May 11, 2008

Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Raveena Tandon, Sonali Bendre and Farah Khan have two things in common — they all belong to Mumbai’s film fraternity and are power mothers.

The new buzz word ‘power mother’ explains the recent trend in India where a new, young mother takes a break from a roaring career to give complete attention to her newborn while keeping her profession on hold. Once the child becomes self-sufficient, the mother resumes her career. Even Bollywood mothers are now emulating this concept.

The only difference between the Bollywood power mothers and others is that the latter, after childbirth, needn’t bother so much on regaining their physical appearance whereas the film world mothers have to regain their looks, and they are doing quite well. An example is a stunning Kajol in her comeback film, Fanaa. In fact Kajol-maan looks better than the teenage Kajol.

And the best part of this brigade is that they know what they want to do and are confident of getting it. Kajol was offered many roles, including a role in her best buddy Karan Johar’s film, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. But she refused as the film required her to be out of the country for a long stretch of time. “I don’t want to take up any film which will take me away from my daughter, Nyaasa,” she said.

To this, Amitabh Bachchan had quipped in a joint interview with Kajol, “Don’t worry, we will take turns to push around Nyaasa’s pram till you give your shot!”

This is precisely what producer Yash Raj Chopra did for Madhuri Dixit during the shooting of her comeback film, Aaja Nachale. He built a playpen for her two sons at the Yash Raj studio in Mumbai where the kids played and were looked after with the mother hen Madhuri keeping an eye in between her shots for the film.

Another trend these mother’s adopt is to have children in quick succession — Juhi Chawla and Raveen Tandon. They don’t follow the ideal three to four years of spacing out of children to help for better growth. They have enough work force support and moolah to get their children the best care that money can buy.

Unless, of course, they go the Farah Khan way and produce triplets! As Shah Rukh Khan commented, “She’s got children in wholesale!” Farah has the best advantage as she doesn’t have to be in front of the camera, so she needn’t even bother much about losing weight to regain her looks. But if you have been watching her on the Star Plus channel judging the musical programme, Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar, you will agree that she has never looked better. Slima and svelte, Farah-maan is glowing these days.

Otherwise, a year or two gap between the kids give the mothers enough time to recoup and regain their beauty to stage a comeback in films. Added to this is the mushrooming contingent of exercise and diet gurus who give each actor personalised care and time to get her back in shape. If you remember seeing the before (while pregnant) and after (following exercise regimen) pictures of these actors you will realise how successful these gurus are. They are the most sought after people and have become very busy in the last decade or so. Almost every actor now has his or her own trainer.

These days when actors prefer to work in one film in a given year or two, the absence of four to five years from the work circuit doesn’t affect their career much and they still come back as lead actors. The power mothers have an added advantage — the Indian film scenario has undergone tremendous change in the last couple of years and so there is no need for them to act only the college teenage romantic actors.

Over the years, there has been a gradual but drastic shift in storylines to the effect that there is now tremendous scope for 30-plus actors. In fact, lesser films are being made with teenage romance. In the years gone by, however, as beautiful as the women were, motherhood never gave them a comeback platform as a lead actor. Sharmila Tagore, Rakhee, Hema Malini and Sridevi, till today, look stunningly beautiful. But unfortunately for them those days the stories revolved only around teenage romance and weren’t suited for moms. Mothers in those days were meant to weep.

Another advantage that power mothers also have are the various satellite TV channels who, in a bid to overdo each other, are wooing these moms to appear on their shows. In between looking after their newborn brood they ‘condescendingly’ agree to be seen on the small screen, thereby remaining fresh in the public memory even during their professional hibernation period. That they manage to rake in huge amounts of moolah is another matter entirely.

Besides, these new-age mothers don’t hesitate to show off their motherhood and love playing their new roles in films, too. Kajol-maan (Fanaa, U, Me Aur Hum), Juhi-maan (Bhootnath, Jhankar beats), Madhuri-maan (Aaja Nachle), etc.

Adding to this actor brigade is the behind-the-scene but equally powerful and successful moms who don’t hesitate to look good and hot. The best example is Gauri Khan, mother of a boy and a girl and who was the cover girl of Vogue magazine. She doesn’t need to be known as Mrs Shah Rukh Khan. Though very media shy, Guari looks great and is the pride and joy of King Khan.

Joining her is Suzzaan Roshan — mother of two sons and wife of Hrithik Roshan. Suzzaan looks great enough to model for jewellery designed by her sister. As media shy as Guari, shutterbugs can never have enough of her wherever she goes.

So this is the new brigade of Bollywood — hot, sexy, confident and best of all, maans.