In this Special Mother’s Day feature, we have a throwback to 2018, when Rishi Kapoor, as only he could, spoke with Subhash K Jha about his mother, Krishna Raj Kapoor.
Would you like to talk about your mother on Mother’s Day?
Of course, I’d love to talk about my mother. But why on Mother’s Day only? Every day should belong to the people you love the most. I refuse to slot my loved ones according to a day of the week….Mother’s Day, Father’s Day… can you believe it, they even celebrated a Grocery Day!! And if that isn’t enough, they also had an Asthma Day!! I refuse to discuss my mother as just a special person for a day.
Okay then just forget it’s Mother’s Day and just tell me about her?
I don’t mind talking about her any day of the year. But where do I begin? What do I say? What can one say about one’s own mother? Whatever we as family are today is because of her. I am still her bachcha. Can you believe it?
Totally!
I am going to be 63, and she still fires the hell out of me. She advises me on where to go and how to conduct my life. I keep telling her that I am old enough to make my own decisions. My daughter is married. My son is now living away from home. I am a grandfather. Let me make my own decisions, for God’s sake, I’m a grown-up man. But she doesn’t listen! Seriously, I want to make my mother happy.
Your earliest memories of Krishnaji?
My childhood memories with her are of school holidays in Jabalpur. My Nanaji lived there. So we’d visit twice a year, summer and winter. There, my mother would be the happiest with my uncles and aunts. Apart from being the wife of a celebrity, she was also a celebrity sister. My maternal uncles were the actors Premnath and Rajendranath.
She held the family together?
My mother has tremendous endurance power. She is a fantastic shock absorber. She stood steady through all my father’s stormy work pressures and all other stress. There were times when they had problems. But she overcame all the trauma. With five children to look after, she still managed to keep her family life beautifully together. It is said, bardasht ki hadd hoti hai. Not with her.
Closing thoughts?
She made sure my childhood was lovely. She made sure all of us, three brothers and two sisters, had a normal, happy childhood.
