You are growing old.. Dodo!

A couple of months ago as I was shaving my beard, there was something shinning. I moved to closer to the mirror to examine it. Soap? Foam? No.. it wasn't. I tried removing it and it stayed there. " Oh Nooooooooooooooooo" my soul screamed. It was grey facial hair ! Arghhhhhhh.. I am growing old. I let out a heavy breathe and touched my tummy. Damn it..! Nothing is going right and aging is so bloody one sided.  Huh.. I wish I was Benjamin Button! 

The other day I was watching MTV and it was the awesome 'Masakali Masakali' song. Ah... Sonam Kapoor is damn cute ya ! Watching my eyes  stuck to the Masakali babe, my Mom decided to dig into it.

Mom: Who is this girl?

Me: Sonam Kapoor

Mom: Oh...! Newcomer?

Me: Yeah, she is Anil Kapoor's daughter.

Mom: Oh! I see.

No she wasn't digging into it. She came, she saw, she left. I was the one who was lost in deep thought.

Circa 1988. I was in Class III and I was back home after watching Tezaab. Anil Kapoor was awesome in the movie. Kya hero tha yaar! ( No..No Arnold schwarzeneggeror or Sylvester Stallone I was not an English movies fan even  then) Tezaab was followed by Ram Lakhan and I thought Anil Kapoor truly rocked at that time. ( Till SRK  came along in 1992 with Dewaana). 

Haa.. wait! I won't digress and go into Bollywood now. The point is I adored Anil Kapoor back then. He now has a daughter .. and dude I find her adorable too.  That's ok. But then, it has been quite some time since those Tezaab days - a good 22 years  ago.  I was now reminded of the grey hair follicle again ! Old!!! Such an annoying 3 letter word!

My mind now went down south . I mean .. I am talking about the Film Industry! Who were the movie stars I liked in Tollywood and where are they now?

* The rest of this post is about the Telugu film industry-Tollywood from 1981-1990. Be warned*

As a kid perhaps the first 'hero' I knew was 'Sobhan Babu'.  Awwww! I know it isn't cool.. but since he was the only one whom I knew back then .. he was my favourite, first ever favorite Telugu hero. But yeah he spent most of his time in movies arguing with his wife .. (the heroine). His movies would usually have two heroines out of which one would die in the end. ( I really can't describe him as well as this blogger does).  I guess I saw him doing some dishum.. dishum and fighting a baldy bady to save his lady love and so liked him.

For those of you who are wondering if I ever liked ANR and NTR, let me tell you as a kid ( ahem ahem) I looked beyond the old 'black-white' generation. So when my mom and her sisters used to go gaga over NTR and ANR, I thought liking them would be so uncool. And so Shobhan Babu!

Shobhan Babu had passed away last year and so yeah the first one is already gone. It has indeed been a loooooong time!

1986- Simhasanam. I saw Super Star Krishna in that movie wielding the sword skillfully and was so impressed that for the next 1 month any long  metal/stick or kitchen utensil would turn into a sword into my hand. Those around me would be my enemies. And yeah our bed was the battlefield where I would defeat them. The bed because I could jump and perform feats on it without getting hurt :). Of course I would sing 'Akasam lo Oka Tara' to myself .. coz I would usually never find a cute little girl around.

Krishna's son Mahesh Babu has been wielding the gun since quite some time now. Time .. I say just flies!

Krishna was notorious for his dance steps and some of my friends in my neighbourhood used to make fun of me for being his fan.  There were all fans of his guy called Chiranjeevi who would dance like a charm and woo his lady love bashing up all the goons. Dad then took me to this movie -'State Rowdy' and boy.. wasn't Chiru ( that's what we fans call him) awesome? I was totally floored and as far as I can remember I never adored any other hero as much I adored Chiru. ( A few years later ,my hormones got active and then I would only watch the heroines !)

Of course , no Chiru  fan can ever forget his fights with the evil Amrish Puri  on the train or his super dances. Remember the Chiki Chiki Chellam ... Chiki Chiki Chellam Chiki Chiki Chiki aah!  G A N G.. GANG GANG bajao BANG BANG song from Gang Leader. ( I am again inspired by this awesome blogger's post). Chiru was truly phenomenonal!

Venkatesh came next with the super hit movie ' Bobbili Raja'. But then Divya Bharti came along and yeah I was old enough to notice her. Chiru was there much earlier and so he remained the Star for me!

Chiranjeevi has quit movies now and is trying his luck in Politics . His son Ram Charan Teja and nephew Allu Arjun are big stars in  Tollywood today. 

Hmmmmm.. Looooooooooong pause!

So then the fact that I am old is as cliched as the demand for Telangana. 

I have come a long way from the Grow up..Kiddo! days . Really???

Hmmm.. Mom & Dad seem to be thinking on the same lines and they want to DISCUSS something SERIOUS with me tonight.

NAHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!