By Harsh Thakor
MADHURI DIXIT WAS
WITHOUT DOUBT ONE OF
Superstar Madhuri
Dixit was an outstandingly beautiful actress and brilliant at her best but
endorsed the voice of the reactionary forces and had scant respect for liberal
or democratic values. –Harsh Thakor
No actress in
recent times has caught the eye of public imagination of the
Bollywood screen or Indian masses as Madhuri Dixit. More than any actress she
defined the coming of the post-liberalization era on the silver screen. In her
peak Madhuri exuded beauty in sublime proportions and could sit besides the
Greek goddesses. In full intensity her face bloomed like a lotus or star
shimmering in the galaxy. Non one so much resembled Madhubala as Madhuri, who
at times looked like an incarnate of her. Madhuri's expressions could attract
one as if gazing at a sculpted monument, reaching poetic proportions. The
beauty of Madhuri was not porcelain but as natural as the ripple of water or
the reflection of moonlight in a stream. In my youth no Indian actress caught
my eye in equal proportions.
Few actresses surpassed
the sheer Joie de vive, bubliness, or energy of Madhuri. Her face could express
the bitter cold of winter, the sweltering heat of summer, the subtlety of
Autumn and the grace of springing very movie she could give a 360 degree change
in expression. Her acting was as natural as the flow of spring water or as
buoyant as a waterfall. In full throttle it was hard for an adjective to do
complete justice to the magnitude of her intensity which could reach volumes of
a coal fire.
Few actresses
ever had such chemistry with so many male stars or even dominated a film even
overshadowing the male lead as Madhuri. Although reactionary the roles Madhuri
enacted reflected the social order of the times to a certain extent,
particularly when she challenges or rebel against patriarchcal dictates, even
in romantic films.
I feel notably
she even improved her acting with time from the 1980's to the 90's ,being less
stereotyped and adopted more innovative types of acting. With the advent of
time she looked less the ordinary run of the mill, to a more complete actress
and not just doing what she was meant to do. Few actresses more reflected the
transition of the era of catharsis and violence of the 1980's to the romantic
fervour of the 1990's
Madhuri enacted a
wide range of roles in her career like 'Tezaab',’ ‘Parinda’, 'Dil'.
'Beta','Hum Apne Hai Kaun ' ,'Devadas', 'Khalnayak',' Dil to Pagal
Hai' ,'Raja,' , 'Ram Lakkhan.' ,’Lajja’ and 'Mrityudand' She displayed innate
mastery in adapting to the tasks required in every different movie.
BEST FILM S
In my view
Madhuri took acting nuances to their highest scale in film ‘Beta.(1992) I can't
forget her candid expressions in 'Beta' when rescuing and defending husband
Anil Kapoor and putting her relatives Ramesh Chautala acted by Adi
Irani and Mainavati. in place when they were bullying her. Conviction at a
boiling point, taking rage to volumes of thunder and lightning and romance to
touches of leaves blossoming in spring. Great justice is done to the character
of the pain of a woman of an ordinary class, Displays marvellous flux or
contrast of expressions. And her confrontation with her mothe in law Laxmi has
classical proportions. Madhuri plays Saraswati, the good-natured wife of Raju (Anil
Kapoor). He has blind devotion towards his stepmom, Laxmi (Aruna Irani) and
can’t see through her ploys. Laxmi has deliberately brought him up as a
simpleton as she wants to control him for his wealth. When Saraswati comes to
know about it, there ensues a war of wits between her and her mother-in-law. It
was a film about family dynamics and Madhuri excelled as an intelligent and
loving wife who must make her husband realise the truth about his stepmother.
Her confrontation scenes with Aruna Irani gave the film the very
juice.
