Sridevi’s Daughter Ready For Her Big Launch

This is  as close as  a debut gets to a tragedy. Janhvi Kapoor is  poised for  her big launch.  It can’t get any bigger than Karan Johar, can it now? Unless she got Sanjay Leela Bhansali to launch her,which she didn’t.

Sridevi must be very happy seeing her daughter shining  even before  her debut. Strangely  I am reminded  of  Smita  Patil who passed away long before she could see her son become  an actor. The child never saw  his mother. Today  Prateik is  struggling to make his  presence felt.

Prateik has  gone through  more than his  share  of struggle. Being  motherless and living away  from his father actor-politician Raj Babbar,Prateik was rudderless and on drugs.We met for  the  first time when he  came home  for the promotion of  his film Issaq. He was accompanied by  his very pretty leading lady Amyra Dastur who told me Prateik was  “afraid” of me.

I tried to  put  Prateik at ease.

“Sir, please look after me,”  he beseeched with his  pleading eyes. I  felt as protective as  I could for the vulnerable child-man. Prateik has Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk coming up  where he plays an Indian Muslim accused of  terror activities. It’s  a thankless role. But I  have a feeling Prateik will bring his own insecurities  into play while portraying this outcast.

I feel a similar surge  of protectiveness  for   Jahnvi, though she hardly needs any sympathy from anybody. Fiercely protected  by her mother when alive,  Janhvi  and  her younger sister Khushi have  coped  ably with their  mother’s sudden loss . During her  lifetime I don’t thinkSridevi was too keen to see her  daughters become actresses.

 I remember  speaking to her on this  topic. The  proud  protective  mother always  said she wanted  her daughters  to get  a proper education. “Let them first  finish studying, the  we’ll see what they want to,” she once  told me softly, as rumours of  Janhvi’s  debut had begun to gather  momentum. Sridevi didn’t much care  for  such talk.

From what  I could  make  out she  wasn’t keen on her daughters  becoming actresses. Not that she ever said this  out loud.  But every time we’d  speak on the subject she would grow worried and uncertain. The lack of a formal  education in her own career  bothered Sridevi. She had begun facing the  camera  from the  time she was  just 4.

“When  was  the time to study? I was so  hungry for  a formal  education. I don’t want  my children to undergo  the same  hunger,” Sridevionce told me.

 Boney was always more keen to make actors  out of his daughters. In this matter  I believe  the husband and wife  begged to  defer. Boneyfelt, ‘Jeena  yahan marna  yahan’ Sridevi felt, ‘Ab bahot  ho gaya.’ Now that it is happening I  don’t know how happy Sridevi would have been to see  her daughter in Dhadak.

 The  film  comes with a  heavy baggage. The Marathi version Sairat became  an instant  classic. I doubt Dhadak would get  the same ovation. Remakes inevitably  suffer in comparison. Nobody in his  right mind would look for Sairat in  Dhadak. It would be as sacrilegious as looking for Sholay in Ram Gopal Varma’s Aag,

 Fire  better or Fire  worse.