Paper 1

‘The Prince of Tides’, an article akin to a Hollywood gossip magazine, features the story of the upcoming Saif Ali Khan. The article captivates a young audience familiar with Bollywood actors and explains Saif’s rise to stardom in the industry. Through the use of various stylistic devices, the author manages to keep the audience engaged throughout his piece of this actor’s success story.

Much like a gossip magazine, the article begins with an intriguing message about Saif’s unique climb to the top. He remarks that though Safi’s relaxed attitude proved a detriment in the beginning of his acting career, it became his greatest asset as he maintains his youthful vivacity that connects him to his audience. Saif himself describes how at first, “he was just having fun”, reaffirming how his easy going attitude was an ambivalent trait. After largely focusing on biographical information, the author shifts to analyze how Saif was able to garner such considerable fame. However, the author also heeds Saif to, “he steers clear of the demons of smugness that tend to so seamlessly corrupt good actors often losing themselves to the trappings of superstardom”. The fact that the author utilized a metaphor to compare smugness to demons and stardom to a trap in order to communicate his warning heightens the dramatic effect of the article

            Throughout the article, the author utilizes a very upbeat tone as showcased by this word choice. He begins the first line with “unfettered”, “unpredictable”, and “undoubtedly”, already creating a mood of livelihood and anticipation as the audience seeks to find out more about the actor’s carefree attitude. The author further relates his acting as worthy of “a hero’s showcase”, inciting admiration from his audience. Saif is also made much more significant with his fans when he is dubbed, “cool dude” or “in sync with his times”. Clearly the author is trying to communicate his high regard for Saif through his subjective opinions and fervor to charm his readers. The author also conveys his wisdom by weighing Khan’s success against his siblings stating that “today Saif is as good as any other Khan, if not better”. He builds his credibility even more when he heeds   What’s more, this opinionated tone is that of a gossip magazine, where the mood is full of intrigue and sensation. Roy warns that Kahn “shouldn’t repeat himself or short change his following.”

            The author uses several stylistic choices throughout his article such as alliteration and parallelism to create an upbeat tone- almost as if the author were creating memorable catchphrases for Saif. In fact, the first sentence is an alliteration repeating the consonant ‘u’ at the beginning of “unfettered”, “unpredictable”, and “undoubtable”, acting as an attention grabber for his readers. His flare is described as “strive, strife, and style”, further captivating the readers with this flashy, modern sensation. Finally, Parallel structures are also used regularly to sound snappy, such as “The catch is to remain imperfect, remain humane, remain vulnerable, remain unsatisfied, remain unpredictable – remain Saif.” This use of parallel structure almost makes it seem like a slogan, which will inevitably resonate with readers and allows the author to make Saif more striking.

The structure of ‘The Prince of Tides’ also resembles that of a gossip article, especially with an intriguing title followed by a blown-up portrait of Saif. In fact, the title itself is a metaphor since actors’ fame are tidal waves in the sense that they all experience peaks and lows in their careers, and that their recognition comes and goes similar to how a tide draws out on a shore and ejects back in to the ocean waters. Under the title is a quote by Saif which states, "I’ve always had a fatalistic attitude to life… never store it up, because you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Anything can happen at any time”. Already readers are hooked to read the contents of the article as they want to apply this piece of advice to their lives, effectively establishing Saif’s credibility as a clever individual with much experience.