which would then be published in his column Ali’s Notes.  Preferring a peaceful corner, at filmy parties and events,  Ali-jee would generally mingle with mostly those with whom he had a warm personal comfort-level or ‘fine-tuning’, as they say in filmy parlance.

One of the reasons Ali-jee often bonded warmly with me, was that Ali-Jee and I were perhaps the only two eminent film-journalists honoured by superstar Amitabh Bachchan with the prestigious K A Abbas Memorial Award Trophy and Gold Medal for Excellence in Film Journalism.

Still remember Amitabh-jee praising him in his speech at the Awards event held at Hotel Sun ‘N Sand, by saying that  “Ali does not tape-record my responses when he is interviewing me, he only listens with total rapt attention. But then his recall-memory is so sharp that he would quote me in his newspaper using the same exact words and sentences which I responded to him”.   On that momentous occasion Ali-jee was very delighted because of two special reasons, That he got the Award in the fond memory of iconic multi-faceted legend K A Abbas whom Ali-jee considered as his icon-inspiration. Secondly the Award was given to him by superstar Bachchan-saab, whom he highly admired and who in turn was launched by mentor-film-maker K A Abbas in the landmark retro- movie ‘Saat Hindustani’.

We will all miss you, filmy-gyaani ALI-sahab ! Rest in Peace wherever you are. Your detailed informative articles and interviews published regularly in bollyy.com and Mayapuri on movies and various cinematic-legends and all your authored books will always continue to be the all-time inspiration and source of  precious reference-material for the current generation and for all future generations of  movie-fans and film-media.