Bollywood's Stellar Women

Three top actresses are leaving center stage and withdrawing into the wings, preferring to live the semi-retired life of marital bliss rather than enjoy the heady aura of being one of Bollywood’s top heroines?

Kajol is reported to have lost interest in working, if only temporarily. Karishma Kapoor has turned highly selective about the films she will do and is devoting more and more time in preparation of her marriage to Abhishek Bachchan. And Sonali Bendre is the third top actress who is focusing increasingly on her forthcoming marriage than her career. A little earlier, Tina Khanna threw overboard the anxieties of flops and the angst of waiting for her first hit, and hitched up with Akshay Kumar, once reputed to be Bollywood’s most flamboyant bachelor.

These girls of the ‘nineties’ seem to have an extremely rational and down-to-earth perspective to life and work. They’ve done their stint in the movies, established themselves – forever! - as movie stars, stashed away enough money to give them a sense of economic independence; and having done all that they don’t want to miss out on marital bliss and motherhood. A very sensible attitude, you could say, and one in marked contrast to the past, when the top actresses would postpone saying yes to the suitor as long as they kept getting offers to play the first lead.

Madhuri Dixit is a case in point. While Juhi Chawla kept her marriage secret as long as she was working in the movies, as a girl of the ‘eighties Madhuri stretched herself as much as she could and seems, as of now, to be quite determined to continue working in films after she has had her first child. In sharp contrast, her natural successor as an exceptional performer, Kajol, has already begun to say that she might concentrate instead on producing films and television productions in husband Ajay Devgan’s company.

Hema Malini and Rekha provide the contrary perspective to Kajol’s, because these luminaries of the early ‘seventies still have rather busy schedules in the studios. Through sheer grit and through a marvelous display of talent, these two women revolutionized the film industry’s fundamental dogma that actresses over thirty should be condemned to play mother-roles. Hema Malini, for one, has even outlasted husband Dharmendra, who now prefers to bask in the calm outside the celebrity spotlight. Rekha, of course, had gone on record in the ‘eighties’, after winning the national award for her performance as and in ‘Umrao Jaan’, that she wanted to emulate her idol Sophia Loren and break the 30-and-it’s-over barrier at Bombay. Hema’s also turned overtly “political”. Indian television news channels have said that she will be one of the stars campaigning for the BJP in the Gujarat assembly elections in the coming weeks. This shall, of course, be a far cry from her ambition of a few years ago when she wanted to retire to Brindavan in Mathura district, and live the life of a Krishna devotee.

Zeenat Aman must have been inspired by the gritty endurance of her peers, Hema and Rekha, and last week made an unexpected comeback as an actress. She has started the new chapter in her career on stage with the respectable Ramesh Talwar and it is only a matter of time before this Hindi drama production would be invited to tour North America.

Ramesh Talwar is one of those who made a very early, and unexpected, switch from film direction to directing plays on the proscenium stage. He was chief assistant director to Yash Chopra for such popular classics as ’Trishul’, before going on to direct movies independently. His most acclaimed film was ‘Doosri Sita’ starring Raakhee and Rishi Kapoor and he was given the credit for the making of the highly successful ‘Noorie’.

However, nearly fifteen years ago, perhaps bugged by the fact that he could not quite create the same kind of magic in the movies as mentor Yash Chopra, Talwar returned to the theatre and to making TV dramas. He made some television series for Jaya Bachchan’s TV company and then directed Jaya on stage, when the actress finally decided to come out of a self-imposed exile from acting.

The best thing about this very women-oriented revolution taking place at Bollywood is that actresses like Jaya, Hema and Zeenat have decimated the old showbiz orthodoxy that women who had become mothers would not be the actresses who’d be offered important or central roles in the movies.

Raveena Tandon is the stand-out girl from the ‘nineties’ who is carving out a transformation of her own. As of now she is one top actress who does not have marriage on her mind. On the other hand, after Hema Malini, Raveena is, verily, the busiest of Bollywood’s women today – within and outside the film world. You can see her on television news bulletins at important political do’s and socials, exchanging pleasantries with VVIPs like Prime Minister Vajpayee himself. Simultaneously she continues to hit the headlines as the Bollywood sex goddess who also acts regularly in somber arty films. She also has her hands full as a film producer. A feature film is already under-production and her company has plans up its sleeve for television dramas – competition for television’s queen bee, Ekta Kapoor!

Raveena’s newfound obsession as a businesswoman has an intriguing background. She had once been the first of the golden girls of the ‘nineties’ who had wanted to quit films early and get married. When that did not work out – Akshay Kumar being the culprit who threw a spanner in the works – she came back to the arc lights and discovered hidden talents that elevated her to a new niche. After her singing-dancing number in ‘Tridev’ transformed her into a sex goddess, she surprised everybody who had under-estimated her by going out on the fringe with offbeat films like ‘Daman’ and ‘Shool’ and taking home the coveted national award. For a girl who took a very long time to establish herself in the top ranks at Bollywood, Raveena has come a long, long, enviable way.