Book Review – Flashback: My Life and Times in Bollywood and Beyond by Niilesh A Raje

Author

Bob Christo (Foreword by Tom Alter)

Editor

penguin books india

Pages

280

Price

399 rupees/-

isbn

9780143414629

I distinctly remember that fight sequence from the movie Kaalia where everyone lines up while the food is being distributed and Michael (actor Bob Christo) decides to spoil the decorum and breaks the line. As one of his crippled inmates steels himself and decides to retaliate against this muscular white man, Michael yells, “Hum jahaan khade hote hain line waheen se shuroo hotee hai” (The line always starts behind me). Right after that, all the other prisoners in line go and stand behind Michael.

The most I knew about Bob Christo at the time was that he was an actor from Australia recognized within the Indian film industry as the “bad man” of Indian cinema playing the role of collaborator, hostile prisoner or British officer.

Septuagenarian Robert John Christo who was popularly known to the world as Bob Christo died in Bangalore (March 20, 2011) garnering the affection of millions of Indian film fans for more than two decades which included more than 230 movies and 15 T.V. series.

The newly published book Flashback: My life and times in Bollywood and beyond by penguin books india provides readers with a wealth of information by sharing the highs and lows of life experienced by Bob Christo. The actor’s biography was to be published by Akshay Kumar in June 2011, in which he planned to return to work in Hindi cinema in an Akshay Kumar film.

The book provides an interesting perspective on the many roles (engineer, adventurer, lover, mercenary and Bollywood villain) played by Bob Christo in real life, as well as being credited as one of the renowned villains of the Indian film industry. in real life.

The autobiography traces the memorable journey of this civil engineer from Sydney, Australia. Bob was a strong believer in the discipline of reading and was also a prolific writer who earned recognition for straight A’s and awards for writing outstanding essays since his school days.

Bob’s wife died in 1974 in a car accident, leaving him the responsibility of raising their three children. In 1977 he decided to pursue his career in Civil Engineering and was appointed to his assignment in Muscat. But fate had its own plans for him. No sooner had he resumed his work in Muscat than he was told that his friend, American screenwriter George Marzbetuni, had suffered a massive heart attack and was hospitalized in the ICU at Nanavati Hospital, Mumbai.

Bob decided to go back to Mumbai for a couple of days to visit his friend in the hospital. George was unable to stay long in India to shoot the English version of the film. Abdullah since his family was heading to India and had decided to take him back to Los Angeles

George wanted Bob to write reports and make sure the team followed the same script he wrote for Abdullah. Alternatively, if Sanjay Khan wanted Bob to play a part in his film, George suggested that it was his (Bob’s) decision to go ahead with it.

One big success put an end to all his previous failures, and as time went by, Bob kept himself busy and busy with various opportunities coming his way to achievement. Abdullah, Qurbani, Kaalia, Namak Halal, Mard, Mr. India and Agneepath were some of the opportunities Bob got and he also got the chance to share the screen with Marlon Brando, Amitabh Bachchan and Raj Kapoor to name a few. Bob also took special Hindi classes with the help of Qadir Roomi, who visited him every morning at 8 am, six days a week, to teach him the national language.

In 2001, Bob decided to retire and left Mumbai for Bangalore to work at Sanjay Khan’s hotel, The Golden Palms Hotel and Spa, starting out as a gym manager and yoga teacher. Once the hotel was fully operational in 2002, Bob became the director of fitness. A spinal injury caused Bob to leave his job at the hotel and in 2006 he began work on his autobiography.

The book is divided into three parts that give the reader a detailed account of how the experience enriched his life. His journey is covered in the book as follows (Part 1-Hong Kong-Philippines, Part 2-Africa to India, through the Middle East, and Part 3-Odyssey in India).

In the foreword to Tom Alter Bob asks, “Tom, why don’t I get romantic roles?” To which Tom replies, “Honestly, my friend, your own life was the most romantic role of all.” Bob agrees that when he looks back on his life, he is hurt.

Behind every success lies untold pain in one’s heart and the pain is usually revealed when the individual reaches the top. The key message that the author (Bob Christo) wants to convey to all of his readers is the great mix of joy and sadness that he experienced in his life. It was the life he lived fully. And why not, as long as there is life there will be struggles.