Gajraula, Oct 21: Unlike her screen counterpart in Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Gajraula's Chutki doesn't care about Madhuri Dixit; she would rather be Erin Brockovich. The girls in small town Uttar Pradesh are so far removed from glamour that had film-maker Chandan Arora braved the bumpy road to Gajraula, Main Madhuri's script might have been altered to become an Erin Brockovich-inspired film. Ask Chutki, or for that matter her friends Dolly, Chanchal and Nutan, all high school students from lower to middle income families in Gajraula, about their passions and not one comes close to Madhuri Dixit. Instead, they would rather talk about the pollution that plagues their city due to the 30-odd factories in their town. "It is another Bhopal. Almost everyday, a cloud hangs around our city. Our eyes sting and chests burn," says Manju Chowdhary. They want a solution to the problem, they want to be doctors, if parents and fate permit. That apart, Gajraula's Chutki can never be a Madhuri or even the clone that was Antara Mali's (the reel life Chutki's) fate in Main Madhuri. Dreams come at a cost which the fairer sex in this small town can ill afford. Chutki, a student of Class 8 in the Jatland of Gajraula can read her future, but only till a suitable boy is found. She is vaguely aware of the film, but unlike her fictional namesake, is devoid of stars in her eyes. "That happens only in films," she scoffs. Gajraula has an unwritten code of conduct: Girls do not dress in jeans, do not wear short sleeves, skirts may be allowed if they tease the ankles, talking to the opposite sex is forbidden. Imitating Madhuri and her ilk at a nautanki would be blasphemy. The closest contact Chutki has had with the star is watching her films on the VCD player within the safety of her home. The Gajraula law of propriety also disallows "decent" women from visiting theatres. Chutki does a mean thumka number, her friends shyly point out, remembering a cousin's marriage three years back. Filmi music brushed aside folk at the sangeet gathering and, "her jhatka was just like Madhuri in Didi tera dewar dewaana," Dolly vouches.
Gajraula is in fact blissfully unaware of its brush with glamour. Though the film's publicist is excited about the full house the film is drawing in theatres far beyond Gajraula, Main Madhuri is yet to see the light of the day in its hometown. The star theatre in town, Chandrika Palace, is running a film Sunil Shetty would love to forget, Kala Samrajya. Theatre manager Balraj Singh is unaware of the film and its local origins, but senses a business opportunity. Singh says he will run posters screaming Gajraula ki Madhuri. "I will do brisk business. Just like Andaaz which raked in the moolah in Barielly, since it is heroine Priyanka Chopra's hometown, who was also scantily clad in the movie. "Par fillum mein maal hain naa," he asks as an afterthought. "Nahi to kaun dekhega?" Not the men, the only theatre audience.
Gajraula is a town with a split personality. Once a village, it has graduated into a town with lots of industries coming up in the past two decades. The factorywallahs are the haves, but their urban sophistication has rubbed off on the locals. The natives have lost their innocence and bear little resemblance to the wide-eyed Chutki and her pals that the film typifies. The women have evolved, within the dictates of society. There are no wannabe Madhuri's here, Mumbai and Bollywood is another world, for other people. Films are a three-hour escape route, no more, no less. And Madhuri is passe`. "Woh purane time ki hai (She belongs to an older time)," says Manju Chowdhry cruelly. Aishwarya Rai and Rani Mukherjee have taken over the mantle, and Mrs Nene is no longer even a poster girl. Posters of movie stars are bestsellers here, but even a faded one of the Ek Do Teen girl is unavailable. Shankar, an old hand in selling posters says, "Who ab yahan khatam hai (The Madhuri craze is over here)." Madhuri is extinct in Gajraula.
Age brings wisdom, and some express the fear that Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon will bring to fore insane, irrational desires. Ranjana Kapoor, who opened the first beauty parlour in the town, says Antara's story will urge a few dreamers to take the plunge. "Films have the power to do that. Girls at an impressionable age might get ideas and run away. But success like Antara is only a film and reality hard, and it will only bring shame and misery to her and her family," she worries. For the present, she need not worry. Gajraula ki Madhuri Dixit is only a piece of fiction, and a figment of the director's imagination. Her real life counterparts are wedded to reality.