Bollywood Khans: Ruling the Waves at 60

ASN'T it just yesterday that a bunch of us hired a VCR (video cassette recorder, for those born after its demise) during summer vacations to organise a watch-party for the tragic-romantic musical Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988)?

- NAMRATA JOSHI

Its boy-next-door lead found a way to our youthful hearts by strumming the guitar and singing 'Papa kehte hain bada naam karega'. This March 14, I found myself wishing him good health and happiness on his 60th birthday while ruminating on how far we—an entire generation of artistes, viewers and scribes—have come.

Along with Aamir Khan, the other two members of Bollywood Khandom—Shahrukh and Salman, who also endeared themselves to the audience around the same time, one with Fauji (1989), a charming TV series on young army commandoes, and the other with the wholesome family blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya (1989)—will also be celebrating their 60th birthdays this year, on November 2 and December 27, respectively. But the milepost appears to be more of an arrival into the next fecund phase of life.