'Shah Rukh is ours!', a Malaysian newspaper said in its editorial applauding the conferment of Datukship on the Bollywood superstar.
Nursing an arm injured during a film shoot last Friday, Shah Rukh flew in Saturday on a brief visit to be the first foreign actor to receive the award amidst rapturous ovation and took a rickshaw ride through Malacca, winning hearts of the citizenry.
The newspaper ridiculed critics at home, particularly some local artistes, who asked 'what has he done that we have not?' saying the award to Khan had 'evoked rather more bluster than it warranted.'
Justifying the decision of the Malacca state to confer the award on Shah Rukh Khan, the editorial said: 'Sadly for them, the answer is not what Shah Rukh has done but who he is. And who he is, is not just a fabulously successful 43-year-old film star with global recognition and vast masses of devoted fans'.
Trying to strike a balance in its praise, the newspaper said: 'No, our latest Datuk's personal assets and career achievements themselves did not justify the honour. Nor, frankly, do his movies, particularly not 'One 2 Ka 4', the last of his six movies to be shot in Malaysia, featuring a sequence of Shah Rukh and leading lady Juhi Chawla disporting themselves around a Famosa.'
'This may or may not have boosted Malacca's tourism; when a star of Shah Rukh's incandescence is on screen, everything else tends to be reduced to, well, scenery,' the editorial said, adding the justification for this award was proven at the ceremony itself, when his simple presence was enough to send the assembled dignitaries into a twittering fluster of swoons.
'Malacca, from Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob (the royal head of state) down, is enraptured by Shah Rukh Khan and unashamed to admit it. The award was an excuse to show it.
The popularity goes beyond the estimated 2.5 million ethnic Indians who form eight percent of Malaysia's 28 million population.
http://www.meetshahrukhkhan.com
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