In 'Tezaab'
(1988) I can't forget scenes when she confronts her father enacted by Anupam
Kher expressing intensity of sublime proportions. Anil Kapoor plays a
young collegian who wants nothing else but to join the navy and serve his country
but circumstances force him to take to a life of crime. The film highlighted
the suppressed anger inherent in society which is mostly curtailed
but burns like cola fire when unraveled. It didn’t have a larger-than-life
villain but a normal slumlord ruling over his denizens through use of fear.
Munna (Anil Kapoor) locks horns with him in order to save his girlfriend
(Mohini) and is forced to go all mano-a-mano with the goon in the climax in
order to end his reign and also to finally give closure to his own pent up
resentment and anger. I would hate to remember Mao only for her dance sequence
and not for her role.
In' Dil '
(1990) one gets the sensation of every season of the year, such is the change
in the complexion of the expression. Madhuri as female lead does great justice
to the plot expressing romantic and rebellious emotions . and
establishes a brilliant chemistry with Amir Khan. Madhu (Madhuri Dixit) and
Raja’s romance begins with them playing pranks on each other. She even goes to
the extent of making false charges of rape on him and is smitten when he
doesn’t retaliate. They genuinely come to like each other. Meanwhile, his
father Hazariprasad (Anupam Kher) pretends to be a rich man so he can get his
son married to Mr Mehra’s (Saeed Jaffrey) daughter, who happens to be Madhu.
When Mehra learns of this duplicity, he humiliates Hazari Prasad. The two
become sworn enemies. The two children secretly marry however and are disowned
by their respective parents. When Raja gets injured, Hazari Prasad helps Madhu
on the condition that she leaves his life forever. He lies to his son later
that she left him. On knowing the truth, he rushes to the airport to stop her
from flying away and their world is complete once more.
In 'Hum
Apne Hai kaun(1994) she projects innocence and humour with great flair and
touch of grace to do justice to the plot. It is really telling the manner she
synthesises the whole shape of the film and it’s characters which has no
element of violence. Her role with Salman Khan as the co-star plays the central
part in the integration of to families and give the film a great life in spite
of the absence of melodrama or intense character rivalries so common in Hindi
films. Great insight is given on workability of arranged marriage and traditional
Indian ethos.
In 'Raja'
(1995) she virtually carries off the role of the male actor and many felt the
film should have been title ‘Rani.’ Raja (Sanjay Kapoor) and
Madhu (Madhuri Dixit) were promised to each other in marriage when children, thanks
to the friendship between Rana Mahendra Pratap Garewal (Mukesh Khanna) and
Vishwa (Dalip Tahil) -- Madhu’s brother with Brijnath (Paresh Rawal), Sanjay
Dutt’s brother. Brijnath suffers a setback in business and becomes poor. Rana
and Vishwa break the arrangement when they learn of this. Brijnath suffers
mental shock because of that and Raja now supports him by whatever means he
can. Raja and Madhu fall in love and get married despite opposition from her
brothers. They pay someone to dress up like Brijnath and asks him to enter
Madhu’s room when she’s alone. Madhu feels Brijnath has come to molest her in
her husband’s absence and this leads to a huge misunderstanding between the
two. In no uncertain terms I praise the resolute determination with which Madhuri
as Madhu confronts her brothers Vishwa and Brijnath with
here eyes and facial expressions conveying the intensity of an inferno.
In 'Dil to Pagal
Hai’(1997) she demonstrates energy of whirlwind proportions as a dance and
actress.With Shah Rukh Khan co-starring she gave her role a deep
touch of realism. Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) and Nisha (Karisma Kapoor) are the
best of friends and perform dance-based plays along with their troupe. Pooja
(Madhuri Dixit) is a classically trained dancer and is hopelessly romantic.
Their paths cross when Nisha injures her leg during rehearsals and Rahul has to
cast for someone new to play the lead in his new play Maya. Nisha, who is
secretly in love with Rahul, is jealous of Pooja taking her place. The jealousy
deepens when she becomes aware that Rahul is falling for Pooja. Ajay (Akshay
Kumar), Pooja’s fiance, arrives at this stage. Rahul is devastated but the film
gears towards a happy ending when Ajay sacrifices his love upon finding out
Pooja’s and Rahul’s true feelings for each other.
