DHAK DHAK MADHURI NE ABH TAK KOI DHAAKAD KAAM NAHI KIYA,LEKIN HAQEEKAT NE MEIN WOH KAFHI DHAKAD HAI... BY ALI PETER JOHN

I lived in a village which was best known for goondas,murderers, thefts and cases of rape and others wild acts committed by human beings. Then things got better with the coming of a place called J.B.Nagar which had buildings which had notices put up saying, 'strictly not for film people ' - ALI PETER JOHN

But I still don't know how a retired engineer and his singer-dancer wife could manage to get one apartment which was a one bedroom place and the family consisted of parents and young four children, two of which went on to become doctors in America, one was an architect and youngst was interested in being a dancer,specializing in classical dances. The youngest child of the family was destined to go far and her name was Madhuri Dixit.

Madhuri had to go through an uphill struggle before she could really make it .
She had made her debut with a film called 'Maanav Hathy' which she was to play a victim of rape.

The director took advantage of her being a new actress and pressurised her to do all kinds of bold and brazen scenes for which she was not game and neither were her parents,and when she couldn't take it any longer, she who was only seventeen refused to follow the orders of the director. She was punished for her crime and made to sit on rocks and was not even provided with drinking water and was even indulged by the spot boys and assistants.

But she tolerated everything till the film was complete. 'Maanav Hathy' gave Madhuri a bad beginning, but she was on her journey to take her to places where not many actresses had reached. Her first experience had taught her lessons for a lifetime and she learned all that it took to survive and succeed in the industry.

There were any number of attempts to take advantage of her,but not one of them could succeed. I can vouch for it because I have been following her career as a well wisher from the very beginning.

There are countless occasions to show how brave (dhaakad)Madhuri have been, but I will talk about only three which say all that has to be said about her bravery.
I was in-charge of one of the awards functions of Screen and I knew that Madhuri had all the chances of winning the best actress award.

The night of the award was going on at the Film City and Madhuri had not arrived till eleven pm and there were no mobiles to get in touch with her. But I knew she would not ditch me because she had made a promise to me.

She finally reached the venue. She was dressed in a simple white dress and I wondered what would happen if she was the winner of the award .She had no chair to sit on and so got into a chair where I was standing and suddenly a huge wooden bean crashed just in front of her.

A few minutes here or there could have turned out to be a major disaster. Madhuri could have come directly in the bean and what could have happened after that is something I still shudder to think of.

But Madhuri continued to be as calm as ever and asked me not to make a noise about it. And she received her prize for her bravery when the award for the best actress was announced and she was the winner...

I had arranged for a rare photo session in black and white with her. The studio where she was to shoot was situated in Parel which was far away from her house in Iris Park in Juhu, but Madhuri agreed to drive all the way. She had not seen cameras like the ones at that studio and kept looking at them in wonder when suddenly sirens kept sounding all around the studio. A leading BJP leader from Bombay, Ramdas Nayak was shot dead outside his office in Bandra and there was panic in the city.

The doors and shutters were coming down all over the city in fear. The senior photographer who was in his eighties also wanted to call off the shoot with Madhuri. But Madhuri asked the photographer to pull down the shutters from the front and continue the session inside. Her idea was accepted by the photographer and the shoot continued.

Madhuri had brought lunch from home for ten people. We all had lunch after the session. The crisis in the city had come to an end and Madhuri and her staff drove to the Film City where she had to shoot for two more films.

I was taking Madhuri for a religious function in Chembur ,when her car drove down at a signal in Andheri. And before I could even think of how to face this unexpected situation ,Madhuri who was dressed in a Kanjeevaram saree got out of her car with her driver and started working on the carburetor of the car and within ten minutes we were on the way to the function in Chembur.

MADHURI AAJ KI NAARI HAI JISNE NAZAAKAT BHI HAI AUR WOH SHAKTI BHI HAI JISSE WOH DUNIYA KO JEET SAKTI HAI.