Quick question. Who got the biggest crowd and the brightest flashbulbs at the Jaipur Literature Festival? A) Ian McEwan b) Donna Tartt c) Manil Suri d) Aamir Khan. Well, that wasn’t a toughie. Correct answer: d.The superstar, who wanted to meet Gore Vidal, texted the organisers, “I’m destroyed”, when he heard the writer-provocateur had decided to give Jaipur a miss. But Khan did turn up on Saturday and if you wondered what an actor was doing at a literature festival, he sounded cerebral enough, making Bollywood sound like a Stanislavski hardback. “Everything flows from my understanding of the character,” he said, getting up from his chair to demonstrate how he decided on the body language of Bhuwan in Lagaan, never slouching and curling his eyelashes to give a touch of innocence, and the energetic Akash, with his chin thrust forward, in Dil Chahta Hai. Khan said he acted like an assiduous aashiq (lover), not like a self-absorbed maashuq (beloved), but refused to comment when asked if Shah Rukh Khan was the maashuq. In between he sounded erudite enough: “loved Willie’s City of Djinns and When Nietzche Wept”; bashed the media: “news channels should call themselves entertainment channels”; couldn’t decide on which dead and famous person he would like to have dinner with: “it has to be either Marilyn Monroe or Gandhi”.It is a long shot, but next year Jaipur may have a literary superstar drawing in the biggest crowd. Otherwise, hey, there is always Shah Rukh.
