The magic that is Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan saved yet another day for us in Egypt. Over the week-end, we had gone to Dahab, a laidback beach resort on the Red Sea. And the most oft repeated word that we heard on our drive to and fro to Dahab was “Amitabh Bachchan”. At every check post (and boy! were there many!), when the officials learnt that we were from India, the first thing that they would ask us is whether we knew Amitabh Bachchan. And with a request to pass on their regards to the Big B, we would be waved through. It was as if the words “Amitabh Bachchan” were the magic words that put us above any kind of suspicion. To hear the Big B’s name spoken of with such fondness and adulation in the Sinai desert was a revelation of the reach of cinema and the magic that is Amitabh Bachchan. Moreover, the cafes at the petrol pumps also had their television sets tuned to Hindi movies starring Amitabh Bachchan and sub-titled in Arabic.

To hear the Big B’s famous dialogues from the movie “Hum” while I waited for my turn to go to the washroom at a Mobinil petrol station in the town of Nakhl (middle of the Sinai) felt unreal but at the same time also made my chest puff up with pride. You are a real hero, Big B!