Why i hate Aamir Khan and yet want Satyamev jayate to succeed?

Other title candidate:
Dr.Strangelove: How i learnt to stop hating and love the idea of Aamir Khan.

Disclaimer one:
All thoughts expressed below are my opinions. If you disagree, i know that you disagree, so please do not share here.
Disclaimer two:
Whatever i say about this article, at the end of the day it is a rant. I will offer no justifications to whatever i am going to say. Again, if you disagree, please keep it to yourself.



Yes, the title is meant to be sensational and at the start i would like to clarify that i do not hate Aamir Khan. I have nothing against him as a person but i detest the adulation he receives.  This post is divided in two parts. In part one I clarify/justify my thoughts on Mr. perfectionist and in part Two, i would describe why the first episode of Satyamev Jayate was simply cult. 

Part One:
I hate the adulation of Aamir Khan for  two main points -
(a) He is the  epitome of celebration of mediocrity. I am talking about Aamir Khan as an actor and i think his acting is average or slightly above average (since the pool of actors is so bad, the average itself is abysmally low).  I think his selection of movies is indeed decent and i have no doubt that he commits himself 100% to it. But so does Abhay Deol whose selection of movies has simply been great and he also gives everything but Abhay Deol also is a decent actor, not a good one. 
To justify my point, I will highlight Aamir's movies and my take on them. It is futile to discuss all his movies, but lets just discuss his early movies and later ones. In his early "debut" avatar, Aamir movies like QSQT,  JJWS and AHAT where success because of Mansoor Khan's direction, and the excellent writing that went into it. Andaz apna apna's credit will pretty much go to the dialog/characters. His mid-career movies like Ishq, Mann, Mela were a disaster with the exception of Sarfarsoh. Lagaan was a turning point in his career and i think Lagaan and Sarfarosh has been his best performances. But post Lagaan, i think his movies worked because of the brand value and marketing. I hate 3 idiots, RDB and Ghajini. If people claim that his movies have social message, IMHO the social message was not done any justice as they deserved.
If i claim Aamir to be average, who are good actors? To name a few, Irrfan Khan, Naseeruddin shah, Vinay Pathak, Raghuvir Yadav, Kay Kay Menon are few examples.  
So my point is that, i think the media and we as a nation have chosen a celebrate mediocrity and have neglected the finest talent that this profession has to offer. Mediocrity is contagious and we should be very cognizant of this. Companies like google are great because their hiring rule is that the new person's talent should be higher than the average. Companies like GE have survived because they weed out the bottom k% every year.  I think we should be very careful of who should be our role models, whom do we want our aspirations to be.  Aamir Khan as an actor does not reflect the acting standards that i look for.

(b) Aamir Khan is an excellent marketer (or salesman): To me this is the second thing wrong with our society. We (and i include me in this) believe whatever is presented to us in nice package. We judge a book by its cover, if something is sold to me nicely, we believe it, we trust it and accept it wholeheartedly.  Aamir Khan's post Lagaan movies have simply done that and here i would give him credit - he has done it excellently.  He has a very shrewd understanding of what works, what people want and he has a genuine knack of timing in delivery. People who do MBA (esp in marketing) treat him as God. This is my problem. He is inspiring people to be salesman and i hate him (or us) for that.  Sidenote: I think one of the most creative industries in India is the advertising industries and i always have mixed feelings  about it.  His recent movies are successful not because  of their content matter but because of his brand value and the way they were pushed on to us. If anybody tells me that 3 idiots is a satirical take on Indian education system my reaction is (a) to smile because laughing would be rude and (b) to walk away from the conversation as soon as i can otherwise i would just explode. 