In Khal Nayak'
(1993) it is not only her dance but her manner of expression that
won the audience. Madhuri plays an undercover police officer who
dresses up as a nautch girl in order to capture a criminal called Ballu (Sanjay
Dutt). She’s doing it all to restore the reputation of her
fiancee Ram (Jackie Shroff), who has been accused of aiding Ballu’s escape from
jail. She comes to know of Ballu’s past and she helps him escape being shot by
the police. Ballu, who likes and admires her, finally gets reformed through
love when he hears that she will in all probability be handed out a rigorous
punishment and surrenders himself in court before that happens.It wouldbe sad
if this movie is only remembered for Madhuri’s dance sequence of ‘Choli ke
Peeche Kya Hai and not the strength of her role.
In Mrityudand
(1997) her expression reached sublime proportion sin illustrating the
grievances of oppressed women. I have no doubt that this was the best acting
performance of her entire career where for once she championed a radical or
revolutionary cause. Expressing subtle nuances she portrayed the oppressed
women of
It is
based in the
The
central characters are a young couple, Vinay (Ayub Khan) and Ketki (Madhuri
Dixit). They are quickly dragged into the mist of the
designs several powerful and unscrupulous villagers. Foremost among
them is contractor Tirpat Singh (Mohan Joshi), a powerful, corrupt and ruthless
man who oppresses poor people and especially women with impunity. Vinay too
becomes influenced by Tirpat, and under this influence spirals down a dark road
of domestic abuse, alcoholism, and selfishness that alienates his loving wife
and tears apart the whole family, despite her best efforts to fight this.
The rest of the movie deals with their efforts to
challenge this embargo , both within their relationship as well as outside of
it, and Vinay's and Ketki's protracted and death defying struggle to
confront and defeat the forces of oppression and male domination in the village.
In Devdas in my
opinion she overshadows the acting performance or impact of Aishwarya Rao as
Paro ,stealing the thunder of the beauty queen ,enacting role of courtesan
Chandra Mukhi.
Shah Rukh Khan enacts Devdas , a wealthy law graduate who returns
from
In Lajja(2001) as
‘Janaki’ in tandem with other heroines she depicts the social oppression of women
in society. Rarely has a female actress of the modern era done so much justice
or expressed such intensity of expression defending dignity of women. Madhuri
enacting ‘Janaki’ , with most subtle craft portrayed the grim reality of the
life of woman. I can’t forget her confrontation and rebuking Purshottam enacted
Tinu Anand with her eyes literally having the fury of a turbulent Ocean. To me
this would be up there with her very best acting performances and amongst the
best of the last twenty five years by any actress. Her acting gave the
character or meaning of the film its very fuel. In spite of acting abreast many
lead heroines Madhuri stood out like a star in galaxy.
In 1989 she also
as female lead Radha and Anil Kapoor’s wife played an important role
in making film ‘Ram Lakhan ‘ a success.Madhurui as Radh agave great support to
Anil Khanna in projecting Lakhan.In the same year in film ‘Parinda’she enacts
role of ‘Paro’ with great fervour.Here role played an important part
in giving an underworld saga life.Although not such a dominating her realism
was greatly admired in this movie. Ironically here she enacted her first
ever death scene.
In the final
countdown I would rank ‘Mrityudand’, ‘Lajja’, ‘Beta’, ‘Dil’ and ‘Dil
To Pgal Hai’as her five bests films in that order.
EVALUATION OR
CRITICISM OF MADHURI DIXIT AS AN ACTRESS
What may be
questioned was whether overall she was a consummate actress or just a great
star with flashes of brilliance. It is also notable that Madhuri sung to the
theme almost only of commercial films and very rarely projected a progressive
figure. It could be said that in the end she was very much brand
Madhuri.Instead of doing full justice to the character .she carried the mantle
of her mannerisms or style.
