Wow! That is the first reaction the cover photograph elicits. Quite natural. Hema Malini is one of the most beautiful faces that lit up the Indian silver screen. And when it is a biography, one expects the glamourous tale of a Dream Girl who descended on Bollywood in 1968 and stayed put there for three decades. But what one gets is an account of Hema Malini, the dancer. So more space goes to the Bharatanatyam exponent than, say, the Basanti of Sholay.

The complaint is short-lived though. Writer-journalist Bhawana Somaaya presents a lesser-known Hema Malini, tracing her life from Ammangudi in Tamil Nadu to New Delhi where she was the “most talked-about child artiste”, and finally to Bombay where a star was born. Read it and you are in awe of a strong woman who refuses to retire even after blowing off 57 candles on her birthday cake.

There is, of course, less masala. Only two pages are dedicated to Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra whose association with Hema had given a fresh lease of oil for rumour mills then. Jeetendra first played a messenger, trumpeting the virtues of his “simple, humble and single” friend Sanjeev Kumar to Hema. Later, the Jumping Jack himself galloped into the actress’ heart. But the romantic ride didn’t have enough fuel to reach the altar.
The last laugh was Dharmendra’s. After all, he was the most shameless suitor, begging light-men to ‘falter’ so that he could embrace his lady love again and again!

Love story
The book describes the conventional hurdles Hema had to overcome to say yes to a much-married Dharmendra. But what happened after that is kept under wraps. Somaaya doesn’t even throw a flicker of light on the separate lives the two stars led thereafter. “Perhaps it is in Hema Malini’s destiny to walk alone…” she concludes abruptly.
But from the book, one never feels that Hema was alone. She had a huge family tree with a lot of branches to perch on. Among them were Shanta aunty and brothers Kannan and Jagannath. Mother Jaya Chakravarti was Hema’s pillar of strength and shadow on the sets.

Jaya was not so popular with the filmmakers. Her eyebrows remained raised whenever her daughter did an intimate scene. Hema, however, says it was not because of her mother that she refused to “heave her bosom” or “bite the lower lip’. Instead, it was her natural grace and uncompromising stance that earned her the unenviable label ‘thandi Malini’.

The biography also features Hema, the mother, raising two daughters; especially Esha Deol, from her football days in school to the Dhoom run in Bollywood.

As an artiste mom, Hema was particular that the ‘dancing gene’ kept going. So, she enrolled young Esha and Ahana as “baby monkeys” when she staged ‘Ramayan’. The two graduated into “baby monsters” in Ravan’s court and years later, into talented Odissi dancers.

The book analyses Hema’s political sojourn and her long association with Doordarshan (‘Noopur’ to ‘Aap Ki Saheli’ to ‘Rangoli’). It also gives us some Hema trivia— that she is an animal lover and has six dogs at home, and that she wears jasmine flowers every day (“Amma loved flowers and wore them every day. I’ve continued the tradition after her demise.”)
A fitting ode.

Hema Malini, The Authorised Biography
By Bhawana Somaaya
Roli Books
Pages: 220, Price: Rs 495