Sex truth & the biographer!
It wasn't much ado about nothing as the nation reacted strongly to Pulitzer winning author Joseph Lelyveld's book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle, threatening it with a ban. Almost all biographers have tried to explore the Mahatma's bedroom secrets. And this time, Lelyveld talks about Gandhi's intimacy with a man friend, Hermann Kallenbach, an architect and bodybuilder and describes it as "the most intimate, also ambiguous, relationship of his lifetime". However, Lelyveld denies that his book is "some kind of sensationalist potboiler as it does not say Gandhi was bisexual."
Beyond sensationalism!
Are biographers fascinated with the sex lives of rich, powerful, famous men and women who are their subjects? Katherine Frank's book on Indira Gandhi exposes hidden facts about Indira's sex life, where MO Mathai calls Indira "highly sexed". Patrick French's biography on VS Naipaul describes in detail Naipaul's relationship with Margaret Murray and how they enjoyed a slave-and-victim sexual relationship. More recently, Om Puri's wife Nandita Puri, while writing her husband's biography Unlikely Hero, reveals that her husband had sex with his maid Shanti at the age of 14 and a liaison with a woman named Laxmi. Did Nandita seek sensationalism or was it honest reporting? "It was a very difficult decision. Disclosing something so private was a challenge as I was related to the subject. If you can't be honest, then write fiction. I think, I wrote about it because these were important relationships that shaped Om's thoughts and his world view. They influenced him.
There's a curiosity about the emotional, physical needs of famous men and women. It isn't just sensationalism."
Non-private lives of famous people
Nothing remains private and secret in the lives of the rich and famous when documenting their life history. Jerry Pinto in his book, Leela Naidu: Patchwork of Life, talks about Leela's dramatic personal life, with her first marriage t! o hospit ality baron Tikki. Not only that, the book has a reference to how actor Balraj Sahani told Leela, "I think of you all the time." Pamela Mountbatten in her book writes about Edwina Mountbatten, "My mother had already had lovers. My father was inured to it. It broke his heart the first time, but it was somehow different with Nehru." Says biographer Uma Trilok who wrote Amrita-Imroz: A Love Story, "When I was going through some letters Amrita wrote to Imroz, they were very intimate, where Amrita talks about how the love marks on her body have vanished but they remain on her soul. As a biographer, I had to be careful how I depicted my subject's personal life to the world." That's exactly how Yashodhara Dalmia felt when she was writing Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life, "I wrote about her unconventional ways, her love affairs because that influenced her as an artist." Says cultural historian Navina Jafa, "The functionality of a biography is to focus on a person's achievement. It's a report card on how a human life created social change. Hitler and Chengiz Khan's biography focuses on extraordinary human behaviour with negative flashes." Of course, even while scripting a biography of a negative person, the challenge is to put across the right perspective.
Can you keep a secret?
The challenge for a biographer is to get the secrets out of the closet. Most biographers have a 'morbid fascination' for sensationalism with lurid details of the love lives of their subjects. Says Jyoti Sabharwal, of Stellar Publishers, who has written biographies on Amrish Puri and Russi Mody, "Creating controversy is essentially a sales gimmick. Even gods have feet of clay. Why do we write about great achievers? To pick some inspiring leaves from their lives about how they reached the zenith against all odds, or who was getting into their beds? I respected what my subjects chose to reveal or keep under wraps in the public domain."
So, where do biographers draw a line? Says Kishwar Desai, author of Darlingji: The True! Love St ory of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, "Each biographer will dwell on the romantic or personal life of the subject. However, at no stage did I want to explore their sex lives. Both Nargis and Sunil Dutt had led such fascinating lives that I had plenty of new material to put into the public domain."
The private vs public debate for a biographer is always challenging. As India debates whether or not to ban Lelyveld's book on Gandhi, biographers will always try to peep under the covers. Bhawana Somaaya, author of Hema Malini's biography says, "There will be some biographies such as the one on Gandhi where sexuality would be discussed as Gandhi himself had written about it. However, in other cases, it may be neither relevant nor useful. I don't think biographers writing about the sex life of a particular individual do it to sensationalise but it is important to do so only if it is relevant or adds value. In the case of my own book, it was not required at all, as I had plenty of other very interesting material."
When Dev Anand lost Zeenat to Raj Kapoor
In Dev Anand's autobiography, Romancing With Life, the legendary actor openly confesses how he felt when Raj Kapoor kissed Zeenat Aman. Dev Anand writes about how Zeenat's image was one of his making and they were inseparable. Dev talks about the time when Raj Kapoor attended the premiere of Ishq Ishq Ishq at Metro cinema and kissed Zeenat in full view of the invited audience. Dev Anand writes, "I was jealous of him for making advances on what I considered my sole possession, my discovery, my leading lady, and desiring her with a kiss."