It is difficult
to make comparison s with actresses of other eras like Waheed Rehman, Nargis,Nutan,
Meena Kumari etc but overall still I feel she did not carry grace at the same
pedestal or immersed so intensively or classically in the character. I feel in
pure acting skill stars like Kajol,Tabu or maybe even Rani Mukherjee or Urmila
Matondkar at her best overshadowed her. It is also possible that inspite of
being endowed with such talent,Madhuri wished to pull the crowds and not enact
the roles of art films like Smita Patil or Shabana Azmi,or was not selective as
Kajol.Still I have no doubt that Madhuri was a better actress than stars like
Aishwarya Rai in her time who was relatively stereo typed, even if she was the
most out sanding beauty of her time. Of yesteryear stars I rank Madhuri above
icon slike Hema Malini and about on par with Sridevi. At her best in Mrityudand
Madhuri could compare with the best acting performances of
Waheeda Rehman or Nargis.
No doubt
Madhuri's roles represented the genre of her time, but unlike the best
actresses of the past she over glorified the sex symbol image or cult of the
heroine. In my view similar to superstar Rajesh Khanna Madhuri had flashes of
overwhelming brilliance, but fell short of true greatness of a consummate actor
in the manner of Waheeda Rehman or Nargis. or even Tabu or Kajol.
.It is very hard
to evaluate how Madhuri would have performed had she been an actress in the era
of the 1950's or 60's,with her striking resemblance to Madhubala. Vic -versa it
is hard to conceive the grace of a Nargis or Nutan adapting to the modern era,
with such degeneration of artistic standard and moral values.
Maybe we could be
critical of Madhuri for going completely with the tide in acheiving stardom.
Merely giving so many superhits does not make an actress ‘great.
‘and has a lot to do with the ‘x’ factor and possessing mannerisms that pull
crowds. When I watch her films I feel Madhuri has two aspects in her acting.
One is the repeated mannerisms like keeping the kitchens burning or doing what
the doctor ordered and the other expressions of sublime proportions and fluidity
of unspelt boundaries.
Unlike Madhubala
,Nutan or Waheeda Rehman Madhuri did not start of as a sparkling beauty and
acquired it over the years.
It also could be
stated that Madhuri was in many ways a manifestation or mascot of the opressive
phenomena of globalization and liberalization and till today she is investing
every ounce of her energy to promote consumerism and endorse imperialist
products. It may have been imperative for her to sell herself to reach the
pedestal of Bollywood unlike greats of yesteryear or to an extent even Kajol or
Sridevi in the modern era.It is hard o diagnose whether its the era which
attributed a superstar to lack the grace of a Madhubala,Nargis ,Nutan or
Waheeda Rehman..Nutan was without doubt more charitable ,while Smita Patil and
Shabana Azmi were part of genuine social causes. Arguably a more principled
Madhuri would have donned the colours of social roles and not sold herself so
slavishly. I am also harshly critical of her stand towards her chauvinistic stand
towards Nepal two decades ago .Today she does not open her voice against the
unjust agricultural bills .It is sad that today culturally she symbolises oppression
of the semi-fascist social order, endorsing all the reactionary actions of the
Hindutva brigade promoting national chauvinism. In that light I feel Superstar
Shahrukh Khan was more liberal in his views or even Naseerudin Shah.
Even if she
donned the mantle of a sex symbol I would remember or glorify Madhuri Dixit for
being 'Ketki' in Mrityudand',where we literally saw Madhuri in another form, as
a crusader against injustice or in ‘Lajja.’It is a perfect illustration of the
untapped potential of artists in enacting progressive or idealistic character
roles. and a travesty of the crass materialism where artists have virtually to
seek themselves like slaves in the film industry. It is absolutely ironical
that both miss the cut in the selection of the top ten films of Madhuri Dixit
by film fare.
Thanking filmfare online for the
information on Madhuri Dixit’s films.
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