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KIRON KHER
HER RARE RAYS GLOW
I met Anupam on the streets of Juhu while he was busy walking in the hot sun, looking for work as an actor. He was introduced to me by a common friend as an ‘absolutely brilliant actor from Delhi’ who had come to Mumbai to make it as an actor. Anupam asked me politely if I would come and see one of his plays at the Prithvi Theatre, the new ‘chapel’ of theatre built for theatre- lovers by Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor. The way Anupam requested me to see his play left me with no other choice. I cancelled three commitments that evening and went to see what wonders this ‘brilliant’ actor was going to work. I went, I saw him perform ‘Desire Under The Elms’. Anupam was superb (that’s the only word I could use at that time for his performance, any other word would be doing gross injustice to an actor who was craving for recognition, appreciation and applause, the breakfast, lunch and dinner of a struggling actor.

I came out in a trance asking myself how a bold young actor could be so very good, so very powerful, so stunning. At midnight, after the show was over, I met Anupam backstage and was one of the many rushing to congratulate him on his performance. I finally met him and predicted a very great future for the actor who shook up my senses after his first ever play I had seen. I wanted to shake hands with him, I couldn’t, he had too many admirers all around him. He was already showing signs of reaching high. Later he profusely thanked me for all the praises I had showered on him and in gratitude offered me a lift in a car which he said belonged to his close friend and contemporary, a ‘fascinating actress’ who had also come to Mumbai to make a name as an actress. That night I met two very bright artistes who would give their best to a poverty-stricken Mumbai when it came to theatre and cinema. Anupam, I was sure, as the night grew had a great future as I kept on thinking of some of the scenes he had performed in ‘Desire Under...’. Kiron, for some strange reason I could recognise as an actress of great calibre till the huge Ambassador took me away from Anupam and Kiron who stood together, a couple glowing in triumph. It was a night full of celebrations for them.

Time passed. Anupam did some more plays till he was ‘blessed’ to get that chance of a life time in ‘Saaransh’.. No ordinary actor could do what Anupam did in the film. It was followed by a number of ‘mind-blowing’ (his friend, Anil Kapoor’s favourite description for any thing very good) performance. Anupam Kher who lived in Kherwadi, a slum was now a well known star.

But what I wondered happened to Kiron Kher who Anupam described as a fascinating actress? Why was she not coming up inspite of the acting mettle she was made of. She was busy. She was making sacrifices. She wanted to see Anupam a ‘totaly established’, a totally reliable actor who would make a place for himself, a place other greater actors would envy. She inspired him till he fulfilled all his dreams for himself for Kiron and for talent.

Now the actress in Kiron slowly emerged. She wanted Kiron Kher the actress to come and take the stage by storm. She did a play called ‘Salgirah’. It was just Anupam and Kiron in the cast playing an estranged couple, directed by the young and talented Feroz Khan. The audience took the play about the husband and wife on the brink of a break up to their hearts. Their performances were so real! It was difficult to believe who was better, Anupam or Kiron. Anupam himself was sure Kiron had scored, had shone (and he was brilliant, brilliance which had become a habit for an actor who believed in no one else but himself in inspiring him).‘Salgirah’ written by Javed Siddiqui shattered theatre records all over . It was a unique experience and those who had gone away from theatre came back. Thanks to the powerful performances of Anupam and Kiron. It was the beginning of a new chapter of Kiron Kher, the actress.

The grand success of ‘Salgirah’ gave all the enlightened energy she needed to inspire her to come back as an actress in serious roles where she could prove that she had an identity of her own. And that she was not merely the wife of a great actor.
She made it clear that she was open to act in plays, films, serials, host chat shows and she had the privilege to be the chosen one. She was the life of a chat show. She was not all chitter- chatter like the host of many other chat shows. She came up with burning topics, startling subjects and bright solutions which helped to make life better. She then came to films and started of with films like Pestonji which was followed by the privilege to play title role in Shyam Benegal’s Sardari Begam. Once again she was coming to films after a gap of several years and surprised all those who had threatened to forget her as an actress when she won the National Award for her excellence as an actress in the film. She then did another very different role in Kalpana Lajmi’s Darmiyaan. It was a soul-stirring experience to see Kiron, one of the most sophisticated and dignified society lady play the mother of a eunuch and live and use the language and style of a society which shocked that part of society which dared to see Kiron performing one of her most outstanding roles. She had artists like Tabu and Sayaji Shinde for company but they couldn’t hold a candle to her performance of a life time. Kiron’s rays of talent spread far and wide. There were many directors, even the best of them, who wanted her to play major roles in their films but she made it clear that she was game only for roles which inspired her ‘kirans’ (rays of talent). The rays finally reached the genius of filmmaker, Rituparno Sen Gupta, the man from Bengal who loves dressing up like a woman anywhere in public, anywhere in the world and still give ‘the mighty men’ a complex when it came to genius in filmmaking. The awards he had won in the country and many more abroad had almost made him a successor to Ray.

Anupam and Kiron were inspired by him and asked him to direct a film in Bengali for them. Kiron would play the title role in the film called Bariwali. Kiron saw another chance of one more life time in Bariwali and played the Bariwali like only a seasoned and genuinely talented actress could perform. Her hard work, Rituparno’s genius and Anupam’s risk to make a film like Bariwali had already started to pay rich dividends. The film has already started making its rounds at different film festivals of the world and the one person who is consistently winning hearts wherever the film goes is Kiron Kher and her brilliant performance. The film has already own the Netpack Award at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. And even as the triumph has seeped in news comes that the film has won another major award at the San Francisco film festival. And this seems to only the beginning and the only major reason seems to be the true to life performance of the Bariwali, Kiron Kher, who else?. The accolades coming in have only strengthened Kiron the actress and her triumph naturally brings a rare glow on her talented husband’s face, who had first seen the sparks of talent in the woman who was going to be his wife and a wonder of an actress one day.