If you hear ‘sexy’ in a song or a dialogue, what would be your reaction? Chances are you won’t even notice it. But back in the ‘90s when a song with catchy lyrics such as Sexy Sexy Mujhe Log Bole popped up, it created a massive outrage. Karisma Kapoor, the actor at the centre of it, became a nationwide topic of discussion for gyrating to the lyrics of a song ‘so obscene’ as the prudes declared.
The word ‘sexy’ was changed to ‘baby’, but the original was already so popular, it could hardly restrain people from humming it. Karisma was part of many such bawdy chartbusters and formed one of the most consistently successful paring with comic-star Govinda.
Shewas the first girl from India’s premiere film family – the Kapoor family to work in films. Do you sense a bit of sexism here? Well, let’s keep it away forlater.
Karisma, the daughter of Randhir Kapoor and Babita started quite early in her career. Her parents famously married for love, and soon parted ways. When she made her debut in films in 1991 with Prem Qaidi at the tender age of 16, it was her mother who played the key role in getting her the launchpad.
Despite being from a film family, Karisma had no backing from her illustrious paternal clan to promote her in the industry, but her mother was resilient, and it reflected on the daughter to be determined so that one day the sun shines on her. After many hits and misses, she established a hit pairing with Govinda, but the allure of being taken seriously as an actor was missing from her repertoire.
All I know is, too many ifs and buts were attached to me. Even when Prem Qaidi was released and declared a hit people said ‘Yeh to bahut chhoti hai’. Even when I had hits like Jigar and Police Officer they said, ‘She is a commercial success but she won’t be accepted by the masses. She is too western looking.’ I proved that I could be accepted by the masses too when I gave a hit with Anari, where I was a typical village girl. It was the second biggest hit that year after Aankhen. Then they created this big thing about the song in Raja Babu, which was also a hit. It has been tough. Even when success came, it came attached with something or the other. Not like the others have had it all nice and pretty. But you have to accept these things.Karisma Kapoor (Cine Blitz, January 1997)
It was Dharmesh Darshan’s Raja Hindustani which released in 1996 that changed her fortune. She played a woman estranged from her lover only to reunite with him due to fate, she had hit songs to back her, emotional histrionics to uplift her, and Aamir Khan as the on-screen lover. The result was the biggest commercial success of her career, hoards of trophies for best actress, and a satiation to the craving she always had.
The actor was finally blooming, and Karisma sought roles that could amplify her seriousness as an actress. Yash Chopra’s Dil To PagalHai which released a year later had Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit, two top stars against each other, and Karisma, in between, sort of sandwiched. Despite a second lead, she managed to garner enough attention, fetching medals, this time the National Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Now, she was consciously balancing commercial potboilers and arthouse films. In Khalid Mohamed’s Fiza, about a woman in search of her brother, she slowly came into her own, and finally bloomed strikingly in Shyam Benegal’s period piece, Zubeidaa.
Incidentally, the time she was peaking as an actor, she was alsolooking at the prospect of settling down. Her romance with Abhishek Bachchan and the consequent break-up was constantly watched by the media and the public.
Soon after, she married Sunjay Kapur, an industrialist from Delhi, and bid goodbye to her career. Between the break-up and the marriage, she appeared in some unexceptional films, and a highly forgettable mega-budget television serial.
The marriage gave her two beautiful children, Samaira and Kiaan, but gossip mills soon started sniffing out a whiff of trouble in paradise. There’s no smoke without fire, they say. The tittle-tattles proved true. The marriage had gone bust.
Karisma soon moved backed to her hometown, Mumbai with her kids, and the husband stayed back. Now she’s back in news with the details of her ugly separation spilling out. Both Karisma and her husband, Sunjay are baring their claws and fangs to settle scores.
And in the midst of this hullabaloo, we have lost an actor who was persistent, hard-working and was raring to go. She bowed out when she peaked as a performer.
It’s understandable that she prefers to stay at home, being mommy to her kids than face the camera. But could a work-life balance be worked out? She can seek advice from her wise mother on how to handle the tricky situation. After all, it’s her mother who guided her and the younger sister, Kareena Kapoor to massive stardom, without any backing from their A-lister family, and to family life.
Dear Karisma, we are ready to forget Dangerous Ishq, the blot you appeared in as your comeback vehicle. Please come back to Bollywood, we’re waiting,eagerly.
(This story is being published from The Quint’s archives dated 11 March 2015. We’re bringing it back today to celebrate Karisma Kapoor’s birthday.)
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