The Unstoppable

A Blockbuster Film, A Streaming Debut, Turning Producer, Marriage, Kids And Holidays Every Two Months-is There Anything Kareena Kapoor Khan Can't Do?

- NAMRATA ZAKARIA

THE TEASER OF Crew featured Tabu and Kareena Kapoor Khan as two flight attendants in the galley of an aircraft. Kareena is dabbing on some makeup, and Tabu teases her, "It's foundation, not a time machine." Kareena responds by mimicking Tabu like a petulant child. The laugh-out-loud moment will go down in history as one of Kareena's finest scenes ever, right up there with her Geet mouthing, "Main apni favourite hoon", in Imtiaz Ali's iconic 2007 romance Jab We Met.

Of course, her impeccable comic timing is commendable, but the literary device of dramatic irony is unmissable here: This scene is perhaps as far from who Kareena is as an actor or a woman today. At 43, she embarked on two films sans makeup. The first is her streaming debut, Sujoy Ghosh's murder 'howdunnit' Jaane Jaan (2023) for Netflix. The second is The Buckingham Murders, also a thriller loosely inspired by Kate Winslet's Mare of Easttown (series, 2021). The Hansal Mehta film, which did the rounds of festivals last year and is due for a theatrical release in India this September, marks her debut as producer.

Her last release, Crew (2024), on the other hand, is a rollicking, frolicking funfest, a heist film with an all-female star cast. Kareena stars alongside Tabu and Kriti Sanon. All three actors are known for their immense beauty as well as acting chops (Sanon picked up her first National Award last year). The film, produced by Anil Kapoor Film & Communication (AKFC) Network and Balaji Motion Pictures, is a comedy that sees three flight attendants turn unwitting con artists. AKFC Network is helmed by father-daughter duo-Anil and Rhea Kapoor, and Balaji by mother-daughter duo-Shobha and Ekta Kapoor.