Remembering Sridevi on her birthday: ‘Gunjan Saxena’ would have made her cry  

The great much-missed Sridevi had some clearly set  goals for her daughters. She wanted them to get the best  possible education before  joining the profession of their choice.

She  never wanted to thrust the acting profession on Janhvi or Khushi.  But somewhere in her heart she knew her daughters were  going to  follow in her footsteps.

I remember I once had a discussion with  Srideviji about her daughters’  future.At first she  said she had no  intentions of watching them being thrust in  the acting career. “Let them first get a  proper education. I never had  the chance to go to school or college properly. I  want  Janhvi and Khushi to complete their education, then they  can do what they like.”

I opined that acting would be their chosen  profession, and the eternal diva sighed. “You are probably right. If  Janhvi and Khushi become actresses I want them to be the  best in what they do, not just props in the plot.”

Janhvi , Sridevi’s  elder born, is anything  but a prop in Gunjan Sexena The Kargil Girl. She has the eponymous central role  and she lives every moment of  Ms Saxena’s flight to the male bastion, capturing all the uncertainties and  anxieties  of a  woman in a  traditionally masculine profession, determined to break the glass  (cei)ling . Janhvi’s  performance just grows on us, softly gently but surely.

Sridevi would have been so  proud to see her daughter evolve into such a restrained  emotive  actress in her second film.

I know it’s  not currently fashionable to say  this. But  the genes will always tell.