I had heard about Twinkle Khanna of course. I knew she was the daughter of famous parents both from the Indian film industry: India’s very first super star, Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, of “Bobby” fame. She was a film actress herself. More recently, I knew of her as the wife of a major modern day film hero, Akshay Kumar. But I was biased, I confess, like many of my generation. In our days, we never associated Hindi film stars with writing books!
It therefore came as a very pleasant surprise for me to enjoy Ms Khanna’s delightful writing style and flair in her debut book, “Mrs Funnybones; She’s Just Like You and a lot Like Me“. She wrote this in 2015 when on release it became a huge best seller.
Ms Khanna’s clearly has a sharp wit and a wicked sense of humor. This facet of her personality comes to the fore in her writing. The book, which is autobiographical in nature, talks of the travails ( if one may use that expression) and experiences of a lady in high society of today’s India. She leads a full life juggling the demands associated with being the wife of a famous film star; her own career as a designer; two very assertive young children and one almost omnipresent mother!
Each chapter ( and they are rather cleverly arranged as per the alphabet) gives you insights into how she manages, or tries to manage her life and family. As is to be expected, all too often there are conflicting demands on her time. Priorities get switched and plans re-made on the run.
The reader is taken through different situations, mostly set in Mumbai, the home of “Bollywood” home of the Hindi film industry. From time to time one comes across powerful one liners delivered with a straight face! From time to time, too, her mother makes an appearance full of her own theories and notions of how things should be.
This is a work of light fiction. Reach out for it and enjoy!
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 