New Delhi: Amitabh Bachchan has recently been seen promoting his new film ‘Chehre’ in a one-of-its-kind manner, by reciting poems in his somber baritone. The movie recently hit theatres and along with that came a series of 5 videos where we can see Big B himself reciting poems from a book ‘Chehre’, a compilation of 70 poems by one of his biggest fans Vikas Bansal, who Mr. Bachchan refers to as his extended family. An avid poet, who has written over 1000 poems, Bansal is currently the Co-Founder and Director of Prakriti, which provides electricity-powered cabs.
The book ‘Chehre’ written by Vikas Bansal, focuses on the emotional turmoil of life and the consequences of the actions and decisions which we humans experience, thereby creating different faces over our skin in different situations. The book has been written in the form of a monologue where the poet questions and answers at the same time the various aspects of life. In November 2019, Vikas had a chance to personally gift one the copies of the book to Bachchan.
Since the movie was released this Friday, Bachchan chose to pick up 5 poems from the book “Chehre” because these poems’ magnanimity resonated with the overall theme of the much-awaited multi-starrer. The videos released by Mr. Bachchan have been trending with #ChehrePoem and have taken the internet by storm.
Bachchan also in his latest blog appreciated Vikas saying, “the words of the writing by Vikas in synchronized effect to the characters of the film or maybe not, but just there .. for the story or the screenplay of the film was not known to the poet, yet to put down the feel is a feat.
.. the feel needs to be understood in the rendition .. the rendition has limitations .. the renderer is not an accomplished reader of poetry or words that represent poetry, or not in the feel of the writer when he thought of putting it the way he did .. and that shall ever be the mystery of the feel of poetry.”
Expressing his thoughts on his poems being used in the promotion of the film, Vikas Bansal said, “The poems are dedicated to the many faces we humans have masked over our skin to hide our true feelings. It’s an honor that this poem has been given voice by Bachchan Sahab himself. I remember the childhood days where we use to stay in the queue just to get tickets to his blockbuster movies. I have always been one of his biggest fans”.
During the lockdown, in April 2020 Mr. Bansal released a book titled ‘Jazbaatoan ka Ghar’ in order to generate funds for those worst affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. He managed to feed almost 500 families daily for months, providing them ration and cooked meals. In 2020, Prakriti helped more than 53,000 corona patients in their hassle-free commute to hospitals and healthcare facilities free of cost.
