#SalmanKhanVerdict: Will Bollywood now kick Bhai out?

With his conviction in the 2002 American Bakery hit-and-run case, the wheel of controversy, which seems to have hovered above Salman Khan’s ever-bankable head like a crown of thorns as well as a fast-spinning halo, has finally run out of fuel. Khan has been found guilty of all the charges that had been levelled at him, chiefly culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligent driving under the influence of alcohol, by a sessions court in Mumbai, which pronounced a sentence of five years of rigorous imprisonment.

Bollywood’s uber cool bad boy, whose movies have scorched box office on so regular a basis that they have been mistaken for festivals like Eid and Diwali; whose run-ins with the law have laced industry gossip with an adrenaline rush in the age of actors and superstars customising their image to socially-engineered perfection; whose legendary romances with film industry beauties have all ended in prickly tragicomedies of lost loves — Abdul Rasheed Saleem Salman Khan has long been playing with fire with a child-like abandon. In an era of telegenic conscientiousness, he remained the enfant terrible when being metrosexual was advantageous for the lesser lot. Yet, much like his movie personas, "Bhai" lived large, propping up many a struggling newbie and a large family without asking anything much in return. 

There’s something quintessentially medieval in his taste for the spotlight of the wrong kind: it’s an involuntary skill he’s born with, a Batman-like power to charm as he offends, again and again. There was the black buck shooting case, the brawls with boyfriends of his ex-lovers, even the allegation (later retracted) that he got abusive with some of his girlfriends. The sexy lover boy of Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun morphed into the lovable, unbelievably handsome rogue of Wanted, Ready, Bodyguard, Dabangg, Ek Tha Tiger and Kick. Much like his onscreen avatars, his middle class vigilante roles have a strong streak of the tribal warrior in them, recovering a lost, untamed ruggedness in the times of sedate and obliging masculinities of many kinds. The jury was always out on whether it’s a man or an adolescent we were dealing with.

Untamed and something of an outlaw. It appeared as if Salman’s ending up on the wrong side of law was his ultimate selling point. He oozed pheromones dipped in a light-criminality, which was then scented with a largeheartedness that has become the stuff of lore. Such indecision in his character, such spontaneity, was both welcomed and swallowed with caution, as India watched his antics with morbid fascination. His friends kept fingers crossed; his detractors waited with baited breath. It was as if he was a famous character in a cartoon strip; even his personal tragedies seemed to tickle his fans with a comic stir. His arrogance was unrepentant and unredeemed by any acts of supine atonement, say like a Sanjay Dutt who tried sweetening the bitter pill with his Munnabhai image.

However, at heart of his fiery universe was a contradiction so strong that it ultimately caught up with him. Spewing money and badass-ness, he just got away with it all, unbelievably almost. As the cases dragged on for years, this backdrop lent a kind of risk that moneymakers of the Indian film industry got addicted to. He was a racehorse who was getting better and faster with every fresh wound, as it were. Age couldn’t stale, nor custom stale his lack of variety. He was also foolhardy unlike the other two of the Khan troika, and is perhaps the least intellectually gifted of the three; yet, his brawn of goodness only bulked up with quiet philanthropy becoming his way of life in recent years.

He was the lifeboat of the industry. Even now, at least Rs 200 crore worth projects still ride on his tired back. But he has run over men killing one; he has made his driver perjure in the court of law. He has even broken down as the verdict said guilty. 

He has been slipping past the fine mesh of the legal net for so long that it had acquired a kind of inevitability. Now that he’s been finally 'caught', in the harsh glare of hindsight, Salman appears to be one of those minor characters in his one-man-show movies who get bypassed at the end because their transgressions are a tad unimaginative. 

So much, so bad. 

But for now, there’s a staggering outpouring of grief and support for the superstar. The hashtag #WeLoveYouSalmanKhan has been trending for a few days now, and seems to be unaffected by #SalmanVerdict. But for how long will it hold out? Most are heartbroken that it's Salman Khan’s flamboyance, and not exactly the crime per se, that has been punished. Competitors and mediocre talents are relishing the fact Bollywood’s most bankable racehorse is grievously injured. The bookie is figuring out how to encash all the blood and tears before and in case this superstar becomes an industry outcast. As an astute observer says, “Karma is a homeless man sleeping on the pavement.”