Sonam Kapoor's endearing candour, winsome frankness has set her apart from her contemporaries

I write this piece about Sonam Kapoor, not as a fan but as a fellow person that respects difference in others. Sonam and I, if there is any room for comparison at all, hail from different worlds in this world. She is opinionated often, and sometimes, terribly misled in her understanding of the world, politics and various seismic socio-political aspects of our country. Like her co-star Kareena Kapoor Khan, sometimes, she says things strangely. Yet, Sonam endears because of her candour and ability to discern a different voice than hers — an art that has gone quite missing from Indian social conversations and chatter these days.

Sonam’s world is filled with wealth, privilege, love — from her family, her sister, friends and now, Anand Ahuja. She delights in dressing up and like Kangana Ranaut, has taken Indian women’s fashion a few notches higher. A clotheshorse, she can pull off anything — be it a feathered, lavish gown on the Cannes red carpet, or an electric blue plastic like dress at the world’s biggest movie jamboree.

(Also read: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor to attend Cannes Film Festival 2018)

As an actor, Sonam has scope for improvement. There is will to do better but efforts are still not quite there yet. She has improved as she has grown, and has tried to diversify as performer. Neerja, Raanjhana and now Padman reflect improvement. As part of a family production, she has tried to carve out a space with her sister Rhea Kapoor. Khoobsurat might bore at times but the character of Milli ‘gets’ what a girl wants. Similarly, Veere Di Wedding, where all its lead characters swear, does not make swearing by an educated, urban woman a ‘thing’. Perhaps, because, it is nothing out of the ordinary; women swear all the time. That part is impressive. A heroine turning producer makes news these days, as their courage is systematically lauded. But Rhea Kapoor, with Sonam as muse, had taken this path quite early on with Aisha — musically solid but an average film.

For someone having watched her films and tracking cinema for a living, I took some time to actually meet Sonam Kapoor. And that was an eventful evening. I first met Sonam for a video interview for an entertainment news website, one that Bollywood usually loves to be featured on. My first impressions were ineffectual as I watched Sonam get ready for the interview, perfectly coiffured and styled, in a lavish and comfortable office space of their film company. As the young, sincere stylist clicked a photo to post on social media, Sonam struck a perfect pose, sighed elegantly and said, “These girls…!”. Looking divine or sighing elegantly or sitting perfectly have never crossed my mind — that is not what I usually want (from life). I also don’t feel self-conscious about my split ends (which I definitely had then), or near absent pedicure. But I was amused at just how naturally Sonam took to looking gorgeous — it was rather effortless, part of her as a person. I did feel a tad bit like an unironed cotton shirt.

And then she tore right into me. Her grouse was with the website that I then represented, for not having controlled the trolling of Fawad Khan — the dashing Pakistani heart throb who was making his Bollywood debut with Khoobsurat. Their trailer launch coverage got some really mean comments. I heard her out, wondering if I should do a self-righteous huff and leave. After all, I had not said anything nasty about Fawad and the internet is open field.

But I held my peace because beneath the sheen and glamour that she so perfectly projected, what Sonam was saying to me made sense. I offered an apology and said we would make amends. A bit miffed, she stated that everyone thought they (Rhea and her) were dad’s credit card brats, and they were not like that. For they made their own money since they were 17 or 18.  She also reiterated that fashion can never be any one person’s bastion and that everyone should wear what they feel comfortable in. An effort was made to cut through the glam diva public image during this conversation.

When I wrapped up, she politely said goodbye. And that was that.

We made amends and contacted her publicist. I was also invited to a casual house party in the elegant Kapoor home along with a few media folks. The ambience was surprisingly casual and welcoming. The first time that she met me after her angry conversation, she did remark, “Oh!”. Surprised to see that I was back, she did not compromise on her interview. Since then, all our interviews went off smoothly and made for interesting reading.

As the film that she was promoting at that stage was all about love, her idea of romance and love were classic and traditional. She found public show of affection tacky and was willing to wait for the right guy.

Sonam also has a touch of the genuine in her, beyond celebrity. If she asks one about a trip back home (for me, Assam), her conversation is interested — and not just polite chitchat. She talks about books and reads them too. Her conversations about women and their lives in urban India do not smack of PR training. Of course, she has countered an interview that I did as ‘being misquoted’, which she was not. But that is a right that every interviewee has. The point here is that unlike most film celebrities, she does not bear a grudge forever, nor does she always let her publicity team intervene in the case of an awkward question. She can handle it herself.

Her candour is visible in her public conversations too. At the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2015, when asked about Twitter trolls that discussed her cleavage, she offered a priceless remark, “There was a time when people were just discussing my boobs! Come on, I am a C-cup!” On the same platform, she took on trolls, telling them to back off from body shaming fellow female actors. But the best comment was reserved for Gajendra Chauhan, the controversial Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) chief that students were protesting against. “I don’t understand why is this douche in this position when no one wants him to be there? He has no self-respect!”

Yet chinks in her armour appear when one looks at a somewhat impulsive pattern of behavior. For instance, before the launch of the trailer of Veere Di Wedding, its actors posed with a placard against the heinous Kathua rape case. She called perpetrators of the crime as ‘fake Hindus’, leading to Koena Mitra calling her out on this. But when it came to the shocking rape in Ghaziabad where an 11-year-old girl was raped and locked inside a madrassa, Sonam stayed silent as did her fellow actors. Here, despite good intentions, selective expression of outrage indicates a tendency to glean interest around a film.

Similarly, during a phase when she was competing with Deepika Padukone for roles, Sonam made quite a few catty remarks, more often without Deepika responding. That did not do her any good.

As father Anil Kapoor had stated on Karan Johar’s Koffee with Karan season 4 couch, Sonam is outspoken, often too much for her own good. It is a background of privilege, comfort and the world of Hindi cinema, where reality is regularly manufactured, that makes her say off tune things at times. While her frankness is winsome, a touch of reality — with life as it actually happens — would make her position a lot stronger with common Indian fans. Knowing things well before speaking her mind would place her as a rare Indian star who cares and actually knows what is it that she cares about.

(Also read — Sonam Kapoor-Anand Ajhuja wedding: Couple kickstart celebrations with mehendi ceremony at Anil Kapoor’s house)