Fan Blog: In Defence of Katrina Kaif, A Second Look at the Underdog

Here is a look at Katrina Kaif from a loving fan's perspective. It is quite heartwarming and may make you want to cut the actress some slack. Read on....

I was 19 years old when I saw 'Namastey London'. It was the first film that I ever saw of Katrina Kaif. And I remember finding the girl absolutely enchanting, her performance utterly convincing. I remember believing, completely, that she was the girl that she played- with vivaciousness, with flamboyance, with tenderness and a freedom. I remember, then, seeing her on Koffee with Karan, and her recalling the phone call she received from Vipul Shah, it's director, after having seen the film for the first time. I remember her recalling the shock she'd had, having seen herself on screen, seeing so much of herself, for the first time, and feeling unnerved by it and not being able to find the words, and wanting to be off the phone as soon as possible. She talked about her brother, her family, with a frankness, and conducted herself in the manner apt for an actor in her position: of someone who had taken the first few steps in a cut-throat competitive, hall-of-mirrors of an industry, and with some success; of someone who viewed a long and flourishing career ahead of her, wanting to take safe steps that would let her steady the ship. Let her gain her balance. Someone who was realistic. Someone who knew her strengths, but more so, where her weaknesses were.

Now I don't recall watching any of her films since, and that isn't necessarily a comment on Kaif's choices alone. I live in the UK, in this rainy grey northern province, and I tend to pick films that have imprinted on them the stamp of a committed, passionate, labour of love: the poetry that was Lootera, the awe-inspiring Haider, the breezy Finding Fanny, and more recently, the delightful Kapoor & Sons come to mind. It is also true that Kaif, incidentally, was not to be seen in any of these. I had high hopes on Fitoor, and I was deflated to see the scathing reviews upon its release.

I have followed Kaif's style, followed her choices of films, and of course, her much-scrutinized relationship with the young Mr. Kapoor. I did, however, go from a dispassionate observer to someone who was increasingly dismayed by the sheer vitriol that was directed towards her, day after day after day. It was frankly disturbing to see brutal attacks and criticisms of every aspect of her life: comments that seemed as if Kaif had done something personal to these everyday critics that were deeply damaging and vicious even. Behaviour that you wouldn't dream of exhibiting to someone's face: no matter how expressive or not this face is, whether it is natural or surgically enhanced, whether Katrina is wholly or partly Asian or Western, whether she is a girl of 29 or a woman in her mid-thirties, whether she is a Kaif or a Kapoor or a Khan or a Turquotte. 

Now this is no defense of Kaif's acting, for I have not seen enough to have an informed opinion on it. But it does look to me, on seeing the trailer of 'Baar Baar Dekho', that the girl that was steadying the ship, for however protracted a time period it might have been, has finally decided to sail free. Maybe this is the girl that trusted her instincts enough to pick a 'New York', or a 'Bombay Talkies', or 'Zindagi na Milegi  Dobara'. She appears to have the same freshness, the same joie de vivre, and the same promise of that girl in 'Namastey London'. Suddenly, after years of blockbusters, followed by a fast slide from the peak, she appears to have emerged as an underdog I want to champion. We will, of course, find out if that is, in fact, the case when the film is out. I for one will be taking that trip to the cinema, on the weekend of its release, for I feel that anyone who has conducted herself, in my opinion, with as much grace, as much calm, and as much independence of mind, deserves another viewing. She has, for me, Kaala Chashma and all, earned this second look, as she, washboard abs and all, appears to finally break free.