He put a cigarette in his mouth and, as a matter of silent routine, offered one to Gwyn, who said ‘No thanks.”Richard looked at him.”I packed it in.”"You what?”"I stopped. Three days ago. Cold. That’s it. You just make the life choice.”
Richard looked up and inhaled needfully. He gazed at his cigarette. He didn’t really want to smoke it. He wanted to eat it. Almost the only thing that he still liked about Gwyn was that he still smoked…Paradoxically, he no longer wanted to give up smoking: what he wanted to do was take up smoking. Not so much to fill the little gaps between cigarettes with cigarettes (there wouldn’t be time, anyway) or to smoke two cigarettes at once. It was more that he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette even when he was smoking a cigarette. The need was and wasn’t being met…
While it would always be true and fair to say that Richard felt like a cigarette, it would now be doubly true and fair to say it. He felt like a cigarette. And he felt like a cigaret…
I think that there is a need for reevaluation of Meena Kumari life and work as a creative artist on the Indian screen.This is so relevant since 4 decades after her death and in the ensuing period what happened to Indian cinema as a creative art.Vinod Mehta is well predisposed to fill this literary gap felt by many after 2011 Biography of Madhubala written by Mrs Kabir.The two greatest female artist on the Indian cinema scene sharing many instances in common, in life and as well in their departing.
ReplyDeleteMeena Kumari was superb in Miss Mary. It was a comedy and she shone in the movie! Such a pity she got stuck in the tragedienne rut!
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