Beyond sensationalism!
Are biographers fascinated with the sex lives of rich, powerful, famous men and women who are their subjects? Katherine Frank's book on Indira Gandhi exposes hidden facts about Indira's sex life, where MO Mathai calls Indira "highly sexed". Patrick French's biography on VS Naipaul describes in detail Naipaul's relationship with Margaret Murray and how they enjoyed a slave-and-victim sexual relationship. More recently, Om Puri's wife Nandita Puri, while writing her husband's biography Unlikely Hero, reveals that her husband had sex with his maid Shanti at the age of 14 and a liaison with a woman named Laxmi. Did Nandita seek sensationalism or was it honest reporting? "It was a very difficult decision. Disclosing something so private was a challenge as I was related to the subject. If you can't be honest, then write fiction. I think, I wrote about it because these were important relationships that shaped Om's thoughts and his world view. They influenced him.
There's a curiosity about the emotional, physical needs of famous men and women. It isn't just sensationalism."
Non-private lives of famous people
Nothing remains private and secret in the lives of the rich and famous when documenting their life history. Jerry Pinto in his book, Leela Naidu: Patchwork of Life, talks about Leela's dramatic personal life, with her first marriage t! o hospit ality baron Tikki. Not only that, the book has a reference to how actor Balraj Sahani told Leela, "I think of you all the time." Pamela Mountbatten in her book writes about Edwina Mountbatten, "My mother had already had lovers. My father was inured to it. It broke his heart the first time, but it was somehow different with Nehru." Says biographer Uma Trilok who wrote Amrita-Imroz: A Love Story, "When I was going through some letters Amrita wrote to Imroz, they were very intimate, where Amrita talks about how the love marks on her body have vanished but they remain on her soul. As a biographer, I had to be careful how I depicted my subject's personal life to the world." That's exactly how Yashodhara Dalmia felt when she was writing Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life, "I wrote about her unconventional ways, her love affairs because that influenced her as an artist." Says cultural historian Navina Jafa, "The functionality of a biography is to focus on a person's achievement. It's a report card on how a human life created social change. Hitler and Chengiz Khan's biography focuses on extraordinary human behaviour with negative flashes." Of course, even while scripting a biography of a negative person, the challenge is to put across the right perspective.
Can you keep a secret?
The challenge for a biographer is to get the secrets out of the closet. Most biographers have a 'morbid fascination' for sensationalism with lurid details of the love lives of their subjects. Says Jyoti Sabharwal, of Stellar Publishers, who has written biographies on Amrish Puri and Russi Mody, "Creating controversy is essentially a sales gimmick. Even gods have feet of clay. Why do we write about great achievers? To pick some inspiring leaves from their lives about how they reached the zenith against all odds, or who was getting into their beds? I respected what my subjects chose to reveal or keep under wraps in the public domain."
So, where do biographers draw a line? Says Kishwar Desai, author of Darlingji: The True! Love St ory of Nargis and Sunil Dutt, "Each biographer will dwell on the romantic or personal life of the subject. However, at no stage did I want to explore their sex lives. Both Nargis and Sunil Dutt had led such fascinating lives that I had plenty of new material to put into the public domain."
The private vs public debate for a biographer is always challenging. As India debates whether or not to ban Lelyveld's book on Gandhi, biographers will always try to peep under the covers. Bhawana Somaaya, author of Hema Malini's biography says, "There will be some biographies such as the one on Gandhi where sexuality would be discussed as Gandhi himself had written about it. However, in other cases, it may be neither relevant nor useful. I don't think biographers writing about the sex life of a particular individual do it to sensationalise but it is important to do so only if it is relevant or adds value. In the case of my own book, it was not required at all, as I had plenty of other very interesting material."
When Dev Anand lost Zeenat to Raj Kapoor
In Dev Anand's autobiography, Romancing With Life, the legendary actor openly confesses how he felt when Raj Kapoor kissed Zeenat Aman. Dev Anand writes about how Zeenat's image was one of his making and they were inseparable. Dev talks about the time when Raj Kapoor attended the premiere of Ishq Ishq Ishq at Metro cinema and kissed Zeenat in full view of the invited audience. Dev Anand writes, "I was jealous of him for making advances on what I considered my sole possession, my discovery, my leading lady, and desiring her with a kiss."
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