Kirron Kher birthday: From Khoobsurat to Hum Tum, every time she played the coolest mom in Bollywood
Thankfully, a fresh set of directors and stories did away with the cliché and introduced flesh-and-blood women who had life beyond their progeny. The one actor who has been at the centre of this transformation is Kirron Kher. She was undoubtedly the coolest mother in the industry who could match her kids beat for beat. Affable with a serving of drama, her characters doffed their hat to a changing society and the demand for relatable entertainment.
In the Shashanka Ghosh directorial, Kirron played mother to Sonam Kapoor. Though the film was a love story of Sonam and Fawad Khan, Kirron’s character of a Punjabi mother, Manju Chakravarty hogged the limelight. She was not a regular mother telling her daughter to take care of ‘ghar ki izzat’. Instead, she motivated her daughter to be vocal about her emotions. She got the best dialogues in the movie and her comic timing was perfect as she played the matriarch with elan.In the Shashanka Ghosh directorial, Kirron played mother to Sonam Kapoor. Though the film was a love story of Sonam and Fawad Khan, Kirron’s character of a Punjabi mother, Manju Chakravarty hogged the limelight. She was not a regular mother telling her daughter to take care of ‘ghar ki izzat’. Instead, she motivated her daughter to be vocal about her emotions. She got the best dialogues in the movie and her comic timing was perfect as she played the matriarch with elan.
Kirron’s performance was apt for this caricature of a comedy. She was suitably filmy as she dealt with the fact that her son may be gay. As loud as the film, she delivered quite a few comic moments in Dostana.
In a film about a film, Kirron Kher showcased how she can portray the tropes of a Bollywood mother with grace. Here she was an impoverished mother who runs from pillar to post, looking for her son Om, played by Shah Rukh Khan, for years. The wailing hysterics of Kher as Bela are hilarious, as is her melodrama.
In Karan Johar’s relationship drama, Kirron played Shah Rukh Khan’s mother and was a woman with a mind of her own. She is not blind in her son’s shortcomings, and is neither antagonistic to her daughter-in-law Preity Zinta from the word go. She also portrayed the complexities of being a mother when she gets to know about her son’s extramarital affair.
Kirron’s Mitro, mother of DJ (Aamir Khan) is one of her most believable mother roles. When she scolds DJ and his friends in Punjabi, you relate with her, and more than you, probably your mother relates to her. She asks them to eat rotis with ghee and chides her son for not meeting her often, but she also trusts them to bring a change in society.
“Zindagi jeena koi aapse seekhe,” Rati Agnihotri’s character tells Kirron’s Parminder Bobby Prakash in Kunal Kohli film Hum Tum. And, we second that. She is a single mother but she never complains about it. She is a dedicated mother but she also has the desire to live a full life.