| |
| |
|
| Life
is A Love Story |
By
Kavita Chhibber |
| Kiron Kher unplugged. |
|
|
|
|
|
| She is known as much for
her beauty, her knee length long tresses
and dimples as she is for her prowess at
badminton, and her sari collection. A celebrated
theater actress, who took a 15 year hiatus
to raise her son, Kiron Kher returned to
acting both in theater and films with a
bang, sweeping top national and international
awards in every film she has acted in since.
A woman of substance, who once told her
equally gifted husband and best friend the
actor Anupam Kher, "life is not a success
story, it's a love story," Kiron Kher
was recently honored in Los Angeles at a
retrospective of her films. She will also
be acting in the prime time series ER along
with husband Anupam. In an exclusive interview
with Little India, Kiron talks about her
journey and why she believes in living life
on her own terms.
I hear you are an army brat and that
it was your mother who inculcated the
love of cinema in you.
|
|
My mother
is a great film aesthete and loves good
cinema. I remember every Sunday there would
be different English films in the defense
services theaters that she enjoyed watching.
She was the one who introduced me to the
films of Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt and Satyajit
Ray. I was also exposed to the films of
Japanese director Kurosawa and European
cinema as well. I think because she had
the opportunity to read about and view cinema
of high quality she became more and more
immersed in it.
She also loved seeing Hindi movies and she
and the maid who brought us up used to go
to see these matinees shows exclusively
for women. We would see the evening shows
over the weekends and I still remember the
hot samosas and tea they would serve and
the booklets with the film songs that were
available. I used to buy those booklets
and we used to sing the songs and play Antakshri.
I was the eternal romantic, so much so that
my mom and my sister would say, "Let's
not take her to the movies; every time she
sees a film she becomes obsessed with it
for days. I used to start living the film.
If the hero and heroine died I would ask
questions like "Woh Marne ke baad toh
mil gaye honge na? (They must have united
after death, right?) They must have gone
to heaven together." The romances would
affect me deeply. The maid used to sing
very well and I would borrow her veil and
while she played drums on the table and
the almirah, and sang popular film songs
I used to dance to them. I used to love
jewelry and there are pictures of me with
pieces of heavy jewelry dangling from different
parts of my head, as I danced on a table.
I would visit my grandparents in the village,
during winter vacations. They didn't even
have electricity and winter was very cold.
We would snuggle in these huge and heavy
quilts, which today are considered priceless
antiques! I remember the lanterns being
lit at dusk, eating hot black lentils, corn
tortillas with home made white butter and
spinach. Those were such special memories
and you never quite let go of those. In
some ways I'm still that same small town
girl at heart.
So when did you decide to wield the
badminton racket?
There were always great opportunities
for sports for army kids, and automatic
memberships to all the army clubs. So
we were into riding and swimming as well.
Mom was a very good badminton player and
so was my sister. When my sister was only
11 they won the Punjab women's doubles
championships. Then I started playing
with her, but I was more interested in
the clothes than the rackets! My sister
captained the Indian team and won many
prestigious awards, including the nationals.
I too played for many years for the university,
the State, the country winning consistently,
but hated getting up in the morning at
7 a.m. to train, and the butterflies I
felt before the matches.
When did you realize you liked acting?
I think the first play that I acted in
and which stands out in my earliest memories
was My Fair Lady and since it was an all
girls' school I did the role of Professor
Higgins. Being so fond of dressing up,
I just yearned to be Lisa Doolittle, but
I guess who ever had the loudest voice
and strongest personality got the male
roles! It was when I joined Punjab University's
English Department to do my Masters in
English literature, that my acting career
truly began. I was in first year of the
Masters program when the late Mr. Balwant
Gargi, the famed Punjabi playwright and
short story writer, came from America
to set up the department of Indian theater
in Punjab University. He was a very well
known and celebrated literary figure.
He wanted to do the theatre production
of Desire under the Elms by Eugene O'Neil
before the department started functioning
and he got busy. He came to the English
department to audition the girls for the
lead role. The role of Abby is considered
the topmost role in American theater for
any actress. It is a role of a woman of
35 and I was all of 19. I went to audition
and they asked me to read the section
where 35 year old Abby is trying to seduce
her 25 year old stepson. I got the role
but was scandalized and went home and
told mom I was not sure I want to do it
with all those risqué dialogues.
She insisted I do it since the play was
an all time classic It was a full professional
theater production, and world theater
was so akin to the kind of world cinema
I had seen or read about. I felt right
at home and started doing theater full
time.Then I joined the department of Indian
theater and won a gold medal. After that
I had two offers: to go to the National
School of Drama or study at the Film Institute
at Pune.
