=================================================================
No heroine, in recent times, has got her act together on the
silver screen the way Madhuri Dixit has done. Girija Rajendran on
the spell Madhuri Dixit casts on the audience.
=================================================================
The admiration for the spell the charmer-performer
Madhuri Dixit cast on the audience has not abated. The ultimate
accolade came this superstar's way as the Bombay film trade
acknowledged her as another Amitabh Bachchan. Every best actress
award going was Madhuri's.
No heroine, in recent times, has got her act together on
the silver screen the way Madhuri Dixit has done. So much so that
Madhuri today is looked upon as a seven-letter synonym for
success. Not without reason is M. F. Husain still obsessed with
this artiste whom he, not too long ago, literally sketched as
``The Dhak-Dhak Girl.''
Not the least noteworthy part of Madhuri's persona is her
ability to carry off a ``Choli Ke Peechche Kya Hai'' situation.
THe lady has style. Without style, Madhuri could not have taken
over from Sridevi with such poise.
There was a brief spell when Madhuri Dixit looked to be
threatened by Juhi Chawla. But along came ``Hum Aapke Hain Koun''
to change it all. Would Juhi Chawla have got as near Madhuri
Dixit as she did had Divya Bharati not gone off the scene? Would
the path have opened for even Madhuri the way it has done today?
The point is Divya Bharati is gone, and Madhuri has come
to stay. One saw the spark in Madhuri in ``Sangeet'' itself. K.
Viswanath's deft direction saw Madhuri excel here, in a dual
role, fairly early in her career. Madhuri has come a long way
since. Today, the first five slots among heroines belong to her.
Only after that do others come into the reckoning.
But Madhuri has not let all this upset her achiever
equilibrium. Convent-educated and well versed in Kathak, Madhuri
speaks of her advance with all the advantage of being well-read
and well-bred. As the tide turned for her with ``Hum Aapke Hain
Koun'' (the film in which she sported that Rs. 15 lakh worth
sari), Madhuri noted: The attitudes and opinions of people
changed, the way they looked at me changed, but I refused to
change. The only thing that changed in me was my determination. I
was determined to be known as one of the best, even the best,
among actresses.''
There is ample evidence by now to show that Madhuri Dixit
is not only one of the better-looking but one of the better
actresses. In the commercial circuit, Madhuri is being spoken of
in the same breath as Hema Malini once was.Such was Hema's
dominance that Sridevi's initial years were spent in seeing this
megastar off. Madhuri, by contrast, has no real competition
today. So overpowering is her image that it tends to be
overlooked that Madhuri is on top of the film world only after a
full decade of slog.
Slog it never looked because Madhuri had this cosy way of
sliding into any role. She made her ``middle-class Maharashtrian
family'' looks her `girl-next-door' asset. It is on this asset
that Madhuri rides the crest of a wave. Yet Madhuri has been
compared to Madhubala in looks.
The resemblance is fleetingly there from certain angles.
But it would be safe to assert that Madhuri, in the ultimate
analysis, has made it by being pre-eminently herself. ``You have
to be born with talent,'' Madhuri acknowledges. ``But that talent
has to be sharpened, chiselled, sculpted and given a shape.''
Things looked bleak indeed for Madhuri as she did Rajshri's
`Aboddh' and ``the film was declared a disaster at the box-
office,'' on her own admission. But the same Rajshri people
rediscovered her, and how, with ``Hum Aapke Hain Koun.''
In between, Madhuri had the great good luck of being
spotted and groomed by a showman like Subhash Ghai ``who taught
me lessons I can never forget.'' Ghai's ``Ram Lakhan'' came as a
remarkable hat-trick for Madhuri after ``Tesaab'' and ``Prem
Pratiggya.''
Likewise, Ghai's ``Khal-Nayak'' signalled a double hat-
trick for her in the wake of ``Dil'' and ``Beta.'' Such is
Madhuri's aura today that she puts in the shade even the hero
playing ``Raja''.
Inevitably, the old movie cliche is being reworked to
ask: ``Will success spoil Madhuri Dixit?'' To that Madhuri's
counter is: ``I am not crazy about fame, about money, about being
the number one.
My happiest moment will be when I am recognised as a
great actress. They say I am ``the lady Amitabh Bachchan,'' that
I am the only female star who can carry a film. I listen to all
this. It sounds nice. But I refuse I repeat, refuse to let any
talk like that go to my head.''
Humility is a quality Madhuri can act out by now. But the
entire conduct of her career has been such that one believes when
she says she is sighting the real peak only now. It is gratifying
to know the razzle-dazzle of commercial cinema does not have
Madhuri in its thrall, that she wants to grow, if they will let
her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
