KANGANA BOLE TOH DHAKAD, DHAKAD BOLE TOH KANGANA EK AUR ROOP KANGANA KE KHANAKHTE HUE KANGAN KE.... BY ALI PETER JOHN

My mother was not a poet, a philosopher or an enlightened woman the way some women are today or claim to be, she was an ordinary woman who spoke about the truth of life way ahead of their time. I can write a book only about her thoughts and beliefs on various subjects which are so very relevant and contemporary even in 2022 - Ali Peter John

Like she once told me after a girl in our neighborhood was raped by her own father, which was a normal way of life in our village in the fifties. She has said in her own language (konkani) said that girls and women would've to be brave or learn to be brave if they have to survive and not surrender to the wild and wicked ways of man.

I remember my mother after that Sunday afternoon because I have been thinking about Kangana Ranaut ever since I have seen the trailer of Kangana's upcoming film “Dhaakad" which means the brave and the courageous one who conquers. “Dhaakad" as the trailer shows us is the story of a daring spy agent who exposes a sinister world dealing with human trafficking.

How she takes on this wild world and smashes it with her own courage and the most modern missiles and weapons is what “Dhaakad" promises to explode the screens with on May 20.

We will have to wait for the explosion Kangana is to make, but till then let me trace her “Dhaakad" story from the time she down from the hills and reach Mumbai in search of her dream which she knew was not going to be very easy, but she also knew that she would also not go back to the hills unless she had made it big in the big, bad, sad and even mad world called Bollywood......

I don't know how she reached my building on Yari Road and lived as a paying guest in a one room apartment, but I knew that she was a young and beautiful woman who was being harassed, humiliated and even hurt by a failed star who claimed to be her mentor and guide, but was only slowly and systematically trying to damage her physically and mentally.

This was her first chance to prove that she was a “Dhaakad" and she did by getting out of the clutches of the man who tried to convince her that he was her saviour, but turned out to be a satan who was hell-bent on finishing her career before her career could start.

Kangana showed herself more than to anyone else that she was determined to fulfill her dreams, however difficult it was. That she could master the English language in a record time of six months and that she could put her body in shape through yoga and other fitness exercises was another example of her going all out to excel in a world she knew very little about.

Series of rejections followed till she found her first break in “Gangster" in which she proved that she was a revelation of talent and her journey had taken a definite new turn.....

She followed her journey without any fear of losing or failing and first found big success with her role as a failed and frustrated model in Madhur Bhandarkar's “Fashion". The girl from the hills won her first national award and was now on her way to ascend new peaks of success....

Her success fell in love with her and she did some of her best roles in films like “Queen", “Tanu Weds Manu" and “Tanu Weds Manu Return", all of the films which gave her career a new direction and which gave Hindi films too a new way to make meaningful films on reasonable budget and with artists who were not the typical chocolate boys and plastic dolls.

The journey of Kangana has now reached a very crucial stage because she was doing unusual films without depending on the big Bollywood powers which included the Khans, Kumars and the Devgns and the directors like Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and even a good director like Rajkumar Hirani.

But the dark and hungry clouds were waiting to embrace her and give her a taste of failure. And this happened when a row of her films like “Krish", “Katti Batti", “Simran" and “Rangoon" flopped miserably.

But, she found new daring ways of staying in the limelight. She made a hue and cry about her alleged affairs with Hrithik Roshan and the consequences are still not known. She then found an ideal cause in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput and launched a bitter tirade against the industry and called it all kinds of names like ‘Bollywood Mafia', ‘a den of drug addicts' and ‘a home for nepotism'.

It was at this time that she found it as apt to support the ruling dispensation and she received rich rewards for it. She was given Y- Class security, she was prevented with the Padmashri along with her arch rival Karan Johar and her best friend Ekta Kapoor. She became a woman to fear and to be hated by the industry, but nothing seemed to matter to her as long as she has the lotus on her side.

And in the last one year, she has grown into a failure of films which don't have to rely on the power of Bollywood. “Thalaivi" , her film on the life and times of the politician from the South, J. Jaylalitha flopped, but she has a whole lot of films on the floor, of which “Dhaakad" will be released this week.

There are other films with her like “Tejas" , “Tiku Weds Sheru" , “Sita", a film on Mrs Indira Gandhi and the Emergency and “Aparajita Ayodhya" and “ Manikarnika-2---The Return of Gidha".

It will be noticed that except for Arjun Rampal, none of the other big stars are working with her, but she is sure that she can manage without them and still succeed.

What then is the future of Kangana Ranaut? She is 35 now. She is a favorite of the ruling party. She has actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Divya Dutta to work on any roles if offered by her. In one day, she addresses two press conferences.

In the first conference she says that she cannot get married because some interested elements are spreading stories about her saying that she,“beats up voice". And in the second conference, she says that she would like to get married in the next five years and have several babies and continue to work for a better India like her leaders in the lotus party are working very hard now.

KAL HO NA HO, LEKIN KANGANA AUR USKE KANGAN RAHENGE AUR KAL KA KYA HOGA YEH TUM BHI NAHI JAANTE, MAIN BHI NAHI JAANTA AUR KOI NAHI JAANEGA KYONKI KANGANA KE MANN MEI KYA HAI YEH KOI NAHI JAANTA.