Adventures of a Writer

By Jaideep Sen For a while I wasn’t being able to identify what to base my next piece of SALAAM SALIM SAAB on till the Legend himself cleared my dilemma.   During a recent conversation he mentioned that when they had narrated the biggest game changer film in contemporary Indian Cinema, Zanjeer , to a renowned film director of that era, he had told Salim Saab that they had wasted two and a half hours of his precious time.  Now that was a statement that grabbed my immediate attention for two reasons. One, the audience has proved time and again that it is far sharper and smarter than filmmakers while it is difficult for good content to get made into films due to the lack of understanding of filmmakers. Two, don’t get affected and shaken by   ‘rejection’.  When I brought this up with Salim Saab, the humble cinematic giant took the onus on himself for the initial rejections by saying that it was the nature of the story and not the lack of understanding ...

By Jaideep Sen It’s often said that good writing can stand the test of time. Its power and relevance can shine through decades later. This thought struck me like a double whammy in the context of the masterful works of Salim Saab and his erstwhile writing partner Javed Akhtar Saab.  Amitabh Bachchan in Zanjeer Recently I watched a TV show, where a boy has a nightmare and gets up with a start, in a scene that is reminiscent of the introduction of the adult Vijay in Zanjeer , the film that set off Mr.Amitabh Bachchan on his unending journey of super stardom. It struck me that almost all of Salim Saab and Javed Saab’s writing have helped to create the ‘immortal’ persona for Mr. Bachchan and set him up for till now unseen success.   Dharmendra in Sholay The second instance was when later, on the same day,   I watched and heard the hook-line lyrics of a song from the soon to be released Super 30 – “Basanti, No dance in front of these dogs...

On the occasion of Father’s Day Jaideep Sen pens a heartfelt piece for Salim Saab who is more than a father figure to him. Read on…   I don’t remember the context in which I made this particular call to Salim Saab one evening during the interval of a Film that I was watching at PVR Citi Mall, Mumbai. But as usual it was enriching because in the course of the conversation when I mentioned to him that in my understanding, a Love Story comprises of the relationship between a boy and girl, he stopped me and said that it’s a misconception that a Love Story is only between a boy and girl. Now that was a first for me and I immediately felt that some life altering knowledge was going to be imparted by the gifted Salim Saab. He said that a love story can be between a master and servant, between an animal and his master and mentioned Haathi Mere Saathi in that context.  In that very moment my already immense respect for Salim Saab shot up uncountable folds and went...