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 enlarge | Author: Anupama Chopra
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $9.90
You Save: $15.09 (60%)
New (34) Used (12) Collectible (1) from $7.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 132624
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0446578584
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092
EAN: 9780446578585
ASIN: 0446578584
Publication Date: August 2, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New - Has remainder mark. Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-8 of 8 | | « PREV | | |
King of my WORLD September 28, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is awesome..I mean if your already a crazy Shahrukh khan fan like I am, then you will know a few of the facts mentioned in the book but it is so fantastically written and a definite collectors item for all bollywood junkies. Overall I definitely reccomend this book, worth the price for sure:D
The Appeal of Shah Rukh Khan in Indian Cinema August 12, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Coming in at 250 pages, Anupama Chopra's authorized biography of Shah Rukh Khan covers from his parents' courtship in 1959 to January 2007. Ms. Chopra adds more details to Shah Rukh Khan's familiar backstory: on his father's business ventures, Shah Rukh's time at St. Columba's School, his parents' illnesses & deaths, & Shah Rukh Khan's training as an actor & his first steps in Mumbai. Several facets of Shah Rukh Khan's career are highlighted, particularly his daring acceptance of the anti-hero roles in Baazigar & Darr, the importance of Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, & Karan Johar in the creation of his screen persona, being contacted by the Mumbai mafia, box office slumps, in India, during the Dreamz Unlimited period, & resurgence with Veer-Zaara & Devdas. One gets new details on SRK's life & career but many questions go unanswered, like how did Shah Rukh train to dance, which parent did he inherit his dimples from, & what is a shooting day like on set?
Anupama Chopra's writing is skillful, so much so that I wished this biography was 3-4 times longer & more academic & detailed. There are no endnotes or footnotes within the chapters, but there is an extensive bibliography, arranged by chapter, at the back of the book & a list of people interviewed. There is information on Khan's parents that I had not read before, but Shah Rukh Khan's statements appear to be from past interviews. There are new photographs in the book provided by family & friends of Khan. I wish Ms. Chopra had given more information on the evolution & workings of cinema in Mumbai, on Shah Rukh Khan's & his family's personal lives, & on the family clans that dominate Hindi cinema. Neither her treatment of Shah Rukh Khan's career to present nor the discussion of Hindi cinema in Mumbai feels complete. However, I thoroughly enjoyed her writing (& the thoughtful translations of Hindi words & movie titles) & recommend the book for those who enjoy Shah Rukh Khan's work & Bollywood movies.
The Most-Loved Man in the World July 25, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I looked forward to this book, and I wasn't disappointed. I am a fan of its subject, India's most charismatic film star, and also of the author, who writes often for the New York Times, among other places, about the Bombay movie world.
There are lots of great stories about Shah Rukh packed into King of Bollywood , nice pictures too, but the book is about India and Hindi language popular movies made in Bombay, from the greatness of the 50s (barely known in the west - too bad) to the pretty severe non-greatness of the 80s, as much as it's about Shah Rukh and Hindi films today. Its easy, entertaining, and accurate telling of the story make it the first book on the subject I'd think of giving to a friend who is not a Hindi movie fan
It is true that Shah Rukh has "an Elvis-like effect" -- I saw it first-hand when he shot a film in New York -- and Chopra has some ideas about what goes into his being such an icon for India right now.
If Elvis' power had something to do with "a black soul in a white body", Shah Rukh, she says, presents something like an Indian soul in a western persona. Particularly in a handful of crucial roles created for him by a couple of inspired young directors*, Shah Rukh is the face of "a glittering new India," with a soaring economy and a middle class almost as big as the whole population of the US.
In movies that are like fairytales for all ages, the romantic characters that sealed Shah Rukh's superstardom live in great wealth in London or New York, but resolve their dramatic crises in an entirely Indian way.
Interestingly to me, a big percent of the still-small number of westerners in the Hindi movie audience were drawn there to start with by just these films. The archetype of someone totally eastern and totally western may be useful in the twenty-first century to even more of human society than the mere three billion already in love with the world's most loveable man.
* Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Sub Dol) (The Braveheart Will Take the Bride), 1995
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad), 2001
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