{"id":4643,"date":"2016-06-10T01:31:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T20:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4643"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:41:18","slug":"madhuri-papas-first-crush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4643","title":{"rendered":"Madhuri Dixit, the Woman of Middle-Class Dreams, and My Papa\u2019s First Crush"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p>\n\n<span class=\"dropcap\">H<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\now often do you get to stand in a room with your father\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/modern-family\/my-didi-my-keeper-did-my-illness-steal-my-sisters-childhood\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">childhood<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> crush, securing her sari\u2019s aanchal with safety pins, while she wobbles on four-inch heels next to you? Not too often, I\u2019d imagine. I knew that the moment had all the makings of an amusing anecdote even as I was living it. I\u2019d grown up on stories about my father\u2019s not-so-secret childhood crush on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/madhuri-dixit-birthday-rikku-rakesh-nath-dharmendra-anil-kapoor-bollywood-dhak-dhak-song\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madhuri Dixit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the time when they were neighbours in a humble <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/mumbai-bombay-india-shivaji-maharaj-shiv-sena-thane-haji-ali-mughal-empire-tom-hanks-kala-ghoda\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mumbai suburb<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a far cry from the homes both she and my father would keep as adults. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No trip down memory lane by my father or his siblings is ever complete without a pit-stop at Madhuri\u2019s doorstep. About how, as a sickly child with a congenital heart condition, my dad had spent a large part of his childhood as the one-boy audience for her daily kathak practices. While the other kids ran around the compound playing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/features\/the-joy-of-watching-a-cricket-match-with-family\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cricket<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/luka-chuppi-review-kartik-aaryan-kriti-sanon\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lukka chuppi<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, my dad would shyly peer through the grilled windows and watch her dance. She didn\u2019t know it, but Madhuri Dixit was making life a little bit bearable for a teenager trapped in a body that often frustrated and angered him. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019d grown up hearing my aunts tease my father for his adoration, and seen my mother\u2019s expression curdle comically every time her name came up during family dos. When your husband\u2019s very <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/love-and-sex\/puppy-love-relationships-romance\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first love<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is also the woman whose smile has inspired undying devotion in generations of ardent admirers, you\u2019re bound to be secretly delighted when she gets married and moves thousands of miles away from home and out of reach of a media who goes into raptures every time she grins. I still remember my mother\u2019s stormy frown and my father\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/money-matters\/supreme-court-verdict-anil-ambani\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unsuccessful<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> attempts to appear nonchalant when news broke that she had moved back into the country and was making a full-fledged Bollywood comeback. We ate a lot of lauki and karela that week. When I landed an assignment with her during my brief stint as a celebrity stylist\u2019s assistant soon after she moved back into the country, it was weeks before I could work up the courage to tell my mother what my top-secret job was. Even more lauki and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/grub\/bittersweet-gourd-saga-karela-food-bitter-gourd-india\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">karela<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> followed that announcement. Those four weeks were possibly the most interested my dad\u2019s ever been in my career. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many years later, it would be among the few memories that would make my father smile as he spent several months in the hospital, hooked up to tubes and wires, fighting for his life. I spent so many nights I spent by his bedside, yammering on about how <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/madhuri-dixit-bucket-list-marathi-cinema\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madhuri<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> came to pick this sari over that gown for a gala, the colour palette she seemed to prefer, and how she looked far bigger in screen than she was, in real life. He\u2019d never tire of hearing about the first time I met her \u2014 about how I was bowled over by her simplicity and niceness; and how, despite that or perhaps because of it, I had always been too shy to tell her about the forgotten link that connected her past to my present. Madhuri Dixit was our escape, even if temporary, from the terrifying possibilities that lay ahead. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Bollywood-obsessed as my family was, I never imagined my father to be the sort who would lose his mind over a celebrity. Our vacation home on the outskirts of Mumbai shared garden walls with some very important <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/soni-razdan-yours-truly-middle-aged-actresses-alia-bhatt\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bollywood<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> surnames, but I\u2019d never once seen Papa show any inclination to further an association that went deeper than a friendly smile of greeting while pulling in or out of the driveway. He\u2019d dutifully help them fill their coffers every weekend \u2014 Papa has this unique ability to enjoy even awful, unwatchable Bollywood fare \u2014 but he had no interest in breaking bread with them. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not Madhuri, though. I thought my father\u2019s regard for her was an aberration \u2014 the exception that proved the rule, but it was only during those months in the hospital that I learned what made Madhuri\u2019s magic so irresistible and enduring. It wasn\u2019t about being star-struck or holding on to shared history; what drew him to her was that no matter how big or famous she got, to him, she was always the quintessential <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/satire\/budget-piyush-goyal-middle-class-income-tax\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">middle-class <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">girl he knew, understood, and cared about. Watching her movies was like a warm hug from a life and a time he may have left behind, but wasn\u2019t quite ready to sever ties from. <\/span>\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\">Much like Madhuri Dixit, Papa belonged to a generation of men and women who had spent their life-shaping years in small homes filled with big dreams.