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Cinema Plus
INTERVIEW
You, me aur Kajol
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Kajol is back – and on a roll, with several good films coming her way
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Kajol has achieved something that a Mumtaz or a Madhuri (not to mention the Reena Roys and the Rati Agnihotris) couldn’t – a comeback as a heroine after several years of hiatus, post marriage and baby. Sometime back, a 30-plus Kajol scor
ed a smash hit with Fanaa (2006), which was her first release after a five-year-break, post Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001). Significantly, she returned not as a whimpering mother figure or as a de-romanticised issue-crusader, but as a singing-dancing-emoting heroine in a big-budget extravaganza. If she got the Filmfare Award for K3G, she returned to triumphantly claim the Best Actress Award for Fanaa. And that’s not all. Today, at the age of 33, Kajol’s career is on an upswing. Fans who have been missing her for years will now get to see her in a spate of movies.
First up is husband Ajay Devgan’s directorial debut, U Me Aur Hum. The pair, which has already had two hits in Ishq and Pyar Toh Hona Hi Tha, is aiming for a hat-trick with this shipboard romance which has an unusual end. The film will be released early this year.
And Kajol has bagged the much coveted lead in Karan Johar’s My Name Is Khan opposite Shah Rukh Khan, the hero with whom she has given five blockbusters in the past – Baazigar, Karan Arjun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and K3G. In Karan’s film, Kajol plays an Aamir Khan fan. And the latest buzz is she has bagged Munnabhai director Raju Hirani’s new film opposite Aamir Khan, which has been tentatively titled The Idiot. Kajol is obviously still salsa-hot and has the kind of films in her kitty that the likes of Rani and Kareena, the younger lot, do not have. It’s an affirmation of her continuing popularity and her amiable association with the Chopra-Johar bigwigs in the industry, many of whom call her Kads.
But how did Kajol manage to land such roles? She is definitely not as breathtakingly beautiful as Aishwarya Rai nor is she a graceful dancer like Madhuri Dixit. What Kajol abounds in is talent and a felicity for expression. Kajol does not act out her scenes and deliver her lines; she inhabits her characters.
Few would have thought Kajol would be one of the foremost heroines of her times when she made her debut in the 1992 flop, Bekhudi. Yet, there were those who spotted the potential in the harum-scarum yet vivacious girl with unfashionable eyebrows and she signed Baazigar opposite emerging star Shah Rukh Khan and the Yash Raj film Yeh Dillagi.
Baazigar transformed Kajol into a star and Yeh Dillagi confirmed her status as an actor – a worthy successor of her mother Tanuja and aunt Nutan. Kajol’s father, director Shomu Mukherjee, too belongs to an illustrious film family. Kajol’s initial success was quickly followed by a string of hits. To her credit, she reached the top, not by meekly following a trend but by blazing a trail of her own.
With regard to her looks, she disliked wigs and costumes till she formalised her signature style, courtesy Karan and Manish Malhotra. Kajol even played roles with negative shades in films such as Gupt at a time when such roles were not the rage like they are today. Kajol was at her unconventional best when, just after she scored a rare hat-trick of hits (Pyar Toh Hona Hi Tha, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hai) in 1998-99, she got married to actor Ajay Devgan, whom she had been dating since the mid-1990s. Taking a break after completing her assignments, Kajol delivered a baby girl Nysa and concentrated on her upbringing.
Legend has it that marriage puts an end to the happening career of heroines. However in Kajol’s case, she proved all naysayers wrong with K3G and Fanaa. Given her legacy (her aunt Nutan had acted in seminal films such as Bandini, Milan and Saraswatichandra after her marriage), it looks like Kajol will scale greater heights.
BOLLYWOOD NEWS SERVICE
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