What did your parents say to that?
My father put his foot down and said
no to both. He had heard people smoked
pot at NSD and being in films was out
of the question. Later he agreed, but
around that time Nargis Dutt came to Chandigarh
and Sunil Dutt was casting for a film.
He signed me up for an exclusive one year
contract but never could make the film.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
AWhat did you do then?
I just waited for a while and stayed with
my aunt in Bombay. In the meantime I did
meet some people from the film industry
who turned out to be the kind of people
a girl from a respectable background would
never want to meet or encourage. I was somehow
naturally drawn to alternate cinema, but
Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil were dominant
there.
Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani didn't
want to move away from them or Naseeruddin
Shah and Om Puri.. They were willing to
offer me small roles, but having done all
these major roles in theater, my soul wouldn't
agree to just do small itty bitty roles.
In the meantime I met Gautam Berry (a
budding actor and wealthy businessman) and
he fell in love with me, and wanted to marry
me.
|
|
|
I felt the film industry was far removed
from the world of classy theatre plays I
was used to performing in. Maybe if I had
hung in there it may have changed the way
things happened, but my parents were not
filmi and they couldn't uproot themselves
and come. It was a very insecure phase of
my life. So I got married and I thought
I had settled. Gautam is a wonderful guy,
we share a son and we are still very good
friends, but our marriage didn't work out.
We divorced in 1985. Today though Anupam
and I have brought up our son Sikander,
Gautam shares a very good relationship with
all of us and is like a member of the family.
I believe Anupam and you were friends
for many years before tying the knot?
Yes, and he had also come to Bombay in
the meantime. He knew me from my theater
days. In fact we did Desire Under the Elm
again, but this time we did it in Hindi.
Anupam was really my best friend for years
and he too had been through his own heart
breaks. We started doing plays and it was
so wonderful to be back in theater. One
day the chemistry changed with one look.
We still remember the day, the moment and
the time. I remember my mother telling me
when I said to her I wanted to marry Anupam,
that he is very sweet, but how will you
live? He won't be able to even afford your
shampoos. I said mom I' d rather be with
some one with whom I can sit and laugh every
evening, feel connected with and be happy.
God was kind and Anupam did go on to do
very well. I remember he gave me my wedding
ring after one year of marriage, because
he couldn't afford it before then. I think
love is the only truth. He has done some
very romantic things for me. Once it was
raining very hard in Bombay - the city was
flooded and the traffic had come to a halt
-he was supposed to go out of town for a
shooting and I was living in the city. Suddenly
the doorbell rang and there was Anupam standing
outside all drenched. Instead of going out
of town he had braved the weather, the halted
traffic, perhaps walked half the way to
get to me. I saw the look of love on his
face and I can never ever forget that wonderful
gesture. He used to call up in the middle
of the night and I would sleepily pick up
and say hello and he would whisper "I
love you" and put the phone down. There
were no cell phones in those days and he
didn't have a phone and perhaps went to
some booth or shop late at night to make
the call. He even proposed in the cutest
way by saying would you and Sikander like
to live with me?
Anupam said you took almost 15 years
off to raise your son Sikander, which was
very brave of you. How did you see the industry
change in that period?
I felt it was very important to raise my
son well. Sikander and I traveled a lot
with Anupam during that time enjoying each
moment of being there with him. The industry
was so hypocritical. I was with Anupam as
his girlfriend for a little while and then
as his wife and of course I became bhabhiji
(revered sister in law) overnight for the
film industry! The film industry has changed
so much though. It is really more professional
now, and the newer, younger breed of film
makers are so passionately involved with
their work, and nothing else. We are finally
seeing bound scripts being given to us.
When did you think of making a come
back?
When Sikander was about 13 or 14, director
Feroz Khan wanted to do a play called Saalgirah
and wanted Anupam in it. Anupam and I had
been toying with the idea of doing a play
for some time since the artist in me had
been feeling that vacuum. In between I did
a small cameo in the film Pestonjee, where
I played Anupam's mistress, which was fun
and a TV serial called Isi Bahane, which
was a very haphazard production, but it
was successful. But then Anupam and I did
the play Saalgirah together.
It is the story of a dysfunctional marriage
where a couple that has separated after
15 years of marriage, realizes how they
had wasted a lifetime and many years. Most
people have dysfunctional marriages, because
it's not a very normal thing to be living
together 24 hours a day. It takes many years
to smoothen out the rough edges and sometimes
it never happens. Most people do opt to
stay in the marriage, especially people
from the subcontinent, so I think this is
what they related to. The play is written
with the intention to bring about a reconciliation,
and the message that the years do soften
you.