Aamir exploits our psyche and what we want to hear in his movies and there is nothing wrong with it if the contents inside package are equally good.  But what he delivers is simply average. Yet, we celebrate it because the salesman has sold us and now its all hallucination and we just nod. The idea of independent judgement has been lost.  This is main reason - his salesmanship is killing independent opinion in our minds. Case in point is Ghajini which again IMHO (a) movie with horribly pathetic ending (b) the unique aspect of the story line that was partially copied from a cult movie and (c) the usp was Aamis Khan's 6 pack. That movie was a hit because it was sold to us. The "All is well" in 3 idiots which became the nation's favorite punch line, was so idiotically portrayed in the scene where the new born baby kicks when listens this phrase. I can go on with examples but i think i have made my point.



Part Two:
I loved Satyamev Jayate's episode one. I think it was one of the finest piece of Indian TV show that i have seen in years ( Sidenote: TV being a medium that has been totally neglected for people with intellect, again IMHO).  As i said above, i have nothing against packaging things nicely as long as the content inside is good. If bad things are sold with a nice cover, thats when things get problematic. I would honestly admit that when i saw the ads of Satyamev jayate, even when i heard that the name of the show is going to be Satyamev jayate ( a phrase which  is probably the only ideal that i espouse in my life), i was very impressed and yet being Aamir Khan, i believed that its all in packaging. I was so weary that i started the show at 11:35 instead of 11 am and i can honestly say that the show was really really well done.  Here is what i liked about the show -

(a) In one show, Satyamev Jayate showed what is wrong with all the news based reality shows. There have been many such shows on sahara, samay etc etc channels which report on these crimes but all of them ended up sensationalizing the issue in a wrong manner. Satyamev Jayate just proved that raw emotions appeal to our sensationalities in a far more effective manner than any other means. In a single stroke, i predict that this episode is going to change the face of reality based reporting.
(b) Oprah and respect: While talking to the people involved in real incidents, one was reminded about the Oprah Winfrey show. There is nothing wrong to compare but at the heart of it,  what both these shows are pointing that these people should be treated with respect and dignity. Again something that those news channels forgot in their attempt to sensationalize. Satyamev jayate brings it back and i would like to add Thanks you!
(c) All round coverage - There were point case studies, there were statistics (i would have liked more), there was public opinions, myths and reality. There was both cause and effect (the Kurukshetra case which also brought humor to the show). There was the problem, the solution (the Punjab village case) and a call to action.
(d) Swanand Kirkire's voice and Ram Sampanth's composition was like icing on the cake in terms of production value. (One of the great things that i used to like about House MD was its song on closing).
(e) Aamir Khan :) When people with klout do something that is good, when the klout is used to shape the views of people in large, there is nothing better usage of that.  Aamir Khan, thank you for doing this, for not dancing in IPL, for doing a good job at it.

(f) I think its awesome that this show was aired on Doordarshan!
Lastly, i think the topic of first episode is just the topic that needs our attention. So many things are a result of this gender inequality.  Full marks to the team of SJ and indeed Mr. perfectionist.







Few predictions -
(a) Aamir would be the in some list of most influential men of this century soon.
(b) I think SJ would be a trend setter in many shows to come in future. A welcome move.


A note:
There are those of you who will question my authority on making the above claims. A few of you may ask - "How good of an actor are you to make such comments?"  Here is my answer. I do not know how to sing yet i can appreciate Lata Mangeshkar over Shreya Goshal, Mohd. Rafi over Abhijit, Ust. Bismillah khan over an average shehnai player. So my point is that the appreciation of greatness can also come by making independent thought and judgement, by depth of perception.  Knowledge of subject definitely adds more subtleties, makes the difference more apparent and makes the appreciation of greatness more enjoyable.
Second question comes about my own professional skill - If you are average yourself, how you are making such a big comment? I must admit that among my peers in my company, i consider myself fortunate to be working with such great people, people who without any questions have superior skills than me. But i believe that if we look at the industry wise distribution, i know for a fact that i am damn good at the job i do. 

Lets close this rant with these four lines from the title song of Satyamev jayate -

Mujhey khud ko bhi hai tatolna
Kahin hai kami to hai bolna
Khahin dag hain toh chupayein kyon
Hum sach se nazrein hatayein kyon