There is a ‘deewaar’, even off screen. Veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar’s younger brother, author-psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar, has revealed that he hasn’t been in touch with the acclaimed writer, but the brothers remain connected “intuitively”. In an interview with The Lallantop, Salman Akhtar was asked about his book Ghar Ka Bhedi, which has details about his family.
The book has a chapter dedicated to Javed Akhtar, and features five of his poems as well, but Salman hasn’t been in touch with his elder brother for decades. When asked about the irony, the psychoanalyst said he doesn’t look at it as a “contradiction”. He said, “I write about Freud, I have never met him, I write about Donald Winnicott, the great psychoanalyst, I never met him, I have also written about Faiz, but never met him. So, to write about him (Javed), but not having met him is no contradiction in my opinion. Both things are possible, no?”
When noted that Javed really wants to reconcile, Salman quipped, “If he wants to talk to me, that’s a good choice because I am a pretty decent person.”
When pressed further about why they haven’t been on talking terms, Salman added, “There are a lot of things that happen, and these things have nuance, they’re very complex. They have fine tendrils, emotions and history. They are not matters which can be discussed in a broad public way. He is a very erudite, intelligent, sharp-witted man and in many realms, a very good poet. He is a smart, talented man, no doubt about it.”
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Later in the conversation, Salman Akhtar mentioned Javed again, and said the two are still intuitively connected despite not being in touch. “We may meet or not meet, but we are also very close intuitively. We know each other very well. He knows what I will do and think, I know which joke will make him laugh. We have this intuitive connection. There are deeper connections than language and physical exchange,” he added.
This is perhaps the first time Salman has opened up about the rift between him and Javed Akhtar, who has mostly been vocal about the other complicated relationship of his life— that with his father.
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