I was very nervous when we started rehearsing.
I thought I had forgotten how to act and
Anupam in the meantime had become a major
star. People in the film industry who didn't
know my theater background didn't realize
I was an accomplished and trained actress.
It was very important to come up with a
really good performance. The most gratifying
thing was when people said I outshone Anupam
in the play and he still jopkes about it.
Of course he is too confident and grounded
to let it bother him but its funny how everyone
teases us about it.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
You then did a stint on television.
Yes I got a chat show called Purushkshetra.
I loved doing that show.It dealt with
how men react to situations and they had
a woman host not embarrassed to talk about
sex and other taboo topics openly. I realized
men are far more vulnerable than women.
I find the male vulnerability far more
painful to see. The vulnerability of a
woman has an inherent strength in it,
while the vulnerability of a man has an
inherent weakness in it.
|
|
I did the show for two
years, but then I got bored. I wanted
them to make it more broad based and they
said they would, but it dragged on. In
the meantime Star TV offered me a show
called Kiron Kher Today. Star was not
a very happening channel those days and
they already had two-three other chat
shows and it became a case of excessive
chattering. Then DoorDarshan started a
news channel and I hosted a show called
Jagte Raho with Kiron Kher. It comprised
of a panel discussion and then one on
one with celebrities from all walks of
life on weekends. I enjoyed doing that.
Then you did the movie Darmiyaan
based on the life of Tikku a Hijra (transgender)
and his mother a famous actress.
Darmiyaan was an extremely painful film
to do. It was a very dark film without
any possibility of any kind of light,
joy or hope. We worked on the scenes,
the look, and the psyche of the person.
The script was written, changed, rewritten
many times with all of our input . It
was based on Tikku's life story and we
also talked to other Hijras. The film
was very well received, but the subject
is so controversial that the film was
deliberately sidelined when it came to
nominations for the National Award. My
dream was always to win the national award,
which I did for my next film Sardari Begum.
And then again for the Bengali film
Bariwali which Anupam produced under great
duress from what I heard. It also won
the Netpac award in Berlin.
I worked very hard on Bariwali. About
eight months before the film started,
the script was given to me and a Bengali
teacher came every day to teach me Bengali.
Bengali is one of the easy languages,
but the important thing was to get the
enunciation and the persona of the woman
right. I can't even boil an egg, but I
started sitting on the floor and learnt
to slice fish. Everybody identified me
with dramatic roles and Bariwali was a
subdued role. Winning the National Award
for the film was truly the icing on the
cake, especially after the controversy
to sabotage the film by saying someone
else had dubbed for me.
The film was indeed made under a lot of
duress. Anupam had invested heavily in
his entertainment company and lost a lot
of money. The financier for the film backed
out at the last minute. Anupam sold a
brand new car to start the first day's
shooting and then borrowed money from
everywhere. Even our watchman contributed
Rs. 10,000 toward the film.
The other day we were having lunch and
Anupam teased us the food that you are
eating came out of the tyres of my dear
departed car. I said good! Tomorrow we
will eat a meal sponsored by the steering
wheel of the car! We can laugh about it
today, but those were frightening times.
After the stunning performance in
Bariwali, and as Paro's colorful mother
in Devdas, you are again making waves
and collecting accolades and awards with
Khamosh Pani. The film won the top Golden
Leopard prize at the 2003 Locarno
International Film Festival, and you
won the award for best actress.
Yes, we shot the film in a village near
Islamabad. This film is about a Sikh woman
left behind during partition and instead
of jumping in a well marries one of her
abductors. Her true story comes out later.
I think it was amazingly satisfying to
make an anti-fundamentalist film in a
fundamentalist country. For me making
this film was pure nostalgia.
I'm Sikh and I have aunts who migrated
to India and I grew up hearing all those
stories of pain and loss. It was as if
I was playing a woman I had already met.
Ultimately she does jump into a well,
because she is ostracized by the entire
village and her son became a fundamentalist.
What is in the works now?
I have done Main Hoon Na with Shahrukh
Khan. It's a fun film though mine is a
small emotional role, but an impactful
one. I'm also looking forward to Kunal
Kohli's film and one with Yash Chopra.
I think Anupam and I have switched places.
I'm currently doing masala movies and
he has crossed over to doing crossover
films!
|
|
| |
|
..- End
Of Article..... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
