DIFF Salutes Shahrukh Khan

Hey friends,

Hands up all you who don't know who ShahRukh Khan is? He is the current King Khan of Bollywood, and he was here recently in Dubai for the Dubai International Film Festival. My sister is a die hard fan of his, as are almost every other female, and she insisted I take her to the venue to see him live in person. While I am not a huge fan of SRK (I prefer Aamir Khan- of Lagaan, Dil Chahta and Rang De Basanti fame), I still took my sister because all nice brothers do.

Having called up the Madinat Jumeirah Box Office days before the show, they promised me the tickets will be available on the same day before the event. On the morning of the event, my sister and I got dressed up and drove over to Madinat Jumeirah. Somehow I was not as excited as she was. Arriving at the box office, we were told that the tickets are completely sold out. I was not susprised at the poor customer service. I knew something like this would happen. They assured us that while they said tickets were available in the morning, they will still be available at 3pm. Dubai is famous for mismanagment everywhere, and it was becoming very evident here as the organizers were shouting here and there, pushing and shoving people around, not setting up the stand by queues well, showing a complete sense of mismanagement and disorganized. We were made to stand in the stand by queue and thankfully my sister and I were the first one.

There were people with complimentary passes who were smirking at us as they made their way in. It was becoming obvious on their faces that they showed some sense of superiority over us who were standing in the stand by queue. Again, another sign of the fakeness of Dubai people. Soon we saw about 10 local arab girls, completely covered in abayas and holding digital camers and autograph books in hand, asking the organizers to let them just take pictures and get his autograpghs. "Ma'am, you have to pay 200dhs to get in." No, they didn't want to pay. They just wanted to take pictures. They were refused, and so all 10 of them stood in line before us. Such dedication from local fans towards SRK. Thankfully, at 3pm, we managed to get our tickets and made our way in.

The show started late (does anything ever start on time in Dubai?). When it was advertised everywhere as 3pm, and requested everyone to show up on time, the show started about 30 minutes lates. We were shown initially a montage of SRK's famous film moments and dialogue, and while watching that, I realized how accomplished of an actor he is. The host came up and narrated to us SRK's parents love story, which was indeed very heart felt, and little bit about his upbringing. SRK parents died before he reached his stardom, and he wishes his parents were still alive to have seen him hit such levels of fame.

Soon, SRK came on stage from the side, and whole auditorium erupted in applause, whistling and name calling. I don't know what it was, but SRK was emanating such a strong energy in the auditorium I actually got goosebumps, and I am not even a huge fan of his. Even the host talked about his spiritual energy emanating from him and I realized what the host meant. SRK was given his first international film award by the president of the Dubai International Film Festival.

As soon as SRK sat down, Riz Khan, the ex-anchor of CNN, showed up for a casual question and answer session. I won't get into the whole thing, but there three people that stood out from the audience. One were two sisters, complete in hijab and abayas, screaming out in delight how they are the number one fans and how they want to take pictures with him in between the two sisters. They were just too hilarious. The second person was a women my sister and I befriended, who was from Lahore (Go Lahore!) and she told SRK how much he was welcome to come to Pakistan and honor the country with his presence. Amidst his inshallahs, SRK said he has some extended family in Pakistan and he looks forward to coming to Pak. The third person, who was also from Lahore, grabbed hold of the microphone, and accused SRK of acting in films whose storylines were taken directly off old Pakistani films. "I can tell you right here, right now all of the Pakistani movies from which you have stole the film from." He trailed on and on, to the point where my sister got infuriated and shouted at him to stop this nonsense and grabbed hold of his microphone. Such an embarrasing character.

In short, the event lasted not even an hour, and while it was awesome seeing SRK in person, and getting me to develop a huge admiration for him as an actor and a person, I was disappointed at the management of the festival and the unprofessionalism. Poor organization. Late start. Over priced tickets for less than 60 minutes show. Giving wrong information over hotline. It will be ages before Dubai can be on the world map of film festivals. Come on Dubai, if you want to be on the same stage as Cannes and Venice film festivals, you really need to get your act together.

Mansur