<\/blockquote>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much like Madhuri Dixit, Papa belonged to a generation of men and women who had spent their life-shaping years in small homes filled with big dreams. They\u2019d both worked their asses off to get to where they were and build a better life for their children. But their experiences and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/masoom-motherhood-nuance-deserves\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">struggles<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> made them who they were. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you go from having next to nothing, to having almost everything you ever wanted in a matter of years, life can feel adrift, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/india-lowest-divorce-rate-in-the-world\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">divorced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from the reality of you. As my father\u2019s life marched on, and took him further and further away from his roots, he yearned for even fleeting connections with his past. Maybe because Madhuri\u2019s life had changed just as drastically, or maybe she\u2019s simply that good an actress, but somehow, she had the power to transport my father to simpler times. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the four months that he was in the hospital, Papa and I spent hours watching old Madhuri Dixit movies, and for the first time, I saw her the way he did, not the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/vivek-oberoi-saathiya-company-pm-modi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">superstar<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I had helped dress. I watched my father\u2019s face light up when he saw her as the loveable but stubborn pain in her father\u2019s posterior that she was in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ram Lakhan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In another life, maybe Didi and I would have turned out like her. I watched him smile indulgently at her pampered and cosseted act in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dil<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dil Toh Pagal Hai<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Did he see his daughters in Madhuri, or himself in her father, or perhaps a bit of both? He simply rolled his eyes when I asked.<\/span>\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-49297\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1557907806.jpg\" alt=\"ekdoteen\" width=\"724\" height=\"407\" \/>\n<figcaption>\n<p>Ultra Media &#038; Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his sterile hospital room, we watched <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prem Deewane<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lajja<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Khel<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and each time I saw admiration in his eye. I know that he\u2019d sooner perish than see his daughters become unwed mothers, scam artists, or police inspectors so we can put food on the table, but he can identify with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/pulwama-attack-peace-dirty-word\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sentiment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of finding a way or making his own. \u201cWhen good things don\u2019t get handed to you on a silver platter, you spend less time whining and more time doing,\u201d has been Papa&#8217;s constant refrain, used every time he gets fed up of hearing us complain. \u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We watched <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hum Aapke Hain Koun\u2026!<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and our reactions couldn\u2019t have been more different if they had been scripted. While he grew increasingly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/love-and-sex\/love-struck-romance-airport\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">misty-eyed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the sky-high sanskaar quotient and parivar-love on steroids, I couldn\u2019t help but groan internally. To me, a plot that revolved around marrying someone out of a sense of duty seemed bizarre, to him, the movie was a blueprint for ideal beti and bahu behaviour. It was the movie that sealed Papa\u2019s conviction \u2014 Madhuri simply can do no wrong. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I write this indirect ode to Madhuri Dixit from one of her oldest fans, preparations for my parents\u2019 marriage <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/nathuram-godse-martyrs-day-mahatma-gandhi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">anniversary<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> party are underway. Their marriage turns 37 the same day she turns 53, a fact that never ceases to annoy my mother. She\u2019s still not sure whether the party each year is to celebrate them, or her.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have grown up on stories about my father\u2019s not-so-secret childhood crush on Madhuri Dixit from the time when they were neighbours in Mumbai. As a child with a congenital heart condition, Papa had spent a large part of his childhood as the one-boy audience for her daily kathak practices. She didn\u2019t know it, but Madhuri Dixit was making life a little bit bearable for an angry teenager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":306,"featured_media":4646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[1225,1485,8244,4886,8245,5735,4889,8246,8247,147,1229,3476,8248,448,8249,8250],"class_list":["post-4643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-childhood","tag-dil","tag-dil-toh-pagal-hai","tag-dreams","tag-first-crush","tag-heart","tag-hopes","tag-kathak","tag-lajja","tag-madhuri-dixit","tag-memories","tag-middle-class","tag-neighbour","tag-papa","tag-ram-lakhan","tag-tejaab"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Madhuri Dixit, the Woman of Middle-Class Dreams, and My Papa\u2019s First Crush<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have grown up on stories about my father\u2019s not-so-secret childhood crush on Madhuri Dixit from the time when they were neighbours in Mumbai. As a child with a congenital heart condition, Papa had spent a large part of his childhood as the one-boy audience for her daily kathak practices. She didn\u2019t know it, but Madhuri Dixit was making life a little bit bearable for an angry teenager.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4643\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Madhuri Dixit, the Woman of Middle-Class Dreams, and My Papa\u2019s First Crush\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have grown up on stories about my father\u2019s not-so-secret childhood crush on Madhuri Dixit from the time when they were neighbours in Mumbai. As a child with a congenital heart condition, Papa had spent a large part of his childhood as the one-boy audience for her daily kathak practices. 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As a child with a congenital heart condition, Papa had spent a large part of his childhood as the one-boy audience for her daily kathak practices. 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