What Makes Kajol So Feisty At 50

If
there’s
one
thing
the
full-of-beans
star
knows,
it’s
how
to
stay
happy,
observes
Dinesh
Raheja.

Kajol
has
some
striking
commonalities
with
her
late
aunt,
the
renowned
actress
Nutan,
though
their
families
have
long
been
estranged.

At
24,
Kajol
was
scaling
the
giddy
heights
of
success,
four
months
after
scoring
a
blockbuster

Kuch
Kuch
Hota
Hai,
when
she
thumbed
her
nose
at
naysayers
and
had
a
love
marriage
with
Ajay
Devgn
in
1999.
Cupid,
in
her
book,
didn’t
follow
a
calendar.

Similarly,
23-year-old
Nutan
had
got
married
to
Rajnish
Bahl
in
1959,
the
very
same
year
as
her
landmark
triumphs,

Anari
and

Sujata.

Continuing
to
defy
conventional
Bollywood
groupthink,
Kajol
went
on
to
star
in
major
successes
(Kabhi
Khushi
Kabhie
Gham,
Fanaa)
even
after
marriage
and
motherhood.

This
too
harks
back
to
her

maasi
Nutan
whose
career
had
flourished
(Bandini,
Milan)
even
after
the
birth
of
her
son,
Mohnish
Bahl.

Aunt
and
niece
both
hold
a
record-breaking
five
Filmfare
Best
Actress
Awards.

Cinema
is
in
Kajol’s
very
bloodstream.

She
is
a
worthy
successor
to
her
mother
Tanuja,
aunt
Nutan
and
grandmother
Shobhana
Samarth’s
acting
legacy.

Her
father,
director
Shomu
Mukherjee,
also
belonged
to
an
illustrious
film
family
going
back
to
patriarch
S
Mukherjee
of
Filmalaya
studios.

Joy
Mukherji
is
Kajol’s
uncle
while
Ashok
Kumar
and
Kishore
Kumar
are
her
granduncles.

The
mischievous
sparkle
in
her
eyes
is
inherited
from
her
mother
Tanuja
known
for
her
livewire
roles.

A
naughty,
boisterous
child,
Kajol
was
the
ringleader
among
her
group
of
kids,
which
included
sister
Tanisha
and
cousin
Rani
Mukerji.

Kajol’s
definitive
personality
trait
has
always
been
her
confidence.

‘I’m
not
nervous
of
talking
to
anybody,’
she
had
said.

This
helped
the
harum-scarum
16
year
old
with
thick
eyebrows
and
an
undeveloped
fashion
sense
land
her
debut
film,

Bekhudi
(1992)
which
flopped.

The
success
of
her
second
film

Baazigar
(1993)
made
Kajol
a
star
though
she
was
nether
breathtakingly
beautiful
nor
a
sensational
dancer.

As
Karan
Johar
once
said,
‘Her
face
dances
more
than
she
does
but
that
is
itself
a
pleasure
to
watch.’

What
Kajol
had
in
her
corner
was
undeniable
talent
and
a
felicity
for
expression.
She
did
not
just
act
out
her
scenes
and
deliver
her
lines
in

Baazigar;
she
inhabited
her
character.

Kajol
subscribed
to
none
of
the
behavioural
clichés
heroines
are
famous
for.

She
hated
scratchy
wigs
and
didn’t
care
for
elaborate
dressing
up
(paradoxically,
she
loved
reading
gothic
romances)
and
claimed
to
detest
having
her
eyebrows
threaded.

Here
was
an
anomaly
in
glamour-obsessed
Bollywood.
But
the
movie
camera
loved
her,
as
did
the
audience.

Like
her
character
in

Yeh
Dillagi
(1994),
Kajol’s
screen
persona
also
underwent
a
dramatic
makeover
and
the
rough
edges
were
smoothened
out,
courtesy
Karan
Johar,
Manish
Malhotra
and
Mickey
Contractor.

But
Kajol
became
a
sensation
not
because
of
her
designer
outfits;
but
for
her
extraordinary
ability
to
communicate
with
the
audience.

