Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai
Episode : Hema Malini
( September 13th, 9 pm on ZEE TV)
   

SEGMENT 1
The show starts with Hema Malini's brother Kannan Chakravarti coming in. He talks about hema being an obedient child. Hema's mother's video message is next where she says that she had to make a lot of effort to make sure hema gets the proper training to reach the heights that she has and she does not want her to do anything more in life as she has done enough and should now strive to maintain that level. Hema reiterates the fact that her mother is the one responsible for her success. She says that she was very young and therefore couldn't have taken a decision as to what she wanted to do and it was her mother who enrolled her in dance classes and was very strict about them. She says that she did feel very bad then as she saw other kids playing and having fun but today when she looks back, she is very grateful.

 

SEGMENT 2
We begin with a video capsule on Hema's school where she studied till 10th standard( Madrase Higher secondary school). Very few people know that hema was brought up in Delhi and moved to chennai only after finishing her 10th standard. When she started performing in Chennai, she was publicized as "Delhi Hema Malini" as there was already a Hema Malini performing on stage in Chennai. After her school, there is a video message from Nandita Ahlavar, fondly referred to as "Diloo" by Hema. She is Hema's childhood friend.
Hema's mother and Nandita's mother are very close friends and thats how they became friends. Hema claims that she has spent some of the best moments of her life with Nandita. Nandita and she were in Delhi together. They used to hang around after school as they stayed in the same compound. Nandita, in her video message, tells hema how they both confessed to eachother when they were 8-9 years old that they both had a crush of krishan bhagwan and their favourite pass time was to buy his posters from Birla mandir. She said that till date their choice in men hasn't changed as she married a jat and so did hema.

The guest in this segment is Padma Subramanium who is a dancer in Chennai and also heads a cultural organisation called "Nrityodya". She is the daughter of K Subramanium, a big director and star maker down south responsible for introducing Hema to the cultural community and critics in Chennai as well as Raj Kapoor who launched Hema with "Sapno Ka Saudagar". It was because of Raj Kapoor that Hema got the Tag of "Dream Girl". Padma and Hema have been friends ever since hema's initial days in Chennai. Padma throws light on Hema's early days as a stage performer. She also talks about how hema's first brush with films was a bitter experience as Director Sridhar, who was an icon down south, threw hema out of his movie and got it published in trade papers that hema was a bad actress but Padma's father was confident and told raj kapoor that he should definitely take hema as she would go far.

   

SEGMENT 3
The third segment starts with Hema and Dharmendra's daughters , Esha and Ahana, coming in. They talked about how hema is an inspiration and how they all made dad agree to let esha do films. Esha spoke about dharmendra thinking that she looks like a doll when he saw her first on screen. Hema said that their father always gets emotional when he sees their photographs or sees them. He starts crying and is speechless. We end the segment with personal family snaps of Hema, Dharmendra and the kids together.

SEGMENT 4
Neetu Kohli, an interior designer and hema's close friend since the last thirty years, is the first guest in this segment. She talks about her friendship with hema and how hema fell in love with Dharmendra for the first time( He took her out on a drive when they were shooting together on Nasik). She also talks of the time when Hema was pregnant with Esha and noone knew. To avoid the press, Dharamji had booked a whole hospital which had 100 room for the delivery. She was the first person after the immediate family to see esha when she was born.
The second person to walk in is Soordas Prabhu, who heads Iskcon temple in Mumbai. He talks about the deep connection to spirituality that Hema has and her devotion to propagating Indian culture in its purest form. Hema has done dance ballets like "Meera", "Durga", "Draupadi", "Radha" etc and dance will always be her first love. Soordas Talks about how hema is drawn from within to perform for the pleasure of God and that is remarkable as he has never seen a person of her stature to be so involved .

SEGMENT 5
The segment kicks off with Director Ramesh Sippy making an entry. Sippy has directed hema in three of her landmark films- Andaaz, Seeta aur Geeta and Sholay. Sippy cast her in Andaaz, which was his directorial debut, right after Hema's debut film Sapno ka Saudagar and his decision was mainly a blind risk. He had heard a lot about the "Dream Girl" and just took a chance by casting in a tough role of a widow with a seven year old son but it worked and inspired sippy to cast hema in "Seeta aur Geeta". With "Seeta aur Geeta", he gave hema a rare opportunity of doing a role most would not have thought of casting her in as she had this prim and proper image. The gamble paid off and Seeta aur Geeta was a huge hit.
After that we have a video Message from Co-star and friend Jeetendra who talks about their first experience together where he was unceremoniously thrown out of a film to be directed by Subodh Mukherji called "Abhinetri". He was so excited at the chance of working with the "Dream Girl" that he even quit a film called "Jeene ke Raah" with L V Prasad. But Subodh without telling him threw him out of the film which came as a big blow to Jeetendra and he was shattered. At that time L V Prasad was kind enough to take him back in "Jeene ki Raah".

SEGMENT 6
The Segment starts with Writer Director Gulzar's video message. He has directed hema in four films- Khushboo, Kinara, Lekin and Meera. Hema has done her best work with Gulzar. Gulzar talks about hema being a director's delight and how she has walked with dignity through thirty years of superstardom. He says that she is a royal figure and a committed mother. The next video message is from friend and director Aruna Raje. Aruna says that it did take hema some time to trust her. People was surprised that Aruna cast her in "Rihaee" a film about sexual suppression but Aruna was confident that Hema would be perfect for the character Taku Bai. She also said that a lot of people don't know the lighter, fun side of Hema.
The last video message is of Dharmendra. It's the first time that Dharmendra has spoken about hema on television. He says that his heart is in his eyes and his eyes speak volumes. He says that Hema is the best person he has worked with. The most beautiful woman he has seen. He talks about her being dignified, Non demanding and says that she has often sacrificed her own happiness for the sake of others.

We end the show with rare never seen before photographs of their wedding and holidays.