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On Hema Malini’s campaign trail — rose petals, cow dung & a child’s naming ceremony

ThePrint spends a day with Hema Malini as she campaigns in her constituency of Mathura ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. 

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Mathura: In Jait village, less than 10 km from Vrindavan, at the heart of Mathura Lok Sabha constituency, a minor revolt is brewing. Sitting MP and ex-Bollywood dream girl Hema Malini has just finished being feted by a small crowd that gathers when her convoy stops for a few minutes.

They want to throw rose petals at her. She insists that they hand over the petals but some land on her carefully coiffed hair, anyway. Oho, she mutters, beneath her breath. “I told you not to throw the petals,” she says. Then she smiles at the offending villager and all is seemingly forgotten.

The convoy moves on. The sun heaves back into place. Some of the roads in these parts aren’t as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks — to borrow a phrase from former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav about his home state — and it seems now that the problems go deeper than that.

“This is the first time that she has come back here since she first got elected in 2014,” says Pavan Thakur, the owner of a small refreshment shop in the village. Gagan, a first-time voter, insists that the small crowd that has come to greet her hardly compares with the large crowds that welcome Narendra Singh, the joint candidate of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance.

Others chime in to admit that at least 60 per cent of Jait’s population are Jats and that the contest is tied between “Modi and the ‘mahagathbandhan‘”.

As for Hema Malini, “who has hardly done any work at all,” she would not get any votes if she were not the “phool ka candidate” — the BJP’s lotus. But Modi has rescued her from oblivion.


Also read: Modi is a ‘flop’ says KCR on NDTV; On Times Now, Hema Malini says she has to feed ‘dhano’


Krishna’s Nagari

The Bollywood star’s behaviour has its moments. It’s a bit like a movie set, except that the sun is really hot this late Saturday morning — you can feel it burning your skin. Moreover, the smell of freshly-made ‘uplay’ or cow-dung patties are everywhere. The inevitable tractor in the mini-traffic jam makes a terrible racket and worse, emits unwholesome smoke.

Hema Malini never gets out of her Mercedes SUV. She emerges from the sun-roof when the vehicle stops in assorted villages, according to the carefully laid out plans of the local BJP unit.

Someone in the car behind, probably a spot boy from Mumbai, rushes out with a black umbrella when he sees her vehicle stop and the sun-roof slide. It’s his trigger to snap open the umbrella and hold it above her head when she emerges into the hot sun.

Hema Malini wrinkles up her nose when someone stands between her vehicle and the one in front that holds the public address system. The man is told to move out and Hema Malini begins to speak.

Her accent is still very South Indian, but the delivery is pitch perfect. She talks about her love for Braj (the region around Mathura-Vrindavan), how she has been summoned to this “Krishna’s Nagari” and how she intends to carry out the work that Prime Minister Modi has asked her to do.

Hema Malini interacts in Jait village of Mathura | Praveen Jain | ThePrint
Hema Malini interacts with people in Jait village | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

The 14 February attack in Pulwama finds a way into the speech. Someone hands her a foam lotus through the sun-roof, which she holds in one hand, while the other gesticulates, a dancer arrested in full flow.

Hema Malini gives an interview to ThePrint — actually, two. The first time around, the phone camera has developed a glitch mid-stream, so now the team sits in her car as we drive through the heat and dust of the countryside.


Also read: Politics in photos: Actor-turned politician Hema Malini campaigns in Mathura


Outside the air-conditioned car, the wheat is being cut, neatly, and stacked up against other bundles. Inside, she points out, that her Bollywood career is over, that everything has its time, and now it is politics for her.

Asked why she’s so special when Modiji has changed several sitting MPs but has handed her the Mathura ticket. The Prime Minister has faith in me, she says. “People say that I am an outsider, but I have actually come here 256 times,” she adds.

At the Banke Behari temple in the heart of Vrindavan earlier in the morning, a group of people both dispute Hema Malini’s claims of working hard for her constituency and support the choice Modi has made for Mathura. The dispute soon grows into a shouting contest.

“Last time she came here in 2014 she used to say that she doesn’t like the smell of cow-dung,” says one man. Another insists she’s done nothing to clean the Yamuna and that it still stinks like a sewer. A third, visiting the temple from Rajpura in Punjab, turns his nose up, saying, “Vrindavan could be a smart city but it’s not. It’s terrible, unlike our towns in Punjab.”

A fourth points out that “Modiji has done so much work, so our vote goes to the BJP”.

At Modiji’s name, the crowd sobers up. Yes, Modiji is a good man, he has done so much good work for the country. But Hema Malini, well…


Also read: Dalits vs Hindutva: The story of a ‘baraat’ in UP reveals what’s making BJP sweat


A child to be named

On the campaign trail, Hema Malini has stopped at Gonda Massi village. Several women, with their heads totally covered, standing in the shelter of their homes, begin to complain that the roads aren’t properly built, that they haven’t received the “vidhwa” or “widow’s pension” when the man of the house standing nearby shuts them up.

“Haven’t you got a cylinder? What about all the other women schemes?” he scolds. At the thought of the gas cylinder, Ujjwala scheme, their eyes brighten. “Modiji, definitely, yes,” says one of the women.

Hema Malini holds a child during her visit to Jait village
Hema Malini holds a child during her visit to Jait village | Photo: Praveen Jain | ThePrint

Hema Malini has moved on. Suddenly her cavalcade stops. The man from Mumbai has no time to jump out with the black umbrella. That’s because Hema Malini hasn’t gone through the sun-roof this time, but rolled down the window of her car. She sees a woman holding a baby.

“Give him to me,” she says. ThePrint’s photographer takes a picture of Hema Malini smiling at the baby. Someone from the back says, “Why don’t you name him? Iska naamkaran kyon nahin kar dete?”

Another voice calls out, ”Maybe he should be named Dharmendra.” Hema Malini stays with the baby a few more milliseconds, hands him back, rolls up her Mercedes’ windows and moves on.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. A good actress would dress for the part, whether of a beauty queen or a village belle. Ms Hema Malini is sticking out like a sore thumb. Her chopper, Mercedes and designer sunglasses are not helping her candidature. Could watch just a few minutes of the interview. The language and diction is harsh, coarse, strange for someone who has earned her fame and fortune in the Hindi film industry, spent a lifetime with such a genuinely charming man. A couple of years ago, she was involved in a car crash, left the scene, a heartbroken father said, My daughter’s life could have been saved if she had stayed back and offered to help.

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