Knowing my proximity to the Bachchan family things became awkward between Karisma Kapoor and I after she broke up with Abhishek Bachchan in 2003. Strangely after the much-publicized breakup Karisma chose to speak to me once the dust settled down.
She had said, “I withdrew into a shell. I just was not ready to go public with my grief. I chose a dignified silence because that is the kind of person I am. I have always been a woman of few words.I was emotionally unprepared to confront my problems.It is time I spoke. I owe it to everyone. The beginning of this year was traumatic for me. I wouldn’t wish any girl to go through it. I was forced to deal with my hurt and pain on my own. I guess time is the best healer. Though I have been through a lot, I have come to terms with whatever has happened. All I will say is, whatever is destined is bound to happen. I was emotionally unprepared to confront my problems. Life deals you different cards. You have to just go with the shuffle.”
Much later , after marriage and two children, Karisma made an effort to make a comeback to big-screen acting in Vikram Bhatt’s reincarnation saga Dangerous Ishq. The project, which featured her in four roles,proved dangerous to all concerned. It was a thundering flop. No more was heard of her acting plans since, except in interviews where she would talk about how she was “considering” various film offers.
Seven years after the debacle of Dangerous Ishq, her attempt to return to acting on the OTT platform was slightly more successful.Even now Karisma is very keen to return. Her children are grown up. She has lost a lot of weight and makes sure she is photographed at parties and airports. She has been trying to stay in the limelight through her association with sister Kareena and brother-in-law Saif Ali Khan. Karisma is getting restless. She wants to come back to acting. But where are the opportunities?
Speaking about her comeback plans Karisma had said in an interview to me,”After working non-stop for 13 years with an average of 8-10 releases a year, and having done everything from potboilers to art films, I needed to move on to another level. I believe in taking risks. If you remember, when I had done Dil To Pagal Hai, every actress refused it. No one wanted to stand up to Madhuri Dixit. Everyone advised me against doing Dil To Pagal Hai, just as they warned against doing an offbeat film like Fiza. So when people asked me, why television, I want to ask them, why not?”
This birthday, on June 25, Karisma Kapoor , has reason to dance. Friends say she has found love again.It has given her a sense of selfworth that other circumstances in her life perhaps rendered null and void. A broken marriage amid a volley of I-told-you-sos from close friends and relatives isn’t quite what you want in your life when you’re nursing a broken heart.Karisma dreamt of a marriage and domesticated life for keeps, coming from a traumatic break from Abhishek, as it is. Little did she realise she would be back with her mother and sister in Mumbai in no time at all.
She gave up her career at what she thought was the right time. Right after her marriage Karisma had glowed gloriously. “This was the right time for me to marry. I feel I was lucky with my career. I did many heroine-oriented films and many commercial successes. Marriage came at the right time. I’m very happy, at peace with myself.”
One more broken marriage, one more headline from Bollywood. Kya farq padta hai? This is how it would seem to the media and its market. But the situation isn’t that simple for the people involved in the terrible imbroglio.
“That family drives the men away,” an actress had said cruelly. Or do the men get intimidated by the formidable personality of the (nee, and otherwise) Kapoor women? Karisma’s story is more exciting than any film she has ever done.
What Karisma needs to do is to reinvent herself, write out a whole new idiom of pop-stardom. God knows, she has the wispy wherewithal to give the teenyboppers a run for their money. Unfortunately, not too many directors would be willing to frame projects especially for Karisma.
So where does Karisma go from here? Will the audience accept Karisma as anything but a teenybopper icon? Starting at 17, she has constantly played the pubescent pinup idol even in her best films like Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai and Dharmesh Darshan’s Raja Hindustani.
Ay 48, can Karisma reinvent herself as a woman of substance when she has formidable company in her age group? Karisma did play a woman of substance in the TV serial, Karishma: The Miracle Of Destiny in 2003. It didn’t really create the ripple effect, as it was expected to. But the TV channel, Sahara, paid Karisma a hefty amount, reportedly close to Rs 25 crore, to be in the television serial.
Karisma has been a wonderful mother, daughter and sister. Equally protective towards the three ‘girls’ in her life Karisma will now become even more matriarchal in attitude. She has seen her mother play the role of both the parents. She slipped into the double role almost by design.It’s unlikely that Karisma would want to return to her career in the near future.
