Bollywood Hijinks

"Isn't she just right for the part of a hard-nailed entrepreneur?" Madhur's gaze followed her professionally. Nowadays Bipasha has no patience with compliments. She is a bit flurried at the moment. Anyone can see, she gives hundred percent to her work. Nothing stands between Bipasha and her career. Not even John Abraham. The men in her life know they can't call her on her cell-phone when she's working.

Quite a contrast to the screen queens of yester-years . When it came to that man-woman thing their theme was "Sarey rishte-naate tod ke ke gayee/ Le main tere vaaste sab chod ke aa gayi."

Thank God there were no cellphones back then. Not a single film starring Meena Kumari or Rekha would've been completed on time.

There are countless legends about the lengths that the older screen queens went to for love. If Meena Kumari recommended her young brawny garam friend to every filmmaker who would listen to her, Zeenat Aman almost gave up her entire career and wealth for a certain Mr Khan.

And what did these two divas finally have to show for their passionate devotion to that achy-breaky feeling called love? Broken hearts and dreams, not to mention a fatally damaged liver for Meena K and a permanently damaged eye for Zeenat A.

Today's average diva is no fool for love.

Priyanka Chopra once told me, "I can't get into a situation where I've to be constantly answerable to anyone….Where are you? What are you doing?….Please! I'm too free-spirited to get tied down. Right now I want to focus only on my work, and whatever free time I've, I want to spend with my parents and brother."

Work first, then family….the rest can wait ….

The girls in filmdom today know their fundas only too well. Jaya Bhaduri was the reigning queen of Hindi cinema when she gave it all up for love and marriage. Today a Rani Mukherjee or a Preity Zinta wouldn't want to give up their blossoming careers for love and marriage.

At the same time they know exactly when to pull out for optimum pleasure.

Raveena, blissfully cocooned in domesticity advises her colleague Urmila Matondkar to settle down fast. "She's a wonderful girl and will make a wonderful wife. The time to get married is now."

I convey the well-intended message to Urmila. "Sweet of her. But koi hona bhi to chahiye. I can't marry the first man who proposes to me just because this is the right time to do so."

That's why I worry for Manisha Koirala. Silly girl, she has to let go of 'true love' (whatever that might be) repeatedly. Then she ended up marrying the wrong man, I've seen how devoted and attentive one of her boyfriends was. At lunch at my place Cecil looked on lovingly as Manisha spoke into the phone, held on to her purse when she went to the rest-room and earnestly discussed plans he had for managing her money.

Yup, this was the true thing.

"Ah, now if I were to get a man as devoted as that I'd kick my career in the pants and run to the mandap," a very successful diva tells me.

That's what must have run through Zeenat Aman's mind when she ran after love …and fell on her face. Today she's happy. But what about Meena Kumari who died of a broken heart?

Chalte chalte yuhin koi phisal gaya tha….

-- By Subash K Jha