All the containers and cameras in the world could not have caught the bonhomie and milk of human kindness that flowed between Jaya Bachchan, Rekha Ganesan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. This thaw was the moment the country had been waiting for – like North and South Korea – the deliverance from a traumatic past towards a fearless future. Fences fell, cameras flashed as arm in arm over field and farm, the three women set off forward.
During a recent Bollywood function (where else) Jaya and Rekha smiled and hugged so tightly, they must have given bears a complex wondering why no one takes pictures of their patented bear hug. Same thing for us at The News Minute – we smile and hug each other and all the walls, chairs, stools and tables in the office before pay day, but no luck. Same old idli-dosa and hot samosa. In fact the samosawala has stopped coming to the office. But we are now inspired. Next time he comes, we’ll call him ma. Hamare paas ma hain, tumhare paas samosa hai. What a line. Raise please.
We can keep smiling all day and hugging each other as well, but we never make it to the headlines, forget page one with colour photographs and long eyelashes. But when the queen of Indian cinema – Jaya Bachchan – and the queen of hearts Rekha Ganesan so much as look at each other, heavens fall. If they smile at each other, the heavens return to their position, confused. And it was nothing short of a bolt out of the blue when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – Jaya Bachchan’s DiL - received an award for her comeback film Jazba from Rekha, all barriers fell. There’s more, there’s more, be patient. Then Rekha hugged Ash and wanted to give her many, many, more, more awards and Ash called her ma. As in amma, stupid, what else – she couldn’t have called her mami. Mumbai then experienced unseasonal rain, as if the city was crying in gratitude.
We think the green-eyed beauty is smarting from a famous put-down. Ash has probably not forgiven sasu-ma for announcing to the world that her granddaughter Aradhya is the luckiest baby in the world because she has a beauty queen for a nanny. Or was it governess – same thing. Rekha would never have called Ash a governess.
You may have noticed that like rest of India we stalk Bollywood looking for smiles, smirks and slaps – newsrooms are not all that entertaining and we are human. We also breathlessly follow every twist and turn in the Bachchan household wondering if the family has meals together, who buys the sabzi and pyaaz, do they eat bio food and do they all watch TV together, like the rest of us mortals with popcorn and chips. Does the household have a common laundry man, cook etc – you know, the ma stuff. We don’t know about you, but we think Shweta Bachchan – Ash’s sil - is by far the classiest of the Bachchan clan and is ageing beautifully that she must make her sister-in-law Ash feel very J. Not the J in Chennai, moron, the J in the English alphabet.
Oh, it is also no secret that frosty winds have blown between Rekha and Jaya in parliament when the two divas have appeared and we find it really bad, very bad, that they were made to sit next to each other so cameras could catch a cold. Okay, enough kindness for a day.
At time of writing Ash has three mas. Mummy, sasu-ma and Rekha-ma. Developing story.