The destroyed dream of acting drunk in a saree.

“Karvatey Badalte Rahe Saari Raat Hum, Aap Ki Kasam! Aap Ki Kasam!”

Out of most of the things I’ve literally died within myself wanting to do, singing this song with Rajesh Khanna in place of Mumtaz. Sigh. Life.

Anyway, here I am in the 21^st century, still wondering about how wonderful it would have been at that point of time. The era, the glory, the respect! What life can reward me with is a television with old classics playing, me watching and listening to them, imagining, imagining and imagining! It’s not all that bad though.

Acting is such an amazing thing, something that I could do for free, for the love of it! I’ve hardly made any great advances in it, no one even knows much about it, except for a play in my previous school, and my selection into the dramatics club and then dropping out due to unavoidable reasons! It’s a sad story and maybe I shouldn’t even have an incline towards going on about it. The ‘unavoidable circumstance’ is responsible for many more unavoidable things that came later. Sigh again.

This piece of writing, I mean the post you’re reading is very light hearted and being written just to put across a pretty grievous story of my life. So, take things lightly as you read. It’s just a silly piece of writing.

Now, as one may wonder, “if her love for acting is so huge that it forms such an integral part of this ‘drama-queen’s’ life, why doesn’t she try now?” I have excuses to this too. 

Reason one being the fact that you need to slim down to weigh probably 50 kilos to even reach the screen and be accepted as a good ‘actress’ today. (That is if I go in young.) Yes, sadly, acting in a way is inversely proportional to your weight. Otherwise they would cast Huma Quereshi in place of Katrina Kaif! Back then, during the 90s, you needed to look presentable. That’s it. Chubbiness was accepted. Today you need have a perfect jaw line, have sunken cheeks (that look like concave, very opposite to mine that are pretty convex!), have your beauty bone to be very visible. (Unless I go in like when Kirron Kher did!) And, of course, the saddest thing, for each of those, you need to move your body and eat less. Very sad indeed.

Reason two being that, in order to make people love you even more, more and more you need to wear less. You didn’t need to do the same back then. You could sing a “Hawa Ke Saath Saath, Ghata Ke Sang Sang” with a hot and cute person like Sanjeev Kumar, wearing full pants (that too bell-bottoms) and a full sleeved shirt. You could dance on in “Chup Gaye Sare Nazaare” with Rajesh Khanna wearing a salwar suit and a saree. I could even act drunk in a saree, if you remember "Jai Jai Shiv Shankar"! What could get more decent? You’re doing your job- people are getting entertained, and then you don’t have to get into swimwear to woo people. Everything was so respectable. Unlike now. I couldn’t go in now, maybe because I wouldn’t want to be up there on the ‘bada pardaa’ with everyone whistling. I want to move their hearts, not other parts.

Reason three being; I could pursue true drama then! True crying, intense emotions- love, hatred and so much more. Today, even if I am the main reason why some people couldn’t feel the essence of a movie like ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’, I’ll be signed up for ten other films. Why? Because I am a showpiece. Tadaa.

Overall, it’s pretty sad I wasn’t born back then. I know cinema has a lot to offer even today, but somewhere down the lane the respect of a lady has been given up. Walking around on the beaches, playing volleyball, even shopping in bikinis is on the go. Women are being used; they’re passing wrong messages (Item songs, where the blondes don’t even know what they’re dancing to!) Nothing about the present industry even excites any longer. We have smarter directors, but maybe a deteriorated culture. Actors have to be performers today. And even outside the movies, they need to keep advertising to keep them visible. (The most useless thing! Truly! It’s like bribing people.)

I realize that back then also you had a Zeenat Aman who did roughly the same in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, and there was a Helen, but maybe what they did wasn’t mandatory.

Ending things on a pleasant note, here is a picture of a lady romancing one of the best on screen lover, in snow, wearing a fur coat. (Not having drunk packs of beer to bear the cold in her little dress!)