| Shoma A. Chatterji, TWF, Bollywood Trade News Network |
The Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai wedding opens a door into Bollywood's journey into matrimonial harmonies and disharmonies among starry marriages in the past. Shoma A. Chatterji goes down memory lane to unfold little known stories of starry love.
Marriages are made in heaven. True. But they have to be lived on earth. Its sunny days and wintry weathers, nights of storm and rain see some marriages sail through. Some do not. Marriages between stars of tinsel town happen when they are paired in several films, fall in love and tie the knot. Do they live happily ever after? Or do some of these breaks under the pressures of real life contrary to the synthetic fairy tales they live out on screen? These marriages are forever treading on dangerous ground, as the partners have to suppress their gigantic star egos when they become husband and wife.
When Dev Anand proposed marriage to Suraiya, a few years older than Dev, they planned to elope. But Suraiya had a domineering grandmother. She developed cold feet in the last minute and ditched the handsome young man. She remained single throughout her life. Dev Anand met and married Kalpana Kartik during the shooting of TAXI DRIVER. Kalpana retreated from films, to mother two children and was hardly seen or heard of again. When asked whether his marriage to Kalpana failed, the octogenarian heartthrob smiles and asks, "We still share the same roof, don't we? We are still married to each other, aren't we?" and cleverly evades a definite answer. We do not know anything about Kalpana.
Prem Nath married Bina Rai amidst great fanfare and loud music. Bina Rai gave up films. How happy were they? Not quite what with Prem Nath's violent temper and mood swings that led to a disastrous relationship with his own son Prem Kishen. Bina Rai, we hear, turned into a mental case and though they lived under the same roof, she never faced the public ever again.
Few are aware that Naseem Banu, mother of Saira Banu, persuaded Dilip Kumar to marry his daughter through a midnight telephone call followed by emergency meetings. The story goes that after having starred in several blockbusters with Jubilee Star Rajendra Kumar, the two fell madly in love and had reportedly decided to tie the knot. But Rajendra Kumar was already a married man with kids. Something had to be done. Enter Dilip Kumar who saved a family from breaking up. Saira Banu was overwhelmed with the proposal and forgot all about her love. Not many years later, her husband was embroiled in a scandal with a Hyderabadi beauty, Asma. Dilip Kumar denied all ties with Asma and he being locked in a Hyderabad hotel. Asma walked out of his life after a handsome payoff it was alleged. 
Shammi Kapoor, childhood sweetheart of actress Nutan, married Geeta Bali who was older. But the marriage turned out to be happy till Geeta Bali suddenly died of small pox because she had never been vaccinated. He later married the princess of Bhawnagar. Film scribes yelled blue murder when they heard of Sunil Dutt marrying Nargis. The outrage was because Sunil had played Nargis' son in Mother India. It was difficult to accept even a screen son marrying his screen mother in real life. They stuck their thumbs at every critic, remaining married for many years and producing three children till Nargis died of cancer when her son's maiden film was released. Priya Dutt's documentary Nargis suggests a persistent tiff between Dutt and Nargis about the mother's indulgence having led to the son's drug addiction. Sanjay Dutt's own marriage to another starlet ended on the rocks when the expatriate lady returned to her parents in the US and died of chronic brain tumour. His second marriage to Rhea Pillai also broke up.
Raj Kapoor's son Randhir Kapoor's marriage to actress Babita turned out to be a love affair turned sour. No one knows why the marriage broke up though many point an accusing finger at Randhir's love for the bottle. His younger brother Rishi married Neetu Singh and like the Kapoor tradition, Neetu left films. Though they are together, there are stories of Rishi's drinking leading to violent scenes between husband and wife.
Rajesh Khanna married Dimple Kapadia while she was still shooting for her maiden film Bobby. It was a fairy tale marriage of sorts. But soon after the two girls, Twinkle and Rinke were born, Dimple walked out of the Khanna household accusing Rajesh of violent behaviour. Interestingly, neither Rajesh nor Dimple bothered to marry again. Saif Ali Khan's marriage to Amrita Singh 
broke up after he met the Italian Rosa. Raj Babbar walked out of his marriage to Nadira to live together with Smita Patil. When Smita died, he promptly went back to Nadira and the children. Southern actresses have a penchant for married men. Examples are many – Hema Malini leads the list followed by Jayapradha and Sridevi. Vyjayantimala also chose a married man though he was not in films. Among all star marriages, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri's marriage stands like a solid rock despite the rise and fall of the Big B time and again, the life-threatening accident, and a certain lady called Rekha.
Today's children are politically correct. Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, Ajay Devgan and Kajol keep up a good public image, unlike Aamir Khan who could not rescue his long-time marriage to the non-filmi Rina. Let us see how Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai handle their chemistry in real life.
(Shoma A. Chatterji is a national award winner for film criticism. The opinion in the story is of the writer)
Udne Ki Aasha
Cricket
1