Amitabh Bachchan to pen foreword for father's magnum opus

New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) Religiously dutiful about maintaining an e-diary with regular posts everyday, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan will now be writing the foreword for his poet father the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan's highly acclaimed work "Madhushala".

"I have a task, it is to write the foreword to 'Madhushala', since the book needs to get to print (again). This is a daunting task," Amitabh posted on his blog www.bigb.bigadda.com Thursday from Hyderabad.

"How many son's have been asked to write foreword to the great genius of their father? Limited, I believe. I find myself among those limited few. I have made a shaky start and shall need all my faculties at my command to be able to accomplish this huge responsibility," he added.

The new edition of the book is a large coffee table sized version - it will have the original verses of the late poet accompanied with English translations by Marjorie Boulton of the Oxford University.

The book will also have paintings by Amitabh's niece Namrata Bachchan.

"The proof is looking very good. The paintings are unique and hopefully with the written foreward should form a fitting tribute to my father's 101st anniversary (Jan 18, 2009)," Amitabh posted on his blog Feb 13 from Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu.

The 66-year-old actor also has plans to share the introduction to the book of poems with his readers before it hits the stalls.

"If it works out, I shall share it with you (the readers). Maybe you can give me some reactions," he said.

First published in 1935, "Madhushala" is considered to be Harivansh Rai's greatest works. Still sold briskly, it got him fame through his self-recitations of the poems at poetry symposiums at that time.

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