MANY BLANKS TO FILL

PRIYANKA CHOPRA JONAS’S MEMOIR BUILDS HER BRAND WHILE IGNORING HER CRAFT

At 38, Priyanka Chopra Jonas has written a memoir which, as its title suggests, reveals only part of her story. There are, of course, miles to go before she is done. That said, a more apt title would have perhaps been ‘Incomplete’. Unfinished is not the kind of tell-all treatise that will ruffle feathers. It is, instead, a more guarded, selective nostalgia trip. More than career, it is family that takes centre stage. What you get is a chunk of anecdotes that revolve around Priyanka’s childhood and adolescence. These end up being the book’s most honest bits. There is something particularly moving about the actress’s recounting of her father’s illness, subsequent death and the resultant emotional upheaval that leads to depression. For most part, though, she remains elusive, especially about her professional choices.

Priyanka, for her part, chooses to remember her unsuccessful attempts at hiding a high school romance from an aunt while studying in the US. She then recounts the bullying that led to her leaving the country at 16. On her return to India, she would make an immediate impact—finishing second in the Miss India pageant a year later and then winning the Miss World title.

Unfortunately, the chapters on Bollywood—the industry primarily responsible for her fame—are skimpy and drab, revealing an actress who is committed to cordiality and not too interested in her oeuvre. She briefly touches on her struggles as an outsider and the work she lost due to the corrective surgeries to her nose and the “actor’s girlfriend” tag. Only a handful of films find mention—Aitraaz (2004), Fashion (2008), Kaminey (2009), 7 Khoon Maaf (2011), Barfi! (2012), Mary Kom (2014)—with no deliberation on her approach towards acting.

A lot of Unfinished seems like an exercise in playing to the gallery and brandbuilding. This possibly explains why there is a chapter on her much-publicised wedding, titled ‘Shaadi’. Priyanka addresses a few controversies, but avoids sharing anything provocative. Clearly, she does not want to start trending again for the wrong reasons. The book often reads like the actress ticking people off her thank you-list as she revisits her significant achievements and the odd failure—her international music career. With a little more imagination and a little less caution, Unfinished could have worked as the story of the girl from Bareilly who broke through against all odds. The sequel will hopefully be more insightful. ■