In the Shadows

Girl: Hey, Ahana Deol got married!

Friend: Good for her! Who is she, anyway?

Girl: Don’t you know, she’s Hema Malini and Dharmendra’s second daughter!

Friend: No. So?

Girl: Mmmff!

  

No, this post is not about Ahana! This post is about why it’s not about Ahana. 

Ahana and her elder sister, Esha, are the children of celebrities (of yesteryear) - the dream girl, Hema Malini, and very handsome ‘jat’, Dharmendra. While Esha did try her luck with movies, there was news of Ahana writing the script for one, which eventually never saw the arclights, though. Being the daughters of a trained dancer, they had learnt the art, too, and did perform with their mother quite regularly. So, what went wrong with Esha’s career as an actress, then? She had it all – the looks, the grace, and the support of influential parents. 

It is also pertinent to note that Esha is not the only celebrity-child who failed in the profession of the parent(s).  Sabeeha (Ameeta’s daughter), Pratibha (Mala Sinha’s daughter), Twinkle Khanna, Zayed Khan (not the cricketer) and his cousin, Fardeen, Puru Rajkumar, Soha Ali Khan (who hasn’t given up as yet), to mention a few. Ofcourse, I would be incorrect if I did not mention that there are exceptions to the rule! There are stories of celebrity-child successes too – Farhan Akhtar, Saif Ali Khan, and all the star-kids from the Kapoor clan – Karishma (who’s changed the way she spells her name, trying her luck with making a comeback), Kareena and Ranbir. But, again, Sanjana, Kunal and Karan, children of Shashi Kapoor didn’t quite succeed despite having the pedigree of  ‘acting’ genes, inherited from both parents, Shashi as well as Jennifer!

The film music scene, too, has tales of career requiems sung too soon – Nitin Mukesh and Amit Kumar being two that come to mind immediately. And the field of sports saw Rohan Gavaskar and Angad Bedi bowled duck! Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun’s selection in a team in Mumbai did lead to some controversy as well.

The field of classical music has many such stories hidden in the nuances of it’s ragas. Srinivas Joshi is the son of the legendary Bharat Ratna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. For me, personally, that is great reason to be envious (the only reason) – imagine living in a house filled with music and waking up to a wonderful Lalit or Bhatiyar…Sigh! While Srinivas Joshi was trained by his father and did accompany him often at concerts, he was never able to establish himself as a singer in his own right. I must also mention Mukul Shivputra who, being the son of Pt. Kumar Gandharva, has his own personality streaks of being a ‘maverick’. A singer who possesses the combination of an excellent tutelage and wonderful singing skills, he was found on the streets of Bhopal in a drunken state. Bharat Ratna Pt. Ravi Shankar’s son Shubhendra’s career was too short lived due to his untimely demise, so one can only guess what it might have been; his daughter, Anoushka, has made a name for herself in the realms of what has come to be known as ‘world music’. I don’t think that Rahul Sharma and the Bangash brothers will get anywhere close to the levels of success that their respective fathers, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan had reached.

I can only imagine how daunting it must be, being the offspring of a highly successful artiste. There are high benchmarks to live up to and a very discerning audience to please. Yet, there are the likes of Kishori Amonkar and Ashwini Bhide who did prove their calibre as artistes of great skill. In both cases, they probably looked up to their mother as a ‘Guru’ first which made it easier because you never compare yourself with your ‘Guru’, who is placed on a pedestal. The fact is also that they are both very self-assured women and needed no certification from the audience in shaping their very successful careers. This is probably the same reason that Ustad Allah Rakha Khan’s sons, Zakhir, Fazal and Taufique are wizards with their fingers on the table!

What it takes to make one successful in the same field that provided a fan following to the parent is a great deal of grit and determination as well as a strong sense of identity. If surfing on the waves of the parent’s success is what one looks for, then one is bound to be swallowed by a wave.