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There’s an unconfirmed story going around that Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor did go through a nikah two years ago. If one remembers right, that was the time when Saif had gone on record to firmly state that although he and Kareena were looking at taking their relationship to the altar, this was not the right moment for it. But the question being asked now is, was he simply being gallant and shielding his ladylove who didn’t want anything to come in the way of her career? After all, an official marriage wouldn’t have dented Saif’s own professional standing in any way. Long before stardom had arrived at his doorstep, he’d been married to the much-older Amrita Singh and neither marital status nor children (two of them) had made any difference to his career. But maybe an actress like Kareena Kapoor, standing at the peak and exulting at her well-earned success, thought it imperative to maintain her single status. Unlike Saif’s own mother, Sharmila Tagore, most actresses have treated marriage as a cut-off point, like it is a farewell to the leading lady slot and time to play mom on screen and off it.
A rare exception in recent times was Kajol but she was so cleverly picky that she never really was in the race to be the reigning queen. In fact, even Mrs Ajay Devgan who managed to retain the spunk and sparkle in films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Fanaa, showed subtle signs of fatigue (a disappointing predictability in her performance, a grating tendency to screech when ecstatic or distressed) in the recent release, Mr Name Is Khan.
Incidentally, wonder why no reviewer pointed out that among the many flaws in My Name Is Khan, why on earth did a wife have to keep addressing her husband as Khan and never call him by his first name, Rizvan?
But, to return to Kareena’s single status, the grapevine buzzes that she did say kabool to become the youngest Pataudi Begum and all those secular utterings made by Saif at the time of the release of Kurbaan (that he’d opt for a civil marriage, not ask for a nikah, etc) should be taken with a large pinch of salt. The story also goes that photographs were clicked of the secret nikah which supposedly happened in Saif’s Fortune Heights house and all the pictures are in Saif’s partner, Dinesh Vijan’s safe custody.
An actor who passed on all this information on Saif and Kareena’s secret wedding chuckled, “The truth will come out when it’s time for talaq, talaq, talaq!” Like Zeenat and Sanjay Khan’s nikah decades ago which became official only when they split?
Most couples who openly woo and bed say that they’re as good as married, and only a piece of paper would be needed to make it legal. Yet that little bit of legalese seems to make all the difference. It did even to a down-to-earth girl like Juhi Chawla whose marriage to Jai Mehta was her darkest little secret for nearly two years until she got used to the idea that it wasn’t going to make any difference to her professional standing.
Today, Juhi is content being mother to daughter Jahnvi and son Arjun and doing the occasional role in Hindi and Punjabi films. Recently, while My Name Is Khan made all the noise on February 12 and got its weekend audience courtesy the Shiv Sena, a quiet Punjabi film called Sukhmani was also released on the same day. Directed by first timer Manjeet Mann (the super-efficient wife of Punjabi entertainer Gurdas Mann who is the hero of the film), what makes Sukhmani special is that Juhi Chawla has sung the two songs that have been picturised on her. “I gave Juhi the songs on tape and when she came to the recording, she was fully prepared,” explained music director Jaydev who hit a high note by getting Juhi to warble his compositions. For Juhi, music is not a fleeting fancy. She has been learning Hindustani classical music from Padmini Kolhapure’s father, Pandit Pandharinath Kolhapure, and she sings a khayal efficiently with a tanpura. Most people who’ve heard Juhi’s songs from Sukhmani think that they’ve been sung by Alka Yagnik — the playback singer who has best suited Juhi Chawla since the QSQT days. It looks like Juhi can dispense with a ghost voice for ever.
