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Monday mornings are all about running late. Except when Aamir Khan asks you to meet him at his house at 7:30 a.m. After a long wait, the actor had agreed to let THE WEEK follow him through the day. Aamir's man Friday, Sunil, ushers me into the plush apartment in Bandra's Marina.
Even as I find myself soaking in the early morning quiet, the soothing spacious cream interiors adding to the mood, a voice calls out in chaste Marathi: “Kon aala? [Who is it?]”. It is Khan. I wonder if it is in preparation for a role. But later in the day, he tells me, he is just revisiting the language he aced at back in school. Even as the tea arrives, Sunil announces that saab is already downstairs; in the car!
Both Khan and wife Kiran were going live in less than an hour on an FM radio station to promote their latest film, Dhobi Ghat. Aamir plays one of the four leads in Kiran's dream project, complete with her script and direction. Not surprisingly then, the car was not the Ghajini-man's Land Cruiser, but Kiran's pet—a steely silver BMW 5 Series.
As I settle into the front seat, it is hard to ignore the entourage following us in an Innova—a uniformed policeman, two private security personnel, Jogi, Aamir's make-up man of more than ten years and, of course, Sunil.
But in Kiran's world, there is little space for distractions. With a long day ahead, including the first special screening of the film at the Yash Raj Films Studios, the talk in the car revolves around the film and why it is important to convey that the 95-minute film with no interval is nothing like a regular Aamir movie. “To me, the film is about Mumbai's baarik sacchai [fine truth]. The effect this city has on people is just like water. It cleanses people of past baggage, transforming them into brand new individuals,” Aamir tells me.
As the very casual couple discuss their dreams, there are no distractions, except the questions that I cannot help but pose. Not even a cell phone rings. Aamir does not carry his cell phone on him; it is with his 'boy'. The only thing the actor makes sure he is never separated from are his books. Currently, he is reading The Untold Story of India's Partition by Narendra Singh Sarila. Close to 2,000 books adorn the different rooms, including the kitchen, of the family home. From Urdu poetry collections to Shakespeare to autobiographies, including that of Gujarati theatre star Upendra Trivedi, and novellas, Khan's shelves have them all.
Even as I find myself soaking in the early morning quiet, the soothing spacious cream interiors adding to the mood, a voice calls out in chaste Marathi: “Kon aala? [Who is it?]”. It is Khan. I wonder if it is in preparation for a role. But later in the day, he tells me, he is just revisiting the language he aced at back in school. Even as the tea arrives, Sunil announces that saab is already downstairs; in the car!
Both Khan and wife Kiran were going live in less than an hour on an FM radio station to promote their latest film, Dhobi Ghat. Aamir plays one of the four leads in Kiran's dream project, complete with her script and direction. Not surprisingly then, the car was not the Ghajini-man's Land Cruiser, but Kiran's pet—a steely silver BMW 5 Series.
As I settle into the front seat, it is hard to ignore the entourage following us in an Innova—a uniformed policeman, two private security personnel, Jogi, Aamir's make-up man of more than ten years and, of course, Sunil.
But in Kiran's world, there is little space for distractions. With a long day ahead, including the first special screening of the film at the Yash Raj Films Studios, the talk in the car revolves around the film and why it is important to convey that the 95-minute film with no interval is nothing like a regular Aamir movie. “To me, the film is about Mumbai's baarik sacchai [fine truth]. The effect this city has on people is just like water. It cleanses people of past baggage, transforming them into brand new individuals,” Aamir tells me.
As the very casual couple discuss their dreams, there are no distractions, except the questions that I cannot help but pose. Not even a cell phone rings. Aamir does not carry his cell phone on him; it is with his 'boy'. The only thing the actor makes sure he is never separated from are his books. Currently, he is reading The Untold Story of India's Partition by Narendra Singh Sarila. Close to 2,000 books adorn the different rooms, including the kitchen, of the family home. From Urdu poetry collections to Shakespeare to autobiographies, including that of Gujarati theatre star Upendra Trivedi, and novellas, Khan's shelves have them all.