IF ever film titles were made to order, then choreographer Farah Khan’s soon to be released directorial venture Main Hoon Na would suit Shah Rukh Khan perfectly. And after the recently released Kal Ho Naa Ho, these words hold more meaning than ever. Whatever the obstacle (a back surgery or troubled home productions), and whoever the adversary (the other two same-surname wonders or the new hearthrobs on the block), SRK always manages to tell everyone: Main Hoon Na. No wonder they call the 38-year-old-actor King Khan. They also call him a dreamer. His production company, Dreamz Unlimited came out with croppers like Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Asoka until the successful Chalta Chalte. He went on record to say that even if Chalte Chalte wouldn’t have done well, he would have still made the movies he believed in. He’s a family man who dotes on son Aryan and daughter Suhana and unlike other married actors who like to move at parties alone, SRK is happy to let wife Gauri take the lead. He has an able battery of well-wishers and friends—Karan Johar, Yash Chopra, Manish Malhotra, Farah Khan, Aziz Mirza—to guide him. And in Singapore, they have even named an orchid after him. It’s called Ascocenda Shah Rukh Khan. In his recent film outing, Kal Ho Naa, SRK stamps all the frames with his inimitable screen presence and sheer vitality which has taken brand Shah Rukh places. The Nikhil Advani directed movie has created a record of sorts by garnering a business of $1 million in the US in just four days of its release. And the cash registers are still ringing. The movie has also left behind Hrithik Roshan’s hit Koi.Mil Gaya which did a business of $1 million all of this year in the US. Kal Ho Naa is a bit of a revelation where SRK’s acting is concerned. Not too long ago the actor was in the habit of pulling his ham(ming)string acting muscle. The predictable giggle, the pursing-the-lip act, the stammer and the bubbly boy act— never mind his years—was beginning to get a bit too grating. But that was before Aditya Chopra’s Mohabattein. Pitted against Amitabh Bachchan, SRK with violin in hand, rose to the challenge and came out unscathed. Since then, he has got better. Critics might have raised eyebrows and highbrows on his acting skills, but when it comes to pulsating passion and zany energy, nobody does it better than SRK. From chaiya chaiya on moving trains to jiving to the red hot number Ishq Kamina inspite of a bad back. he’s managed to pull it off. Watch him boogey to the intricately choreographed Mahi Ve in Kal Ho Naa Ho and you would never guess that he did the song just days after his back injury. Says director buddy Karan Johar: ‘‘I saw him cringing with pain before and after every shot but he never said anything. Not just in Mahi Ve, in the other sequences too he had to do a lot of physical stuff like running and jumping but he insisted on doing it all. He’s something else. sometimes I think he’s almost inhuman.’’ As inhuman as Sachin Tendulkar, perhaps. In a film and cricket obsessed country like India, millions forgo their work to see Sachin go run-crazy and another million forgo their one time meal to see SRK come all triumph. Says Khan, ‘‘People give up one meal to watch me act. I better give my best. For this reason, I sing for them, dance for them, love for them and even die for them in the same film.’’ Yet another way of saying Main Hoon Na?
