‘Indiana Jones and the last crusade’ is a terrific commercial film. But it also has a few memorable scenes with great dialogues. Here’s one that encaspulates the sense of loss of a loved one perfectly. Most often one attempts to reconcile the past with the lost one, and as this is an ongoing process, one never finds enough time.
Oh, God. I’ve lost him. And I never told him anything. I just wasn’t ready, Marcus. Five minutes would have been enough.
What follows is a bit cheesy and even more commercial, but overall a terrific scene that is well written and brought on to screen, by the entire team. Here is the complete scene.
There is a beautiful ghazal from the movie ‘Alag Alag’, by the inimitable combo of R.D.Burman, Kishore Kumar and Anand Bakshi, picturized on Rajesh Khanna in a chawl. In the 80s, on Doordarshan’s ‘Chitrahaar’, I couldn’t help noticing an old guy sitting besides the star and enthusiastically ‘wah wah’ing both in anticipation and after the verse is sung. The rest of the crowd were full of junior artists and a few known actors, so I wondered who this senior junior artist would be. My research led to the reveal of the real person—Bhagwan Dada.
Inimitable combo of R.D.Burman, Anand Bakshi and Kishore Kumar
Bhagwan Dada
led a life that would be called chimerical in any other domain, but not so in
the world of light and dark. Movie industry is the place where fortunes change
overnight and shift from sprawling building to congested chawls, and from the
glare of hero spotlight to shade of filler characters. Bhagawan Dada had seen
it all. His famous step in ‘Albela’ is supposedly to have influenced Amitabh
Bachchan and Govinda.
Here’s Tabassum recounting her experiences with Bhagawan Dada and leaves us a reminder that no matter how big or small, nothing is permanent in this world/stage. There are many Bhagwan Dadas and Kasturi Sivaraos who can vouch for this fact.
“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; … And one man in his time plays many parts…”- William Shakespeare
Baba never, in fact, actually begged any money, nor allowed His Bhaktas to beg. Heregarded money as a danger or bar to spiritual progress and did not allow His Bhaktas to fall into its clutches. Bhagat Mhalsapati, is an instance on this point. He was very poor and could hardly make both ends meet. Baba never allowed him to make any money, nor gave him anything from the Dakshina amount. Once a kind and liberal merchant named Hansaraj gave a large amount of money to Mhalsapati in Baba’s presence, but Baba did not allow him to accept it.
From Sai SatCharitra- Chapter 36
Above is an interesting aspect of Shirdi Sai Baba’s grace. Usually we attribute a guru’s or God’s blessings in terms of what is given but what is not denied…especially worldly things. We do find instances where a person is tested with wealth etc by the Guru or God, to know what the devotee’s true intentions are (like Lord Yama does to Nachiketha in Katha Upanishad), but this is probably only one instance where the Guru out-rightly decides for his disciple.
Sai Satcharitra is replete with such examples, where Shirdi Sai Baba in his unique way takes care of his disciples and their problems…and most importantly puts them on the path of higher revelations.
