The magic of Madhuri

Madhuri Dixit walks into a room full of eager journalists, stunned into silence by her presence even though they’d been waiting for this 6 pm-appointment all day. It was the unexpected thrill of seeing someone you’ve long admired on the silver screen, walk out of it in flesh and blood. For the two minutes that Madhuri greeted the members of the media with her famous smile, they could only respond with mumbled ‘hellos’, still recovering from the surprise of her real-ness.

As she settled herself daintily in front of us, dressed simply in a grey salwar-kameez, we began to see her afresh. Without the intermediacy of the camera, its hard gaze, its penchant for neat lines and pat perfection, Madhuri’s face looks fluid, young, almost vulnerable. The smile reaches the eyes easily and the glow she emanates isn’t coming from make-up alone. There’s a certain peace about her that makes her answer annoyingly personal (“Do you think you have found your better half in Dr Nene?) and tiringly irrelevant questions (Which one’s better — Sheila or Munni?) with perfect poise and good humour.

That she’s happy and content is for anyone to see. It is perhaps with this sense of security that she answers a question about the role of Sonam Kapoor’s mother that was offered to her recently. “I won’t feel weird about playing a mother. I am a mother in real life, after all. But the script is what matters. Once I talk to Anilji about the film, I’ll take the decision,” she says. Playing a mother would still, however, be conforming to her image off screen. Critics and connoisseurs will now like her to explore new grounds as an actress and take on unconventional roles that were probably not written for heroines in mainstream commercial Hindi cinema during the time she ruled the industry. Is she willing to take those risks, make a complete departure from the good mother, great dancer, stunning diva image she has on and off screen? “Why not?” she replies, emphasising on the “it has to be a good role” condition, once again. “I have no qualms about taking on different kind of roles. I am an actress, and I’m willing to experiment, as long as the film is entertaining,” Madhuri assures us.

But the question we are still asking her is how far is she really prepared to go? Will she step out of the tried and tested framework of big banner productions and work with new and young filmmakers who are truly pushing the boundaries of Hindi cinema today? “I’m looking at working with good directors, whether they are new or established ones doesn’t matter. I want to work with filmmakers who can present me in a new light, as long as my audience identifies with what I do,” she insists.

Madhuri tells us she is impressed with the work of new filmmakers like Vishal Bharadwaj and Imtiaz Ali and is looking at several scripts that are being offered to her by various producers and directors. While she’s taking her time picking and choosing films that really excite her, she’s thoroughly enjoying her time on Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, Sony Entertainment Television’s popular dance show. Apart from reconnecting with an art form she truly loves, she’s also basking in the wave of affection towards her that is sweeping through the episodes. She’s, no doubt, the centre of all attention.

Is it disorienting to walk out of the role of a normal wife and mother and switch on her star persona again? Isn’t she dazed by the back and forth between her serene domestic life and the world of glitz and glamour? “No, it’s not disorienting. I was used to it always. It’s like swimming... it’s like second nature to me now. And it’s great to come back to so much love and respect,” she smiles. Turning on the glamour might not be difficult for her, but was it difficult to tune into her artistic side again, especially after the all-consuming experience of motherhood? “I don’t know if I really worked towards keeping in touch with my artistic side. I did miss my craft sometimes and I practised Kathak whenever I got the time. But I don’t think you need to make special efforts towards it,” she says.

Back on the sets of JDJ, it seems like Madhuri never lost that touch. Dance has been her passion and it’s her dream to start her own dance school. “I haven’t made any formal plans as of now. But it will be a multi-genre dance school spread across different cities over the world, perhaps,” she shares. The other dream she had, is already fulfilled. “I always wanted to have my own family. To have my husband and my kids with me is wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of it,” she expresses. Her fans however wish she’d stayed on longer, for with her was gone the last of Hindi cinema’s consummate ‘act’resses. One can only imagine the immense contribution she could’ve made had she stuck around, fuelling the imaginations of filmmakers to write different films around her, in turn pushing the envelope of cinema itself.

But these are projections of our expectations, fired as they are by the lack of real artistes in the current crop of model-turned-actresses, we realise. Madhuri doesn’t miss any of it. “My family and kids give me the greatest satisfaction, more than my work ever has. I don’t regret going away from the industry for so long,” Madhuri says, simply. But she is back, and we’re taking heart in that.

"What they need to change is the gun law"

Sabrina Lal is far from being the demure, self-effacing sister of the slain glamorous model Jessica Lal, that she was presented as in Raj Kumar Gupta’s thriller No One Killed Jessica. She, in fact, has a commanding presence, towering well above the others, in stature and speech. Her long and inspiring journey to justice, which grew from being a personal one to being a public campaign, changed her in many ways.

