March 28, 2020

A picture of Jhanvi Kapoor celebrating her 21st birthday with her girl gang (including her sister, cousins and closest friends) within 10 days of her mother’s sad demise has drawn diverse reactions in social media. While some people have castigated the upcoming actress for not showing respect to her mother by partying even before the customary 13-day mourning period was over, other have hailed her courage and acknowledged her bravery in moving on even after her pillar of strength is no more.

No one can understand the pain of losing a mother more than a daughter. The late Sridevi, apart from being a celebrated actor, was a powerful name in the industry, both on account of her own achievements and networking and also on account of her husband Boney Kapoor’s status as a frontline film producer. Jhanvi is on the verge of making her debut in movies. Only she knows that how her mother would have helped her in making right choices in her budding career. Hence, she must be devastated at the loss.

If, despite this, Jhanvi celebrated her birthday within the mourning period, there must have been strong reasons. The first one that comes to mind is the efforts of cousins and friends to ensure that Jhanvi does not get depressed. It must have been due to their efforts that the celebration (if one can call it that, given the situation) took place. If one knows the present generation of youngsters, one will also know that whatever their other faults, they are extremely possessive of their cousins and friends and cannot bear any one of them to be sad or depressed. They stick together in a rock solid manner and are always there for each other. Hence, Jhanvi’s birthday was celebrated to cheer her up. Nothing more should be read into it.

Then, it is quite possible that before her death, Sridevi might have discussed with Jhanvi about her upcoming 21st birthday. She might have expressed a wish that it was special and they would celebrate it in a befitting manner. Maybe Jhanvi was just ensuring that her mother’s wish was fulfilled.

Whatever be the reason, people who do not know the reasons have no right to criticize the event. Jhanvi is not answerable to anyone for decisions she takes in her private life. She will do well to ignore the trolls and bear her loss with courage.