Bollywood king Shah Rukh Khan urged youngsters to read more

When the idol appeared, the crowd roared, it seemed that something had happened in the world

The 41st International Book Fair has ended in Sharjah, the capital of the emirate. For the final, she was visited by the king of Bollywood, the Indian actor and producer Shah Rukh Khan (Shah Rukh Khan). There was a feeling that something incredible had happened – a war or a global flood had begun. Hundreds of people stormed the approaches to the pavilion, crowded around the big screen, listening to the fiery speech. It turned out that their idol addressed them. Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) combined do not cause such a stir.

At the fair, Shah Rukh Khan was presented with an award as a global film icon and a great cultural figure. Over a thirty-year career, he starred in more than 80 films. Khan’s speech was broadcast on screens right on the street. The crowd roared. He did not say anything special, but heeded his every word. Indian cinema has not been shown in Russia for several decades. One can only remember the film “My Name is Khan”, produced by India, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, with his participation, which was released in 2010. And in the Arab world and Asia, Khan is a deity. In India, he hosts two shows – analogues of “How to become a millionaire” and “Who is smarter than a fifth grader.” He has a house in Dubai, so the star’s visits to the UAE are not uncommon. For his sake, a red carpet of such length was laid out in the pavilion of the book fair, which is not found either in Cannes or in Venice. A roaring hall of many thousands gathered. A slender 57-year-old Shah Rukh Khan walked down the path in a dark classic suit. He, the idol of millions of women, who has played love on the screen so many times, only in 2012 kissed his partner on the screen for the first time in the film “While I’m Alive”.

Khan did not say anything special, but he showed such a crazy temperament that he got his fans. His speech was distributed on websites, but you have to pay to listen to it. Everyone has their own business. The actor talked about how important books are, and one must not only read them, but understand how they are written, how they enrich the soul. He expressed his gratitude to the intellectual community that gathered during the days of the fair and spoke about the great power of culture. He urged to preserve the honor and tenderness of the heart. Only then will all the greatness of life be revealed, and Allah and the Indian philosopher Bhagwan will help in this. “All of us, regardless of skin color, religion, regardless of what songs we sing and what dances we perform, must live in love, peace and harmony, and contribute to the prosperity of culture.” Khan works 18 hours a day, and in Sharjah he said: “I don’t know how the day will end, but I know that it is important to achieve a good result. Then a lot of people will accept and love what I do.”

The star of the fair was also the footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who represented the Milan and Barcelona clubs in different years, the former captain of the Swedish national team. He has Bosnian roots, although he was born in Scandinavia. He, too, can say: “My name is Zlatan,” and that says it all. One of his books is called “I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Adrenalin”. At this fair, his book “My Untold Story” was presented.

Italy is the guest of honor this year. The image of the Colosseum, hoisted over an open book, has become the emblem of the festival. While we are dealing with the theater, where the actor played a female role, the Italian actress, sticking a long nose, went out to the children in the guise of Pinocchio. And in the strictest Arab emirate, no one had bad thoughts. Sarah Bernard played Hamlet, and the men of the Japanese kabuki theater still appear in women’s kimonos. You can not show rabid denseness and see what is not. By the way, one Italian actress played two heroes at once: the author of the Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri and his muse Beatrice. She herself is by no means a young person, and Dante is just a mournful mask between her legs. But he carried his goddess on his shoulders into the midst of the fair’s visitors, and they rejoiced at the appearance of a strange double character like children.

The fair featured literature in Arabic and many children’s books in English. At the request of Moscow friends, I tried to find out if there were novels or detective stories in Urdu (one of the Indo-European languages). The representative of the Pakistani stand replied: “Only the Quran.” And it is presented in all the splendor of golden pages. There are even editions in the form of a velvet cube, as in Mecca. The golden Quran is supposed to be wrapped in gold. Some editions are draped in silks and provided with aromatic fruits and petals.

The rarities at the fair are not inferior to those presented at the Museum of Islamic Civilization. These are manuscripts of the 15th-16th centuries, the Koran from the library of the Catholic University of Milan, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, published in the 15th century, the publication of the medical works of the Muslim philosopher and poet Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna. One of them dates back to 1326. Tibetan sutras are written in gold – eight lines each on blue stripes of thick paper. And this is like a message from the 13th century.

The patron of the fair, the Emir of Sharjah Sultan bin Mohammed al-Qasimi, who has ruled the state for half a century, a scientist and a poet, said that people perceive the United Arab Emirates as a strong trade and economic power, but are rarely familiar with their literature, although there are many talents in the country. The wealth of this fair is women, who occupy key positions in literature and culture.