by Subhash K Jha

It is that time of the year again when fan clubs go berserk, when almost every migrant in Mumbai crowds around the two Bachchan bungalows Prateeksha and Jalsa, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man of the house.

To this day Mr Bachchan is incredibly diffident about mob adulation. Sure, he has learnt to deal with it. But he isn't comfortable with it.

He respects his fans' sentiments. But I often wonder if they respect his need to be given the space that he so desperately needs.

This amazingly motivated man seems to function so effectively in a smothering schedule! What I'd like to gift him for this birthday is the right to remain silent. Away from the frightening rituals of adulation, defences down and energies put on hold for that one day away from the obligations of being a celebrity.

I asked him what he'd like for his birthday. He thought about it for a while . "Basically I just want to be alive. I'd want health and happiness for my family and myself and the opportunity to do good work. I've had a very fortunate year. This week was the silver jubilee of Waqt —not too many films reach that stage of success. This year there's been Sarkar, Black, Waqt and Bunty Aur Babli. They've all been different, and have given me an opportunity to play something different."

I'd have liked to gift Mr Bachchan with an Oscar nomination for Black. I'd like to gift him with every recognition in the world for his performance in Black. I truly think what he achieved within that performance surpasses all definitions of filmed flamboyance.

This is a performance that out-races all concepts of high-pitched histrionics. I rate it as the single-most accomplished male performance in Hindi cinema, comparable and arguably better than Balraj Sahni in Garam Hawa and Dilip Kumar in Devdas.

To hear that Black couldn't make it to the Oscars came as a blow to all of us who think of the film as a benchmark in Hindi cinema. It isn't as though other films weren't deserving. There was urban reality (Page 3) and turban reality(Paheli).

Our reality was more deserving. That's how all us Black-o-philes felt.

And the reasons given? Tauba! My ears turned red with dread when the chairperson of the Film Federation Vinod Pande told me that according to his learned jury, Black had been rejected at Cannes.

When did Black ever go to Cannes to be rejected?! Who spreads these untruths anyway?

Worst was the theory that Black got rejected because the language was alien.

That really shocked Sanjay Bhansali. "But the language of Black is sign language!" he said with growing indignance.

Even if we accept for argument's sake that English was the spoken language in Black since when has English become an alien language in our country? Even while rejecting the film the jury was speaking in the 'alien' tongue. And Lagaan by the way, had long passages of colonial English.

Vinod Pande, a decent man who made decent films like Ek Baar Phir and Yeh Nazdeekiyan in the past, admitted to me that there was a lobby working against Black.

God bless the lobby.

Accomplished performances followed me all the way from Black to Main Meri Patni Aur Woh In -between there were Anupam Kher and Urmila Matondkar in Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara....the best father-daughter pair since Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anupama...except that in the earlier film the father (Tarun Bose) wouldn't speak to his daughter (Sharmila Tagore). In Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara, the father loses his powers of civil communication.

I watched Urmila's performance as the traumatized daughter with keen interest. We often forget that those who have to support and look after the ill often go through a larger trauma than the patient.

Urmila reminded us of this. Her growth as one of the most dependable actresses of the post-Shabana generation has been sure steady and irreversible.

Ironically her best phase has started after she parted ways with Ram Gopal Varma's production in search of greener pastures. I still remember how she would cringe every time she'd be described as Ram Gopal Varma's resident heroine.

Another RGV product Rajpal Yadav is a pleasure to watch in Main Meri Patni Aur Woh.

His diminutive physique (some of our tallest superstars don't possess the height to match their stature) just doesn't come in the way of Rajpal blowing the screen apart with his performance.

It breaks my heart to see films like Maine Gandhi ... and Main Meri Patni (the letter 'M' was lucky for 2004, not for 2005, I guess) sink so unceremoniously. Have we become so callous to genteel cinema that depicts human relationships with the soft suppleness of leaves rustling in an orchard of whispering connotations?

The three most successful mainstream films of the year –Bunty Aur Babli, No Entry and Salaam Namaste—are the noisiest.

These are what's known as shor-shot successes.