The conditioning of men and women since childhood is what makes the culture of our society. Young men growing up with notions like ‘mard ko dard nahi hota’, ‘angry young man’, or ‘men don’t cry’ make them lose a strong connection with their emotions. However, in a conversation with Nikhil Taneja on Yuvaa’s masculine positivity show, ‘Be A Man, Yaar’, Javed Akhtar openly spoke about men and their emotions and the iconic character of the ‘Angry Young Man’, that was created by him and Salim Khan during the 70s and was embodied by Amitabh Bachchan. Javed saab said that the ‘Angry Young Man’ wasn’t just angry but also deeply hurt.
In the viral episode that’s racking up millions of views on social media, while conversing with the Media Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Yuvaa, Nikhil Taneja, Javed Akhtar mentioned having strong women in his life and said, “Meri zindagi mein sirf wo hi auratein aayi jo behad strong auratein thi. I was married to Honey Irani and Honey is a very powerful and a very strong woman, and then after 11 years for different reasons we parted, and then I got married to Shabana. I don’t think I need to tell you about her.”
Calling his ex-wife, Honey Irani his best friend, and recalling their relationship graph, Javed Saab mentioned, “Aam taur se shaadi toote wo bhi 11 saal baad toh things can become very ugly. For a while, there was tension because obviously she was hurt but gradually things changed and today we are best of friends. Agar aap mujhe bole teen ache dosto ka naam batao toh ek toh main Honey ka loonga, do sochunga. And ye Honey ki side se hai that she has total confidence in me, and we share jokes and we share emotional moments. We are best of friends!”
When Nikhil asked Javed Saab about his 40-year-long married life with Shabana Azmi, the screenwriter and lyricist shared “Woh dost hain meri basically! Meri aur Shabana ki dosti itni achi hai ki shaadi bhi uska kuch nahi bigaad payi. Do insaan hain, wo ek sath khush kaise reh sakte hain? Wo ek sath tabhi khush reh sakte hain jab dono mein mutual respect, mutual love ho. Uske sath ye acceptance ho ki hum mein se koi star and dusra planet nahi hai. We both are stars. And jis tarha mujhe apne ambitions, arzoo, tamanna, sapne rakhne ka adhikar hai, waise hi dusre ko bhi hai. You cannot expect to have a successful marriage at the cost of one person’s happiness chahe woh male ho ya female ho.”
Javed saab also praised Amitabh Bachchan profusely in the episode, saying that there were many caricatures of the ‘Angry young man’ in cinema, but none that did it as well as Mr Bachchan. He said “ This is a man who is deeply hurt and that’s why he is angry, they did not bother about the hurt and they made the character angry, wo arrogant lagta hai, to uski copies bohot ki gayi but they did not work, because usme wo Amitabh Bachchan ke character ki, aur Amitabh Bachchan ke performance ki depth hi nahi hai.” He also said that unlike other writers, he felt blessed to work with Mr. Bachchan because he would make the scenes better than the dialogues he had written! He called Mili one of Mr. Bachchan’s finest performances ever.
In this sensitive and honest conversation, Javed Saab also talked about his relationship with his parents, his equation with his children Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar, his struggle with alcoholism, the ‘Angry Young Man’ character he wrote with Salim Khan and his equation with Salim saab, the modern women, feminism, new-age writers and directors in Bollywood, vague concept of men, his childhood and much more. You can watch the fresh episodes of #BeAManYaar powered by The Man Company on Yuvaa’s YouTube channel. You can also enjoy the extended unfiltered wholesome episodes on Amazon Music.