For Kajol art and heart are inseparable. That’s the reason, why she first refused to do Salaam Venky – it requiring her to play an anguished mother watching her son fade given an incurable illness – a scenario she being a mother herself, didn’t want to step into even in imagination.
It was the same reason, which made her later accept the role. As a mother, as an actor she couldn’t let go of a narrative that spoke as much of transience as of tenacity amidst tragedy. With the sublime message of making every moment monumental, Salaam Venky is a celebration of life and love and why both have to be cherished. Hitting a new high as a performer, Kajol’s oeuvre has only got richer with the seminal film.
Masala: Reportedly, you first declined the offer to do Salaam Venky. What made you give it a nod?
Kajol: I refused it on a concept level because I don’t want to do a film where something happens to my child. As an actor you tend to actually believe and imagine a situation. But I can’t imagine anything going wrong with my children even if it’s for a few seconds. I don’t want to put that thought out in the Universe.
Eventually, I accepted it because the script was amazing. I had watched Revathy’s work (Mitr, My Friend, Phir Milenge, Kerala Café and a segment in the anthology Mumbai Cutting). She’s a fabulous filmmaker. I knew she would handle Salaam Venky beautifully. It was up her ally and she would make it spectacular. I also knew that if I was being scared I didn’t do it, then I’d regret it all my life. I told her, “Just take care of me. I don’t know what’s going to happen on the set.”
Masala: What’s the message of the film?
Kajol: The message of Salaam Venky is to live in the present with mindfulness and being thankful for every moment. It’s essential to feel a sense of gratitude for what we are, for the life we have. As they say, ‘Zindagi lambi nahin badi honi chahiye’.
Masala: Tell us something about your character.
Kajol: The film is centered on the real-life story of a mother (K. Sujata), who does everything to enable her son (Kolavennu Venkatesh), diagnosed with the fatal Duchenne muscular dystrophy, live life to the fullest. In the film, I play Sujata, the mother of Venkatesh (played by Vishal Jethwa). Sujata came to the set with her daughter where I got to know her. There’s a quiet strength about her. I wonder if she knows how amazingly brave she is. Yet she’s so simple. It’s so humbling. She just did what she had to at that point in her life without yelling, screaming or crying. The character is not larger-than-life. It’s difficult to play such a calm character. I hope I have done her justice. If I have to live with this film, so does she.
Masala: Do we as a society place high expectations on the mother and judge them strictly?
Kajol: Of course we do. In fact, the first person to judge the mother first is the mother herself. As mothers we have unimaginable, unreasonable expectations about ourselves, much more than what society entails. We give ourselves no quarter. We need to be more casual about ourselves. My mother (veteran Tanuja) was ‘cool’. My grandmother (the late actor Shobhana Samarth) was even cooler and calmer while raising her. While I was paranoid. As time goes by, with exposure and experience you tend to get easy.
Masala: What has been your mother Tanuja’s influence in your life?
Kajol: She’s the most amazing mother not because of what she taught me but because of the fact that she followed it herself. She practiced what she preached. If at one point of time, she told me it was wrong to abuse, she stopped doing it herself. Ethics, morals, how to handle people, how to face situations, how to speak and stand by my truth… she first adhered to all this herself. I hope I am half as brave as her and can pass on some of those qualities to my children.
Masala: So, how much are you like her?
Kajol: I am a lot like her. I do believe in the same things she does though maybe not to that extent. It also makes a difference because I am married. Ajay’s (Devgn) belief system also comes into play. It’s him and me together, and not only me, where bringing up our kids (daughter Nysa and son Yug) are concerned.
Masala: Do you believe motherhood is liberating. In that a basic self-obsession gives way to selfless love for your child?
Kajol: I don’t think anything can change you as drastically as motherhood. Yes it has changed me. But I was never self-obsessed in that sense. I am a good mother only because I love my children. There are a lot of people, who strike a healthy balance between being themselves and being mothers. I struck that balance pretty late in life. When my kids were younger, I believed it was only about them. I had put those irrational standards on myself on what a mother should be and not be. Once my daughter was a bit older, I said to myself, ‘Now it’s okay chill’.
Masala: Do you believe grief is life-altering?
Kajol: Yes it does. If you say children change you, then grief changes you even further. It changes you on a cellular level. It makes you look at things, which you didn’t have the courage to look at earlier. Through life, I have lost dear ones – my father (late filmmaker Shomu Mukherjee) being one. It makes you aware of your own mortality, of yourself, of the people who are still there with you and why not to take for them granted. Life is short and one must make the most of it. Salaam Venky too is about hope, about living in the now. Post covid we have realized the impermanence even more. The last two years have been enlightening and helped us evolve. The film is coming at an opportune time.
Masala: As a mother and woman what would be your message for daughter Nysa?
Kajol: (Smiles) It would be, ‘You’re perfect as you. You don’t need to be anybody else. I am proud of you and will always remain so.’
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