Defying the Age

the world strives for amortality, Shah Rukh Khan defies the illusion of youth

Shah rukh Khan is middle-aged and he looks it. This bare truism reveals how the Badshah of Bollywood symbolises mortality with all its visual symptoms at a time when much of the world celebrities or not will do anything for a lifetime membership in the Great Global Youth Cult.

Recently, there have been numerous debates around amortality and youth after Time magazine delved into the million mortal details of being Forever Young. The Observer, London, invited Catherine Mayer, author of Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly to argue why Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man was getting truncated. Most articles put out predictable assertions about youth-obsessed celebrities. Elton John, for instance, is 62, but feels 40 and has adopted a child at a “ripe age”. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner, at 85, believes numbers are a fickle aside as he readies to marry a girl 60 years his junior. Meryl Steep is blessed with natural agelessness, and Our Lady of Material Youth, Madonna will do anything to look and feel young.