The superstar chronicles

Film critic Anupama Chopra's new book on Shah Rukh Khan is formulaic.

There cannot be any doubt about the fact that Shah Rukh Khan is one of the biggest stars of Bollywood. And every time his name lights up the marquee, the box office responds positively.

But Khan is also one of Bollywood's most accessible stars and has spoken openly about many of the twists and turns that his life has taken from birth to his current status as King Khan.

In light of this, would a new book on Khan reveal anything to the reader which the reader may not already know? Well-known film critic and Bollywood insider Anupama Chopra's new book on Khan grandiosely titled, King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema tries to go beyond the headlines and interviews that Khan has given over the entire period of his acting career but as Chopra puts it, "All of us journalists would be naive if we think that Khan is baring all to us. He needs his private spaces."

But it is to reach those private spaces that one likes to read biographies. And Khan's life has been tumultuous: the early death of his father, who the young Khan clearly bonded with deeply, and its impact on the family; the hardship years when Khan's mother as a widow tries to bring up the two children and then her subsequent death, which once again traumatises her young children.

There is also Khan's early struggle to win his lady love and the eventual acquiesence of her parents and their marriage.

Then there is his arrival in Mumbai to try his luck in Bollywood and the rest, as we all know, is history, history gilded with gold and the city now stands in awe of Khan's star power. But Chopra says that it wasn't easy to get Khan to agree to this book.

She says, "It had been in my head about writing about Khan. After all, he is the perfect person through whom to tell a larger story; for instance, the evolution of Bollywood. Khan is the face of new India and the new Bollywood. But he was reluctant. It did take a while for me to convince him about it."

The initial unwillingness notwithstanding, Khan gave Chopra ample time from the moment she started researching it (Khan was shooting for Main Hoon Na then) till the book was completed.

Says Chopra, "I hounded Khan for about two and a half years but I must say he has been very generous with his time. And he does tell great stories." Though the book is faithful to Khan's life story (which is well-known), there are moments that the reader can feel that the author lets go off the cues that Khan seems to provide easily throughout the book.

For instance, on more than one occasion Khan admits to crying but Chopra ends the episode there without getting into the mind, the soul of a man who has reached a low point in his life.

At another point, Khan hints that the success of his home production Chalte Chalte may have created a schism between him and his business partner Juhi Chawla. Once again Chopra ends it there, without examining whether Khan grieved that schism between him and his co-star of several films, also business partner and friend Juhi Chawla and if he did, how did he deal with it and his eventual moving on, that life insists that we all do when such situations do darken our lives.

Says Chopra, "I felt that the story ended there. I did not want to pursue it any further. " Did Khan put any pre-conditions for this book? Says Chopra, "Khan did not want me to edit out anything."

The book is also peppered with instances of Khan's total belief in his destiny as a superstar. This even when he was penury stricken with not a film role in his bag.

Says Chopra of this defining trait, "He is just so focussed and determined to make things happen. Khan's self-belief is far beyond what many people have in themselves. But at the same time he is not a megalomaniac. In his interactions with other people he is like a regular guy who is unfailingly courteous."

For the legions of Khan's fans, another book on him will always be welcome even if it treads familiar ground. But had the book given a little more insight into what made Khan different from the hundreds who come to Mumbai every day to try their luck in Bollywood, rather than a chronological recording of events, this book would have been, as they say in Bollywood, zara hatke.