RANI MUKERJI
She’s the girl who started working at sixteen to help her family a difficult period brought about by her father. film producer Ram Mukerji’s illness. She’s the co-star who has no qualms chatting to Aamir Khan while sitting in Shah Rukh Khan vanity van just before going off to Ladakh for a shoot with Abhishek Bachchan. She’s the star who can throw a tantrum with a new diva who can call you “sweetie” in the same breath that she cuts you to size. She’s also undoubtedly a woman who has worked hard reinventing herself from the sad-eyed tortured wife in her debut movie Raja Ki aayegi Baraat 1997, to the hip-swinging mini skirted dudette in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.1998, to the woman of substance who can play a working-class wife of a small-time criminal in Mani Ratnam’s Yuva 2004,
Like many Bollywood’s stars, films run in Mukerji’s blood. But unlike first rung Bollywood royalty like Kareena Kapoor who is fourth-generation actress granddaughter of the legendary Raj Kapoor, or Mukerji’s cousin Kajol whose great-grandmother was an actresses as was her grandmother mother and aunt she was never to the manor born. A quiet studious child who grew up in a modest suburban flat, Mukerji’s has learnt her craft on the job hiring stylists ruthlessly changing honing her skills and maintaining her relationship. She is the quitessential girl-next-door, who can occasionally transform herself into a seductive young woman. Sex appeal doesn’t life in the clothes you shed but in your eyes. She maintains and so far she has been proved right. Unlike Aishwarya Rai who made a fetish of not kissing or appearing in skimpy dresses on screen and then happily did both to boost a flagging career in Dhoom-2, mukherji has always spoken less, worked more.
Her metamorphosis says a lot about New Bollywood and about her adaptability. Instead of remaining stuck in a rut of inconsequential roles in male oriented projects , Mukerji’s listened to the advice of dear friend Aditya Chopra son of Yash Chopra tha men who currently runs the most successful film studio in Bollywood. She chose to sit at home for a year rather than do rum of the mill scenes before playing Suhani Sharma a medical student in Saathiya 2002, The film directed by Shaad Ali Sehgal was quickly followed by a role in Chalte-Chalte 2003, in which as in Saathiya she plays the role of woman whose marriage almost breaks down. She was given a make over by another good friend, designer Manish Malhotra and the results were there for all to see.
Since then whether she is the first choice or second her good friend Karan Johar wanted Kajol to play the woman trapped in a loveless marriage with Abhishek Bachchan in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna 2006, but had to settle for Mukerji she has always risen to the task. She comes prepared to the sets and never gives until she has perfected her short. In crucial scenes she is not afraid to give her own interpretation analysing what the audience would want with considerable accuracy. Unlike other actresses, she does not have a massive publicity preferring to take most medi-related decision herself. On the choice of movies she sometimes defers to her parents, but usually trusts her instincts. She also keep her relationship intact even forgoing the role that ultimately went to Tabu in Mira Nair’s The Namesake 2007 because it clashed with Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.
She draws her inspiration from various sources. For the role of Rhea Parkash a young working woman who is widowed early in life in Hum Tum 2004, she studied the youg daughters of her older friend such as actor Anil Kapoor a great admirer of her steady dedication. For the role of Michelle Mcnally in Black 2005, she relied on observing a hearing impaired assistant director who prostitute in mid-nineteenth century India in Mangal Pandey The Rising 2004, she draw heavily on Willia, Dalrymple’s book The white Mughal which her co-star Aamir Khan used as a Bible.
At twenty-nine Mukerji clearly is readying to play women rather than girls though in Shaad Ali Sahgal’s Bunty Aur Babli 2005, she showed she could play a small town Sikh girl Vimmi with the courage not only for women pushing thirty but also for wives and mothers. Thus in Tara Rum Pum 2007, she could play the mother of two children and in Baabul 2007, a teary-eyed widow and sorrowful mother. In Veer Zaara 2004, she played a fiery Pakistani lawyer who fights for an Indian Air Force officer’s freedom. And in Hey Ram 2000, she plays a woman raped and murdered in the run-up to partition.
Mukerji’s has shown the smartness to challenge herself by going beyond customary glamour and lending some character to her parts steadily building the adifice of what could a very interesting career.