For some time, everyone has decided to make only happy films because the audience is in no mood for gloom. The OTT platform has all the dark content and the viewers are now fed-up of the dark web world. The actors are fed-up of playing complex characters and look forward to playing happy roles particularly Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh. Alia has just wrapped up a demanding Gangubai Kathiwaadi and Ranveer Singh an exhausting 83. Call it their good luck that the duo has been signed by Karan Johar for a frothy Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani.

Filmmaker Karan Johar is in happy space and enjoying it. He recently launched a jewelry line, then shot for Big Boss on Voot and is now shooting in the capital. Singer Asha Bhosle is in happy space too, spending most of her time in her bungalow in Khandala and when reality show demands, she drives to Mumbai and charms them all. At 80 plus Bhosle can still sing live. Today is her birthday, Happy Birthday Asha Tai.

I love the month of August because it initiates a long line of festivals. On the Janmashtami Day, almost every actor put up pictures of Lord Krishna on their social media, irrespective of whether they believe in the festival or not.  After covid, all of us are forever looking for opportunities to celebrate and rejoice.

The actors are suddenly in a good mood because shootings have resumed and everyone is back to the studios. Tabu who was invisible for two years is shooting round the clock and has not a single date free for a long, long time. Deepika Padukone has recently packed up two commercials back-to-back and is currently shooting with Shah Rukh Khan in Spain. After Kajol- SRK, Deepika-SRK is a lucky pair to have always delivered hits- Om Shanti Om, Chennai Express and Happy New Year. No wonder more and more filmmakers want to sign them in their films.

Yashoda Krishna is a tribute to universal motherhood and the ballet remains in demand by prominent families celebrating child birth. While daughters Esha and Ahana Deol have over the decades played the younger and older Krishna over the decades, Hema Malini remains the timeless Yashoda, more beautiful with passing years. In the nineties sometime, Hema Malini was at the airport and purchased a book that absorbed her so deeply that the following morning, she had planned her next production, Draupadi. Draupadi portrays her relationship with her five husbands and her sakha. “This is my most complex ballet and every time I perform her, I am distressed. Imagine, so many centuries have passed but her agony and rage still rattle us!

A few years ago, it dawned on Hema Malini realized that she had not yet portrayed Rukmini on stage and planned her next ballet titled it Rukmini Radha where both, the wife and the beloved have their say.  She is looking forward to performing her old and new ballets on stage again. For an artiste who has been on stage from the time she was a little girl and has been dancing for almost sixty years now, her passion for both dance and Lord Krishna remains undiminished.” Krishna is there everywhere around us so is it a surprise that he is omnipresent in my dance?” she concludes.

A few years later, Hema Malini’s Dance Academy, Natyavihar Kala Kendra planned their second ballet, Radha Krishna which brings to light some notable events during Lord Krishna’s sojourn on earth, like the raas leela with all the gopikas.  This time it was a bigger production and Hema Malini says the ballet is memorable because, “Radha Krishna are eternal lovers, in fact, I have been performing them since my childhood and feel a part of their lives.”

Geet Govind is a poem of lyrical beauty composed by Jayadeva in the twelfth century and elaborates on the multiple facets of Radha-Krishna’s extraordinary relationship both, the physical attraction and the spiritual bonding of Lord accepts Radha into his fold. “The advantage of doing these ballets is that I am also reading very good content and feeling enriched. It is fascinating that while everyone loves Krishna only Radha is the recipient of his special attention. Jayadeva’s projection of madhurya rassa/ erotic love in the moonlit night with the humming bees is so consuming that of us at that moment believe that we are with Krishna in Vrindavan.”

For more than three decades now, Hema Malini has performed at the Radhe Krishna Utsav held at the Iskcon Temple, Juhu, Mumbai during Janmashtami festival every year. The tradition was interrupted for the first time during covid and it is something Hema Malini regrets deeply. It all began as a dream in the year 1986 when Hema Malini was introduced to a young dancer portraying the role of Ram in a dance ballet. She invited choreographer cum dancer Bhushan Lakhandri to meet her and two destinies changed that day.

Lakhandri conceived The Bride of Brindavan and offered a new platform to the actor.  So far, Hema Malini was associated with only classical dance but here was an opportunity to engage a wider audience. She says, “I’m often asked why I only chose mythological subjects for my ballets, I do it because the audience is familiar with the story and it allows me to include different dance forms like Odissi and Mohiniattam. My attraction for Meera also an extension of my love for my guruma who believed in her devotion. Meera belonged to the sixteenth century but lived life on her terms. Her love for her Lord was selfless and flawless. We choreographed the ballet in Kathak dance form because Bharatnatyam would not be appropriate for a character based in Rajasthan.”

Some leading ladies however accepted the shift in the image as a challenge. Meena Kumari played sister to Dharmendra in Kaajal where her sister-in-law Padmini is resentful of the brother-sister bond. Some decades laterNaseerudin Shah played an obsessive brother to Ramya in Chahat and Shah Rukh made a dominating, over-possessive twin bro to Aishwarya Rai in Josh.

Popular cinema has always been defined by the image of the ruling superstar and from the 70s to the 90s Amitabh Bachchan identified as the family man forever fighting a moral and social battle in all his movies- Majboor, Adalat or Trishul, Shahenshah,Agneepath or Aaj Ka Arjun was responsible for uplifting the image of mother and sister in society. The mother and the sister lost significance in mainstream movies when Amitabh Bachchan stopped playing the conventional hero.

Over the decades, filmmakers strived for new stories to project brother sister equation so if Ek Phool aur Chaar Kaante was about Sunil Dutt wooing his beloved/Waheeda Rehman’s brothers then Aaj aur Kal was about separated siblings reuniting in the climax. For a long time, no wedding celebration was complete without ‘Meri pyari beheniya banegi dulhaniya…’ popularised by Rajesh Khanna in Sacha Jhootha. This was an era where actresses like Naaz and Nazima made a career out of playing sister to leading heroes in film after film.

Leading ladies were always reluctant to play sisters to their heroes because it affected their romant ic pairing so Mumtaz refused to play Jasbir (eventually played by Zeenat Aman) in Hare Ram Hare Krishna even though it was a better role and remembered for the brother sister bond projected in ‘Phoolon ka taro ka….’where a young Dev Anand piggy rides a thumb sucking kid sister. Similarly, Padmini Kolhapure refused to play Mithun Chakraborty’s sister in Pyaari Behna even though a better role and eventually played by Tanvi Kher.

It was not just the story but even the songs celebrated sibling bindings. Who can forget the heart wrenching “Ab ke baras bhejo bhaiya ko babul” picturised on the jail inmates in Bimal Roy’s Bandini? Asha Bhosle has often shared the experience of recording this album in her interviews. Post her marriage, she had not visited her maiden home for more than a decade and while recording the song became so emotional that she choked every time she had to mention babul and it took several takes before the recording was okayed.

Family dramas were the flavour of the season then and South banners were masters of the genre. Yamuna played the caretaker of a large family in Beti Bete where siblings get separated in childhood and meet decades later in the climax. Baby Farida playing younger Yamuna’s rendition of ‘Aaj kal mein dhal gaya…’ brings tears to your eyes even today.

To be continued