Writer turns author

When the celebrated film journalist Mohan Deep sent me his two novels yesterday, it was a culture shock for me. My memories of late 1970s came alive when I left a high profile job at India today to take over as the editor of a monthly film magazine Super owned by Namita Gokhle, a renowned literary persona in her own right. 

Mohan had already become a successful film journalist and I was lucky to have his byline in Super. I am aware of the fact that journalism is a familiar stepping stone to graduate to literature. We can quote the examples of Premchand to the best known author of last century Gabriel Garcia Marquez of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' fame ( I have translated that from Spanish into Hindi and has it in a book format.

I couldn't resist the temptation of taking an intense browse of his novel Five Foolish Virgins. Every word of this 400-page racy and panoramic view of Bollywood immediately betrays the intimate exposure Mohan had of the film word on the banks of Banks of Arabian sea. I don't know why I accepted the offer to edit a film magazine. It was a spontaneous decision taken at the spur of a moment. Before landing in Bombay, I had made up my mind to interview Dev Anand for my first cover story. When I called, he himself picked up the phone. I hesitantly introduced myself and there came a shocker. Om, I have been reading you in India. Why the hell have you come here. This place is not for you. Anyway, come tomorrow at 11 at Navketan. Dev Sahab predicted that I won't last here and would return to my familiar domain of investigative hardcore political reporting. He was bang right. I returned after seven days and seven month to take over as the senior editor of Caravan fortnightly which I handled for six years.

In Bombay, I spent five months in Super and two months in broadsheet weekly Take two, co-edited by Amit Khanna who had roped in Sharmila Tagore as its consulting editor. I never consulted her but did write editorials signed by her. When I met the late and lamented Pataudi and asked him, if he would write a column, he agreed but quoted one rupee per word. I couldn't agree as that would turned out to be more than my salary.

Coming back to Mohan's novel, it is laced with an insider's ringside view of complexities. He has outlined his characters before the prologue, etching out the protagonists of films, media and politics and their checkered relationships. Mohan has eaten, slept and drank films. He has rubbed shoulders with the bold and beautiful, dirty and nasty, good bad and ugly aspects of Bollywood. I knew him as a journalist but he has evolved himself as a literary genius. I feel, he should have started creating literature earlier. His readers like me would have been more blessed. He has a gift of the gab. He can turn his phrase with a deft hand. I felt too small reading him. I have also dabbled into playwriting, translation and of course commentaries, made TV serials and more than 40 socially relevant films under the title Dhoop ki Lakiren for Doordarshan but I feel humble after reading.

It was heartening to note that he is publishing under his own banner Quest Mercury, Intermedia Pvt Ltd. It is artistically designed, well conceived, finely crafted , intricately caricatured. Congratulations, my long lost friend Mohan. He is not in the awe of the stars. He is ruthless and iconoclastic in his approach. He reminds of Shobha De who edited and produced Stardust for Nari Hira and earned the wrath of the angry middle-aged Amitabh. Bachchan boycott the 'gutter press' for more than a decade. When I approached him for an interview, saying my Super is different, I got a reply on his golden embarrassed letterhead, Om, whenever I change my mind, my first interview will be by you. And ten years later when Amitabh was unfortunately and wrongly mentioned in Bofors scandal of his friend Rajiv Gandhi, he invited me to Bombay to interview him on the sets of Khuda Gwah.