She
could
expunge
all
signs
of
her
natural
vivacity
and
convey
emotional
vulnerability
through
her
expressive
eyes
as
in

Dilwale
Dulhaniya
Le
Jayenge
(1995)
in
which
she
famously
pleads
with
her
domineering
father
‘Kya
aap
meri
khushi
ke
liye
meri
apni
zindagi
se
mujhe
ek
mahina
bhi
nahin
de
sakte
hai?‘

DDLJ
is
the
longest-running
film
(28
years)
in
Bollywood
history
and
it
consolidated
the
Kajol-Shah
Rukh
pairing
as
the
most
popular
in
recent
times.

While

Baazigar
and

Karan
Arjun
saw
their
passion
short-circuited
by
a
desire
for
revenge,
Shah
Rukh
and
Kajol
worked
best
in
sunnier,
brightly-lit
romances
like
their
other
youth
epic

Kuch
Kuch
Hota
Hai
(1998)
in
which
they
again
played
soulmates
perennially
circling
around
each
other.

To
her
credit,
Kajol
accomplished
top-level
stardom,
not
by
being
a
meek
trend
follower
but
by
being
staunchly
individualistic.

Though
she
adamantly
steered
clear
of
art
cinema,
she
was
the
first
to
dare
to
put
the
grrr
in
girl
playing
a
murderess
in

Gupt
(1997).

And
she
gave
an
insight
into
a
traumatised
woman
who
has
been
unable
to
prevent
the
rape
and
murder
of
her
twin
sister
in

Dushman.

Kajol
did
take
artistic
risks.

In

Dilwale
Dulhaniya
Le
Jayenge,
when
an
inadvertently
drunk
Kajol
wakes
up
to
find
herself
in
Shah
Rukh’s
bed,
she
bursts
into
hysterical
sobs
whereas
in

Dil
Kya
Kare
(1999),
her
character
has
a
no-strings
one-night-stand
with
Ajay
Devgn.

Kajol
was
at
the
peak
of
her
career
and
had
just
had
a
rare
hat-trick
of
hits
(Pyaar
Toh
Hona
Hi
Tha,
Kuch
Kuch
Hota
Hai
and

Hum
Aapke
Dil
Mein
Rehte
Hain)
when
she
decided
in
1999
to
get
married
to
Ajay
Devgan,
whom
she
had
been
dating
for
five
years.

It’s
a
marriage
of
opposites.

Ajay
is
the
strong
silent
type
while
Kajol
is
effervescent.

Yet,
they
successfully
celebrated
the
silver
jubilee
of
their
marriage
this
February.

Kajol
refused
to
hit
the
brakes
on
her
career
after
marriage
unlike
the
time-honoured
tradition
followed
by
Jaya
Bhaduri
and
Mumtaz
or
even
Madhuri
Dixit
and
Juhi
Chawla.

She
rose
even
further
with

Kabhi
Khushi
Kabhie
Gham
(2001)
for
which
she
won
her
third
Best
Actress
Filmfare
Award.

The
actress
did
take
a
break
after
delivering
a
baby
girl
Nysa
to
concentrate
on
her
upbringing.

A
five-year-long
hiatus
later,
Kajol
achieved
something
most
heroines
have
failed
at
—
a
post-baby
comeback
as
the
leading
lady
of
a
hit
big-budget
extravaganza.

Kajol
also
bagged
the
Best
Actress
award
for
this
film
,Fanaa
(2006),
and
proved
that
she
was
still
salsa-hot.

She
did
films
on
her
own
terms,
like
Ajay
Devgn’s
directorial
debut

U
Me
Aur
Hum,
another
award-winning
role
in

My
Name
Is
Khan,
as
a
terminally-ill
mother
in

We
Are
Family
and,
at
the
age
of
41,
a
grey-shaded
role
in
her
seventh
teaming
with
superstar
Shah
Rukh:

Dilwale.

Kajol
has
hit
50,
and
in
today’s
Hindi
film
world,
that
is
the
new
35.

Her
recent
roles
like

Helicopter
Eela
and

Salaam
Venky
were
met
with
a
lukewarm
response
but
she
has
pivotal
roles
in
as
many
as
four
films
on
hand:

Maharagni
with
Prabhudeva,
her
home
production

Maa,
Sarzameen
with
Prithviraj
and

Do
Patti
with
Kriti
Sanon.

These
films
will
decide
Kajol’s
future
status
within
the
industry.

But
those
who
know
Kajol
are
not
too
worried.

If
there’s
one
thing
the
full-of-beans
star
knows,
it’s
how
to
stay
happy.

Photographs
curated
by
Satish
Bodas/Rediff.com