(Aishwarya Rajinikanth Dhanush)
Today when I was writing as Swami Aksharananda about the
blackmailing mothers, without any premeditation I went into the habits of some women
who are independent yet are emotional wrecks. People without any kind of
emotional sparks are generally boring ones but if the emotional quotient of the
people becomes excess it would affect the people around them. Finding a fine
balance between emotional overdrive and rational calmness is very important for
both men and women, and such people are rare. But if people are absolutely
balanced and do things impeccably, those people also would become a bit boring
after sometime. There are some people in the world who are overly blessed with
all what is good in life and it is impossible for them to be emotional wrecks.
They are not saints and they too have their ups and downs in their lives and
reading about their lives is always interesting.
(at the book release)
That’s why I picked up the autobiography of Aishwarya
Rajinikanth Dhanush, the film director, one of the Women’s Rights Advocates for
the United Nations, an accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer and a playback singer.
From her name the pedigree is more or less clear; she is the daughter of the
superstar Rajinikanth and wife of one of the happening actor-singer-director,
Dhanush who has also done a couple of Hindi movies with Sonam Kapoor and
Amitabh Bacchan. In the beginning of 2012, everyone had seen this couple in the
video that had gone viral, then making of ‘Why this Kolaveri D’. It was from
the film ‘3’ (Moonnu), the directorial debut of Aishwarya. One could see a
tight-lipped Aishwarya there with a hesitant and happy Shruti Haasan (daughter
of Kamal Haasan) and the toughness of the lady was palpable within the
recording studio where the jolly pair of Aniruddh Ravichander and Dhanush was
making the song. Aniruddh went on to become a super music director and singer
with his ‘Aalumma Dolumma’ song topping the chart for a long time in 2016 not
only in India but also in most of countries where Tamil presence is there.
(the Rajinikanth family)
Aishwarya’s autobiography is titled ‘Standing on an Apple
Box’; an apple box is a generic term used for the multipurpose boxes used in
film sets and the author finds it an apt metaphor for her life in the world of
film making. Born to the famous couple Rajinikanth and Lata Rajinikanth,
Aishwarya and her younger sister Soundarya had a very protected childhood (in
fact an over protected one as Lata was phobic about strangers) and for some time
Aishwarya grew up in Bangalore with her maternal grandparents and she confesses
that her liking for language and writing started from there as her grandfather
used to make her read the Hindu Newspaper from first page to the last page.
Being the daughter of the superstar Rajinikanth was a tough thing to handle,
she knew as she was growing up. To keep his daughters away from the limelight,
Rajinikanth had taken all safety measures and for a long time not a single
picture of his girls were published in the film magazines. Aishwarya tells us
an anecdote about her being suspected for having polio only because her father
had supported an anti-polio campaign featuring in a government advertisement.
(In our high school days we used to think that film stars never had kids and
Rajinikanth was no exception. And when someone told us that he had two daughters,
we thought he might have adopted them. Such was the secrecy around them).
(author with husband actor Dhanush)
The narrative flair is so attractive that one could read it
in one sitting thought I finished in four sittings in two days. A book of
moderate size with 170 pages is structured in small chapters where Aishwarya
speaks to the reader as a woman who has a total grip on her life. This book is
fascinating mostly for a daughter’s view on Rajinikanth who is known for his Spartan
ways and unpretentious public appearances. Also we get a glimpse of the life
and work ethics of her husband Dhanush. Those people who are interested in
child rearing, Aishwarya has a few tips to offer. She had taken a lot of pains
to become a law graduate and also had undergone rigorous training to become a
film maker. But the book, after reading leaves the reader a bit hollow; a sense
of emptiness would pervade him because the subject of the book does not display
any human folly. She is as perfect as a goddess. She has got the best parents,
best grandparents, best friends, best sibling, best fans associations, best
husband, best brother in law, best awards, best opportunities, best sisters in
law and the best mother in law on the earth.
(author with father, superstar Rajinikanth)
This is where a reader gets disappointed. Aishwarya, by her
pedigree and perseverance has achieved a lot by the young age of thirty five.
She has many more years to go and I am sure she is not going to commit any
folly in her life as it is well planned to falter. Such lives, even if that of
a successful woman is absolutely boring. I should not call Aishwarya a boring
personality for I do not know her and the knowledge that comes to me is via
this book. She speaks about how she went through the trauma induced by her
father’s chronic illness (which is censored) during which he was taken to a
hospital in Singapore. They spent three months there till the super star
recovered completely from his illness only to come back and finish his
blockbuster Kabaali. Still there is something missing in that life. What does
that missing feeling constitute by? Is it the complete contentedness or is it
the spiritual calmness that she apparently has inherited from her father or her
perfect achievements? I looked for it but could not find. She extols the
presence of great men in her life, her grandfather, father, father in law,
brother in law and husband. She also talks about her soul mate, a school
friend. She in her acceptance speech in the UN Women’s chapter speaks high of
women and also says that sometime the atrocities against the women are
perpetuated by women themselves. What we see in Aishwarya Rajnikanth Danush is
a perfect symbol of patriarchy, the one who has lived never hurting the values
set by the men. That makes her life, however successful it is a bit
stereotypical and picture book type. May be a girl born and brought up in such a
background can only live that life; even if she wants to rebel it is not
possible at all. I remember a line from
Orhan Pamuks’a novel “A Strangeness in Mind”: “Food tastes good when there is a
little bit of dirt in it.”
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