Glimpses from the launch of Raja Sen's first book, The Best Baker In The World.
Video: Afsar Dayatar/Rediff.com

It may seem like a brightly pictured story book for children, with a tale told in verse, but can Raja Sen, who dips his dreaded pen as a film critic in the ink of his passion for the movies, actually brush aside his love for cinema.

No, he can't, so we have a poetic narrative inspired but one of the greatest movies of all time, The Godfather, featuring Don Corleone and his sons, Sonny, Fredo and Michael.

Written entirely in limericks, the My First Matinee: The Best Baker In The World is part of a series called My First Marquee, wherein Raja -- Rediff.com's movie critic for many years -- takes cinematic masterpieces and adapts them for children.

You could forgive the debutant author his slight nervousness as the actor he adores and one who has played, in Indian cinema, various avatars of the Godfather because "because Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan is the Godfather. He has been the angry young man like the smouldering Michael Corleone. He has been the unflappably cool older brother like the easily provoked Sonny Corleone."

Mr Bachchan was not one to let the moment go.

"My reason for coming here has been Raja's acidic pen because he has the unique ability of destroying and devastating every film that I worked in and the fear of that happening in a recurring fashion has brought me here," the movie legend said to much laughter.

He later made Raja's day by telling him, "The reason why you have written his book has already been accepted, my granddaughter has loved it."

WATCH Amitabh Bachchan rib Raja Sen before he reads from The Best Baker In The World:

More glimpses from the event: