Ash good as it gets

TO BE OR not to be fat. As thousands of Indians went on endlessly on the internet, airing their views about the beauteous and now generously rotund Aishwarya Rai, or mother of Beti B as she is now known as, the lady stepped out on to the red carpet at the Cannes and blinded her admirers with her poise and self assurance.

From 1994 when she came in as No 2, behind fellow competitor Sushmita Sen, to bag the Miss India World to becoming the Indian film industry’s Diva no 1, it has been a meteoric rise for Aishwarya Rai. Suddenly Ash stopped being the outsider who got into Bollywood but became the reigning queen of the industry.

She has done good films and bad, got entangled with some bad boys of Bollywood and she has, surprisingly, got flak for her incandescent beauty, often paying the price for it by being ignored by serious film makers. But through it all, she has kept her spine erect and her head firmly on her shoulders and in the end, she had the last laugh.

And why not? She is, after all, married into the first family of Bollywood, and has the entire Bachchan family waiting in the wings to protect her. And if she chose to revel in that role and finally become mother to possibly the most secret and underground baby in the whole world, that is smart too and completely her business. Just as the kilos that have piled on her waist is her problem.

She has remained out of the public eye for a long time, tending to her baby and possibly struggling with image issues — the film industry is unforgiving of babes turning matrons — but in the end decided to give up the struggle and brazen it out.

If you believe in yourself, you can still have the world at your feet; that seemed to be her mantra as she posed for the shutterbugs in a midnight blue Elie Saab floor-length gown gathering unflatteringly at her waist. And, she seductively blew kisses into the air too but looked more like mama blowing kisses to her baby rather than seductress to her many admirers. Her other photo calls were memorable too, even if the Abu Jani- Sandeep Khosla white saree and full sleeve blouse was a fashion blunder for her portly figure.

The flowing Angelo Katsapis gown and the number and the Roberto Cavalli kaftan made her look the beauty that she is and Aishwarya also benefitted immensely from hair and make-up by L’Oreal whose beauty ambassador she is.

But in the end, we think it is her self-belief and self esteem that carried her through the couple of days at Cannes. From being a house-bound new mother to being on the most watched red carpet in the world can’t have been a cake walk, especially because the baby was back in the hotel room waiting for her. But Ash carried it through with remarkable elan. More power to you, Ash. —sudhamenon2006@gmail.com