PIYUSH ROY
The Hindi screen diva with the most bewitching smile since Madhubala, Madhuri Dixit remains Hindi cinema’s last leading lady to own the No 1 title, thanks in large measure to her mesmeric dance moves that bowled over an entire generation
Madhuri Dixit, Bollywood’s last lady superstar turned 50 this year. Two years ago, her trio of successful pairings from the 1990s, Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh Khan, entered their golden jubilee year with much fanfare. No such hoopla however, has come the way with their most consistently successful on-screen partner of equal star attract, who turned 50 last month. In the foundation decade of the three Khans, Madhuri was the bigger star, often responsible for some of their career establishing hits. Dil, gave Aamir Khan’s career a second lease of life after multiple debacles post Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. No wonder, he danced at his energetic best to even if briefly, eclipse, his dancer co-star in the ‘Dum dama dum’ song that became an instant rage. Madhuri clearly was the bigger star and draw in Salman Khan’s biggest blockbuster after Maine Pyar Kiya, also the first Indian film to earn and start the Rs 100 crore club, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun! Shah Rukh, in his foundational ‘King of Romance’ days achieved his most memorable pairing after Kajol with Madhuri Dixit, in films like Anjaam, Koyla and Dil To Pagal Hai, that pushed drama boundaries in the often-predictable love sagas of the 1990s. The Hindi screen diva with the most bewitching smile since Madhubala, Madhuri Dixit remains Bollywood’s last leading lady, to own the No 1 title with decisive commercial and critical success (with a record 14 Filmfare Best Actress nominations and four wins). That longevity at the top drastically reduced for subsequent claimants like Kajol, Aishwarya Rai, Vidya Balan and now Deepika Padukone. Bollywood’s present No 1 actress, Padukone, may have become one of the highest paid actresses in world cinema, but she is yet to guarantee the box-office opening of a Madhuri Dixit starrer in her heydays in women-centric projects with lesser heroes. A review of highlight moments from the repertoire of a middle-class ‘Girl-Next-Door’, who went on to become the muse of one of 20th century’s greatest artists, MF Hussain.
SAAJAN (1991)
This blockbuster musical love triangle from the 1990s’ began Madhuri’s rapid ascendancy to the No 1 position from the 1980s’ dancing diva, Sridevi. Saajan proved that apart from being an energetic dancer, she could also emote well. ‘Tu shayar hai’, ‘Bahut pyaar karte hain’ and ‘Dekha hai pehli baar’, skip a fond, melodious beat in the romantic even today, in a film that marked the peaking of her off-screen romance with on-screen star, Sanjay Dutt.
BETA (1992)
Before the saas-bahu genre came to monopolise the telly screens, Beta remains the last among Bollywood’s hit family films to pack in a punch of a farewell to the genre with power-packed confrontation scenes delivered to clap worthy dialogues featuring ‘saas’ Aruna Irani and ‘bahu’ Madhuri. It swept the top popular acting awards of the year, with some cheekily renaming this most successful film from the ‘hit’ Madhuri-Anil Kapoor Jodi as ‘Bahu’ instead!
SANGEET (1992)
While still in her mid-20s, Madhuri convincingly aged on screen to play the mother of a blind girl (also played by her) in her career’s first double role in south cinema auteur K Vishwanath’s poignant exploration of a moving story of love and sacrifice between two artists from the fringe. Dixit’s latent classical talent of an expressive dancer got showcased for the first time in songs like ‘Rabba koi to bataye’ where her high enthusiasm dancing ably accentuated her character’s naïve disposition to love.
HUM AAPKE HAIN KAUN! (1994)
Madhuri remains the star draw in this contemporary classic from Sooraj Barjatya, as the face to Lata Mangeshkar’s 10-plus melodies that brought fun, romance and good old family values back with a bang on the big screen in the Mafia-dominated actioners of the early 1990s.
MRITYUDAND (1997)
The closest that Madhuri came to winning a National Award had her lead a spirited band of sisters in a patriarchal North-Indian village as a fearless widow who rises against exploitative feudalism in Bollywood’s most important female revolution film since Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala.
DIL TO PAGAL HAI (1997):
Dixit got her chance to play Yash Chopra’s iconic ‘lady in white’ in perhaps her most memorable on-screen pairing with Shah Rukh Khan. In a plethora of heart-warming dance numbers (Arre re are, Pyar kar and Dholna) topped with a finger-tapping rain item with kids, Chak dhoom dhoom, the film is still remembered for Madhuri’s poised
complimenting of the restless energy of a younger and rising dancer heart throb, Karishma Kapoor in an adrenaline pumping pre-climax ‘dance of envy’ challenge.
Pukar (2000)
In this spy thriller where Dixit played her first on-screen character with grey shades, the highlight was a unique coming together dance attraction (Que sera sera) that had then Indian cinema’s finest classical female dancer match steps with its best male ‘Western’ dancer-choreographer, Prabhudeva, to achieve a fine balance in grace and rhythm rarely repeated.
LAJJA (2001)
In a context of rising intolerance towards provocative artist interpretations, one still can’t believe how this film got through the Censor Board or the moral police, in its portrayal of a strong-willed Ram Leela actress played by Madhuri. In one of the film’s path-breaking scenes, she not only comes to play Sita on stage, after downing a few pegs, but also refuses to take the agni-pariksha, demanding that if a trial by fire was to be the test of loyalty and purity in marriage, then it had to be undertaken by both the separated husband and wife, and not her character alone.
DEVDAS (2002)
Dixit’s take on one of Bollywood’s favourite iconic characters, the courtesan with a golden heart in Saratchandra’s much adapted classic tragedy, ranks among the best in the genre. It has become a cult reference for some mesmerising kathak on-screen courtesy Pandit Birju Maharaj’s choreography in the song Kahe chede mohe that had Madhuri attempt playback singing for the first time. Her high-on-expressions matching of steps with another younger dancing star, Aishwarya Rai, in a crowded and energetic Dola re dola, proved the edge of vintage and how…!
Dedh Ishqiya (2014)
Marrying the aristocratic tehzeeb of Lucknow, with the mature adas of a classic lover of romance, Madhuri wows with a charm unblemished in this second comeback, flirting at ease with veteran Naseeruddin Shah and newbie Huma Qureshi to some shock effect in this thriller with a heart.
DANCING GODDESS’S HIT PARADE
Madhuri Dixit danced her way into the national imagination with an innocent charm and inviting fresh energy, in the Ek do teen song from N Chandra’s gritty urban thriller, Tezaab, to establish an iconic star-choreographer partnership with veteran Saroj Khan. Her pre-marriage parting from Bollywood (Devdas) and post-motherhood comeback (Aaja Nachle), both happened in films where the fine art of dance or the character of a dancer was in focus. Since Bollywood’s first dancing superstar, Vyjayanthimala Bali, there has been no other Indian actress whose repertoire is celebrated as much for their acting achievements as their dance songs, ranging from the folk to the pop, with competent highlights in the classical, showcasing between them the entire gamut of the navarasas from shringar (Humari atariya pe) to karuna (Bada dukh dina), and hasya (Didi tera devar, Akhiyan milaun) to the adbhuta (Dola re dola, Yeh gathri taaj ki)!
