Expect The Unexpected

With her waist moves her eyes, with her hands her smile, like a snake she twists and like ice she melts, as mountain she holds her poses and as water, she flows - Madhuri Dixit Nene turns 54 today, but is as young as she ever was!

Queen of hearts Madhuri Dixit Nene; Source: Filmfare

The diva Madhuri Dixit-Nene turns fifty-four today! Yet, her face shines with a radiance unparalleled, the smile intact, the moves as elegant as ever and her eyes dancing to the rhythm of the music. Her slight bend in Didi Tera Dewar Deewana, her defying the normal as Chandramukhi and her dance-drama performance in Aaja Nachle; she is the quintessential beauty who can stop the hearts of the young and the old alike. Her riveting dance performances on the other hand can cause high BP problems!

Half a century ago, the little angel came on this earth, youngest among her siblings. Her body started moving on music since she was three. Parents saw her interest and skill and sent her to Kathak classes. So good was she that a scholarship came to her when she was nine!

When little Madhuri saw her name in the newspaper, she was on the seventh sky. Little did she know what life had in its fold for her.

The sincere student joined college with the dream to become a microbiologist. It was not very late when she realised where her true potential lies. Even then, she did not know how important this medical field would be in her life!

So putting everything aside, the Mumbai girl stepped into Bollywood. Abodh happened and then Awara Baap. Flop films with an amazing new face! There was something about her that stole the show and the grace of her beauty embellished the covers of Debonair and Filmfare.

After nine failures came Tezaab, the young and miserable Mohini dancing on Ek Do Teen to earn money was a blockbuster hit. Life changed for Mohini and Madhuri at the end of the film!

She then embarked on a journey of superhit films with the most successful actors of the time. Things ran pretty much smooth with little ups and downs until Hum Aapke Hain Koun. A film in which the actress was paid more than the lead actor! No one should doubt that Madhuri took the film with her acting and dancing, looming large over her co-actors.

The painter M F Husain was so struck by her beauty that he watched the film 67 times! Later, he made a movie centred on Madhuri playing several roles. The film was a fail but Husain's fixation became apparent! He even booked the entire theatre when Aaja Nachle was released.

Raja, Dil To Pagal Hai, Lajja, Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, Aaja Nachle, Kalank; hundreds of screens have been lighted by her performances.

But nothing equates the Tawaif who falls in love, an understated but virtuous role of Chandramukhi played by Dixit, her zeal, passion, gentleness and fire come out of her in ease, even when she is dancing with a 30 kg dress!

With all this talent, it should come as no surprise that she holds the Guinness Book Record as the highest-paid actress in India. She has been nominated as the Best Actress and has bagged several prizes for her movies. She is sometimes referred to as the female Bachchan, for her name in a movie is enough to make it a success. She sold the films and overpowered the male actors, even the Khans! Yet she could blend in the background in Lajja and not overwhelm the screen as Chandramukhi in Devdas.

A star in the true sense of the word, Madhuri lights up not only the Orion Constellation but the hearts of millions of people. Her fans bought and honoured an unknown celestial body by attaching her with the Dhak-Dhak Girl, the Queen of the 90s Bollywood.

She stole the hearts of millions and her heart was stolen by Shriram Madhav Nene, a cardiovascular surgeon. Looks like she never left biology after all. And as for Nene, he didn't know how big a star Dixit was! He had never watched any of her films. True love for the iconic actress.

A myth, an icon, a fantasy; poets, painters, actors and filmmakers muse over her in an attempt to demystify the magic of a middle-class Maharashtrian girl to the epitome of stardom. In all this, she married at the peak of her career, something unusual for Indian actresses! She stepped out of the limelight and when she returned, illuminated the filmi dunia by reinventing herself to fit into the expectations of the new generation.