Richard, Top Gere
(by Vinod Mehta | Outlook | February 18, 2002)
I met Richard Gere with some trepidation. Hollywood filmstars, like their Bollywood counterparts, have usually nothing to offer beyond good looks. Mr Gere is doubtless extremely fetching but his recent appearances on the big screen have been close to disastrous and even his good looks are beginning to lose their draw at the ticket counter. Of course, he is famously a Dalai Lama disciple and I thought I would hear a few banalities on Buddhism and Tibet. How wrong I was. Richard Gere is formidably intelligent and poised, and surprise, surprise, self-mocking. On affairs of China, even Kashmir, he is impressively articulate and garrulous. Moreover, he has a nicely jaundiced view of his own country and its rulers when it comes to international duplicity.
His entry point into the world is, naturally, Tibet and its travails. He understands international relations and power games in as much as they affect the cause he passionately espouses. Still, this narrow entry point has given him a world- and Tibet-view that is hardly romantic. He believes the movement exiled in India will face its biggest test after the death of the Dalai Lama. The movement then will be leaderless and ripe for picking by radicals.
As we were discussing the Tibetan riddle and the unreliable Henry Kissinger, a couple of young girls came up and made the customary request for autographs. "Now, the real business," I suggested. "Yes," he replied with a sigh, "now the real business."
Friends of Tibet (INDIA),
PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050
www.friendsoftibet.org