WAM REKMA, CINA-MA ZINDABAD!

Super Nani

STARRING : Rekha, Sharman Joshi, Randhir Kapoor, Anupam Kher DIRECTOR: Indra Kumar )r,.'"{',,_'y

There is something to be said about star power At a time when the biggest of stars sell themselves to the highest bidder on any medium, Rekha preserves an aura of unattainable beauty And yet she plays the gharelu roles now in this Indra Kumar drama with as much panache as she did in Sansar 28 years ago

In that film too Rekha was the unerring householder willing to sublimate her ego for the sake of her family In her new avatar as the home maker who won't flinch even when husband, son, daughter-in-law and daughter treat her like trash, Rekha brings an innate grace to her character's indignities

I d are any other actress to revel in the broad melodramatic milieu of Indr a Kumar's film Stretches of the narrative are designed like ongoing sitcoms with repeated gags and unstoppable skits masquerading as comic relief Shot on sets that belong to the costume dramas ofthe 1960s, Super Nani transports us t o

a world of embarrassi ngly over-stressed patriarchy

The men in the matriarch Bharati's life are so oblivious to their own vanity that they don't know how obnoxious they soun d when they order the homemaker around. The bullies get their comeuppance when Bharati transforms into well, Rekha A di va, albeit of the domestic- ad world

Rekha stands unflinching at the vortex of the nautanki, indestructible in her grace, unflinching in her determination to carry the idiocies on the narration away from prying eyes. She plays the g irl from Patna with smothered dreams that merge into her c urrent ro l e of the 'Mother In d ia' of the melodramatic age, filled with an implosive yearning to break out of her shell.

It is easy for urban India to laugh at Bharati's predicament as a matriarch b u llied by all the men and the women of her family For a lot of older women who live outsi de Modern India, oppression is still a way of life in one form or another Th is is audience that Indra Kumar aims at, and shoots

Many parts of the film in the secondhalf when Rekha's character achieves self-actualization throug h the good offices of her grandson Mann (Sharman

Joshi) and a school frien d (Anupam Kher), a re brut ally crude and imperviou s to the refined requi rements of metropol itan audiences who li ve in nuclear families a nd have probably n ever bothered to know wha t it feels lik e to have an extra -participative (read meddleso me) matr iarch in the house.

And I do believ e that the India which lives in the smaller towns and vi ll ages would warm up to the message of the film : learn to respect you w ife, o r your children wou ld also disre spect her Super Nani marks the ret urn o f Rek ha In a role designed fo r the diva, she spark les like a Diwali phooljharithat just refuses to burn out even when the festivities are over As the beleaguered Nani 's makeover artiste, Sharman Josh i again shows himself an underrated actor While the rest of the supporting cast

There is a sequence where Reema Lagoo (long time no see) is snubbed by a series of autorickshawallahs as she huffs fo r a ride home

This is a moment when you want to murder the perpetrator of ca l lousness

In moments such as these, Rens il d ' Si lva ki ll s it.

SUBHASH K JHA hams h appily Sharm an rema i ns restrained to the end That ta kes some doing here

But then Sh arman is in inspiring company

There is no one quite as fil led w ith quiet grace as Rekha

SUBHASH K JHA