It Is The Worst Crime To Kill A Mother's Dream...

(Remembering my friend, Mona Kapoor on her death anniversary)

Ali Peter John

Her mother Ms Sattee Shourie entered the world of Hindi films like a storm in the late eighties and nineties. She had carried with her a rich and even a very controversial background. She was supposed to be a close associate of Mr Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency, some said she was a mere telephone operator, while others said she had the power to change faces and circumstances. She was ambitious, she was courageous and she had the guts of steel, which believed was the ideal combination or even the deadly combination to make as a producer of films. She almost proved herself right when she made couple of good, small, big and even, but the truth was that she had established herself as a producer in Bombay. She had her own ways of working, like when Sridevi was not giving her the dates she needed,

She sat outside Sridevi's suite at the Centaur Hotel where she had a permanent suite those days.

Mrs Shourie had two daughters, Mona and Archana. Things fell in places according to Ms Shourie's plan. The leading producer, Boney Kapoor met Mona and things finally came to a hault when they had an arranged marriage and a  grand reception at the then Sea Rock Hotel. It must be mentioned here that the bungalow where Shahrukh Khan has his Mannat now and which was like a deserted place only used for shootings, was used as the residence of Boney Kapoor from where is baraat would leave and all the necessary rituals were conducted in the compound of the same bungalow which was more than a hundred year old.

Boney and Mona settled down in the bungalow Boney had built for his family. They soon had a son who they named Arjun. The marriage went through a bad patch when Sridevi entered Boney's life and Boney decided to support her when her mother fell seriously ill and had to be rushed to America for treatment. Boney spend the next 6 month taking care of Sridevi's mother and supporting Sridevi. Their closeness led to love and Boney divorced Mona to marry Sridevi.

Boney left his own bungalow, Mona and their little son Arjun had shifted into Sridevi's new house. It was while all this was happening that an already shattered Mona was diagnosed for cancer, but not before she and her sister, Archana set up their own studio called the Future Studios, where filmmakers could find all the best locations in the world under one roof.

It was at this time that a producer friend of mine wanted to shoot some foreign locations for his film, “Saade Maade Teen", which was a take off on the cult film, “Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi". Mona gave them permission to use any location they wanted and when they asked for the bill when the shooting was over, Mona asked them, “How can I charge anyone who is a friend of my friend, Ali?"That was what Mona was, young woman and young mother with a very big heart.

That evening she sounded very sad. She was thinking about the future of her son, Arjun. She kept saying, “I hope Boney gives him a break. He must do at least this much for me and our son".

Some weeks later, Mona Kapoor died without seeing her dream fulfilled. Boney did give a break to Arjun, but it was not the first break and the film too did not do very well. Boney was more busy in grooming and promoting the career of Jhanvi Kapoor, his daughter from Sridevi and producing his own film called “Maidaan" with Ajay Devgn in the lead role.

I wonder what Mona, my friend and the dear friend of many others would have felt now when her son, Arjun Kapoor is doing so well and has all the chances of making it big, provided he doesn't take any wrong decisions and go in directions from where there are very few chances of finding one's way back.

And in god's own name, why can't God take care of the dreams of a mother, who I believe is second only to God and sometimes even a threat to God.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Mona Kapoor