Apart from finding surprising reserves of inner strength to stand the years of struggle against an unyielding, corrupt system, Sabrina also found the strong voice that is now a regular feature on television debates and discussions. “I was an introvert 10-12 years back. But can handle all the media attention now,” she tells us. And she’s not sitting back after finding closure with the comeuppance her sister’s murderer met with. She’s busy running her travel company she started in ’97, and supporting other fights for justice. She spoke to us on the eve of Sony Entertainment Television’s CID Gallantry Awards held in Mumbai, where she was one of the judges.

A tragic event in your life set you off on a very personal fight for justice. It further went on to put you in the limelight and giving you a larger role — that of a talking head on various issues. Is the irony frustrating?

Well, yeah. Though I would’ve loved it if the criminals were brought to book at the very beginning. I didn’t choose the way this has turned out.

But is it still pressurising to be made a role model? You started out only wanting justice for Jessica and now you are invited to attend rallies for other causes. Did you ever feel like hanging your boots after you achieved what you wanted?

You know, I don’t go to all these campaigns and rallies because it’s expected of me. If so many people have supported me during my struggle, I think the least I can do is to be there for them when they want me to. And when you go through such an emotional journey, when you have been through so much, your heart naturally goes out to others who are going through the same situation now. I give a lot of credit to the media, the public, the university kids who attended the candlelight vigils for Jessica for their support.

The media that supported you in your long legal battle is now fighting accusations of lobbying in the 2G scam. Do you think its motivations are less holy than projected?

Well, the media is full of different kinds of human beings, so it’s not fair to comment on it as one entity. But yes, everybody knows it’s business at the end of the day. You can run a story for long going purely by emotion. And let’s face it — scams have become a part of our daily lives.

How did you react to your portrayal in No One Killed Jessica? A lot of critics have pointed out that Vidya’s character was completely devoid of any personality, which is so not the case with Sabrina in real life...

That was the director’s vision of my character and I have no problems with it. I’m not really concerned about how he has projected my personality. What matters is that he’s stuck to the facts of the case, he’s gone as close to the truth of the matter as possible. The incidents, the conversations with the police, in the courts, are all very close to the truth. Justice for Jessica has been achieved. Is there anything else you wish to challenge? The gun law. They need to change that. If Manu Sharma hadn’t carried a gun that day, Jessica would’ve been alive today.

Worth its name

I was slightly overwhelmed to see the response to the first day, second show of F.A.L.T.U, and very unnerved to see that I was probably the oldest of the audience thronging the multiplex screen. The crowds cheered when, after an impatient wait, the doors were flung open and they were let in to the cool darkness of the cinema hall. The collective sigh of relief was palpable – this is the post-exam season for many, and there's been a long dry spell at the box office. The young audience knew they were going to like the cool, hip, college caper, even before they saw it. I wasn't so sure, after I saw the promos. (One of the dialogues goes: She – Main astronaut banke chand pe chadhna chahti hu. He – main Ambani banna chahta tha, par ab soch raha hu chand ban jau *shudder*). But my cynical cringes were drowned out by the loud shout-outs for the popular Party abhi baaki hain number, the low-brow, instantly identifiable campus humour, and the message at the end of the movie, redeeming the vast majority that exists lost, between complete losers and high achievers. The movie had connected completely with its target audience – fun-loving freshers, college goers in need of a break from badgering parents and anything that remotely resembles the tone of a lecture. So I grudgingly concede to well-known choreographer, debutant director Remo D'Souza a few positives. He talks to the youngsters in a language they use and understand, he gets the campus atmospherics right, he suspends all judgment while portraying the party-hard, carefree lifestyle of generation now and there's a disarming youthful energy about his film. The first half is all frolic. I didn't mind tagging along so far. The discomfort begins in the second half. We've seen a group of youngsters (Jackky Bhagnani, Pooja Gupta, Angad Bedi, Chandan Roy Sanyal) pulling off a fraud, founding a fake college that accepts the likes of them - those rejected by other institutes. They've successfully pulled wool over their parents' eyes. Google (Arshad Warsi), a wheeler dealer crook, and Bajirao (Riteish Deshmukh) the fake “principled” principal, are their partners in crime. It is when the two men suddenly start encouraging the youngsters to find their real calling, to do something with their lives, that the movie begins to ring untrue. The director's real purpose, we discover, was to champion the cause of an alternative, informal, flexible education system that supports non-academic talents. He, of course, does not bother us with the niggling nitty gritties – funding, paper work, structuring of courses - of this unconventional universe. But the audience around me wanted, perhaps needed, that kind of uplifting emotion that makes your heart swell, but isn't too taxing on the brain. FALTU is just the thing they were looking forward to. Others, like me, should leave it be.