“I sometimes wonder what Scott Fitzgerald would have made of Tom Cruise. At a time when the idea of the actor-as-draw has disappeared from contemporary cinema, the weirdly ageless man remains the last remaining Movie Star working today. Cruise has dealt with the changing vagaries of the industry through both phenomenal hard work and, on another level, simply ignoring them.” ~ ‘Tom Cruise: the last movie star’ by Alexander Larman.
That’s right. Tom Cruise is the last of the Hollywood superstars, or so it would seem to the lay observer. I remember reading somewhere that SRK remains the last of them in India.
Now, while I am doubtful about any pundit declaring anything or anyone the last of something or someone (unless it is a scientist speaking of specific species), I think it might be the hair.
I mean, just look at Tom’s and Shah Rukh’s. Why isn’t anyone able to make that correlation? It’s the hair.
I remember reading somewhere too (I seem to be doing a lot of reading somewhere nowadays) that bar very rare exceptions, in an election, whether primaries or mains, American or otherwise, but mainly American (for the purposes of this hypothesis), the candidate with the better hair wins.
Samson had his strength in his hair. Amitabh wears a wig for so long, no one remembers his real hair any more. Dimple Kapadia without her hair would be just another actor with an unusual name. Indeed, why look at film stars. Even our saints and prophets, our religions and faiths, our traditions and culture, were very particular about hair. Buddha shaved it off when renouncing the world. Hindus shave it when their father dies. Jews are expected to keep them (specifically, the sideburns) a certain length, and married women must cover them so strictly that some prefer to go bald, and bewigged. Islam expects both men and women to hide theirs for purposes of modesty. Soldiers are forbidden to have them long, so it’s easy to manage while Sikhism (which took on a martial tone pretty early in its history) makes it mandatory for its adherents to not just not let them ever see a pair of scissors, but also actually have a comb ready to groom themselves and keep them tidy.
Hair is a multi-billion dollar industry and the cause of much poetry and romance, not to mention heartbreak and even depression.
In summary, look at Tom Cruise and SRK, the last of the superstars (debatably). And see if you can spot the similarity.
And then, of course, is the superstar even superstars consider a superstar. The baap of them all. But as they say, there’s a reason he has less hair: All of it is donated to the diamond merchants of Surat and is being used to cut diamonds. Why do you think India is an international hub of that business? But I have a better theory, and it is this: Rajani Sir donated his hair to Tom and Shah Rukh. That’s why he has none, and theirs refuses to fall.
(Psst: This isn’t a joke. There are no Rajani jokes; they are all facts.)
