There's SOMETHING about Kareena Kapoor Khan

LET THEM EAT CAKE

I WANT to be Kareena Kapoor. I want to look like her. I want to dress like her. I want her life. I want her bank balance. And if Saif Ali Khan were to ask me to marry him, I would nod my head as if I had used the Boomerang app.

No one makes a better choice for Kia in R Balki's Ki and Ka, the film that is running houseful in its third week currently. I admit I didn't love the soap-box homilies in the film, but I only noticed when I could get my eyes off the female lead actor. She looked luminescent.

In fact, Kapoor has never looked better. At 36, one can barely say she is ageing like the proverbial fine wine but she looks like an exquisite 36. She really has been looking lovelier as she adds on the years. Through the film, her face radiates with an inner wellness, her frame is slim and taut with fitness, and she's dressed like a peripatetic Zara mannequin.

Kapoor plays a working girl who doesn't want marriage and kids simply because she wants nothing to take away from her professional goals. She dresses for the part spot-on. She is utterly chic in her secretary shirts, chiffon blouses with pussy-bows, slim pants, elegant pencil dresses and the suddenly-sexy tailored jacket in her corporate wardrobe. She returns home in the evening with her black pumps in her hand. They could have been girlie sandals or compromise-forcomfort wedges, they are the allpowerful symbol of a working girl " a high-heeled black pump. Think Robin Wright Penn in House of Cards " yup, that kind of power-sexy.

I haven't seen a film actor's costumes as close to our urban reality as this one. Period films are ready reckoners for costume history and often instant choices for awards. But to dress in the here-and-now " and with such verity to the hip, corporate, mature woman of today " is commendable too. Manish Malhotra can pull a surprise sometimes.

Of course Kapoor is the woman we all want to be. Living life on one's own terms, having great sex (every morning, eh?) with dishy Arjun Kapoor, not bothering with groceries or cleaning house, nonchalant about sex before marriage, and just pursuing a life of ambition and success.

But wait a minute, this is also Kareena Kapoor playing Kareena Kapoor.

Rewind a little to the lady's personal and professional chart. Kapoor grew up in a home without a male figure-head. Her mother raised her two daughters (including older sister Karisma) to work hard at their careers and not compromise their goals for the sake of their men. Kapoor has been at the top of her game ever since she darted into films 16 years ago. Almost every film of hers has been a box-office success, the one's that weren't still earned her acclaim.

Kapoor never wore her stardom lightly. Despite being a Bollywood blue blood, she wore her last name loosely. Her staggering talent saw her through, but talent in the industry often falls by the curbside. Kapoor maintained an aura around her " a diadem she never took off. This didn't come from her family name, it was something worked at every single day since she arrived.

She toiled in her films, but also at her image. She understood the importance of looking the part. Her size-zero avatar got the country on the treadmill. It made her green bikini in the ill-fated Tashan less about glamour, but more an homage to disciplining the body. She co-wrote three books on nutrition and mindful eating, and led by example.

She isn't on Twitter by choice, maintains a closely knit circle of friends (her friends are her friends from the beginning), stays clear of controversy and keeps her nose in the air. She hates dressing up, but knows the value Fendi frocks and Chanel nailpaint bring to her table.

Her personal life was her sacred space. No one knows why she broke up with Shahid Kapur " he broke her heart but she always speaks well of him. When she started dating a much older Saif Ali Khan, it was no one's business. She began living with him, and says his two children are her friends. That she is a royal by marriage is just minor point on her CV, she still goes to work like she did a decade ago.

Interestingly, her marriage hasn't proved a setback in her workplace " Kapoor has four top films coming up, three in this year alone. The film world is a cruel place if you are a woman in your 30s, and especially if you are married. Aishwarya Rai, Kajol, Vidya Balan are still acting, but their films are too few and far between. Moreover, they aren't signed on for eyecandy roles anymore, while Kapoor in Ki and Ka is a visual feast.

Kapoor demonstrates what it means to be a star " one that is meant to shine on longer than the others. She has earned her celebrity and labours at keeping it going. Kareena Kapoor is the quintessential working girl.


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