The uneasy truth about Deepika-Ranbir

On the face of it, it’s an occasion that demands a joyous distribution of laddoos. Nibble the surface and an unexpectedly bitter reality emerges… After a whopping 26-odd years of resolutely refusing every filmmaker, including B.R. Chopra Films who offered her Baghbaan, Neetu Kapoor has at long last signed on a film. Do Dooni Char is her big comeback in which she will play the wife of a mathematics teacher portrayed by her real-life husband Rishi Kapoor. Her very first film after she chucked it all up in the ’80s to devote herself to her husband and kids… What did the trick? “Actually I can’t believe that I’ll be back before the camera,” she announced in a recent interview. “I’m looking forward to it. The role’s the thing…and the script’s sweet, simple… cute. Also life was becoming much too boring, sitting at home. Friends and fitness…aur kya? Ranbir’s out of the house, working. When I told him about Do Dooni Char, he couldn’t stop smiling… ‘Yes Ma, go for it’. And in Delhi, I’ll be with Riddhima. So see, it’s all fallen into place.” True but perhaps not quite as simply and innocently as that… For there’s a disturbing belief in HiFI inner circles that this sudden and mystifying move is Neetu’s way of Making a Statement. A statement that she is allegedly not just unhappy with Ranbir’s continued relationship with Deepika, but is unhappier still that her darling son is unable to comprehend her fears and refuses to act on them. Her return to the arc-lights is being increasingly seen as her way of telling Ranbir that if he intends living his life on his terms and her opinions don’t count then the same applies to her. She too can follow her heart and do what he himself admittedly dislikes - act in films. It’s no secret that Ranbir has issues with mother’s newly-revived profession. In the past he has confessed openly enough to it… “Yes, I am a little shy about my mum being an actress. I don’t really watch her films because personally I am too shy to see her onscreen. Just the fact that somebody else might be judging her… So, I kind of stay clear of Mum’s films. But yes, I am a big fan of my dad’s films.” Now Mum has gone and signed a film. And one can only hope that she herself is finding joy and peace in her decision. For those are precisely the commodities that have allegedly been in short supply at Krishna Kunj, Bandra, ever since Ranbir met Deepika and fell headlong into love…