Dream Girl missing in action in Mathura

For Hema Malini's critics in Mathura, her absence is reminiscent of the lines in her famous song 'Dream girl':' Kabhi toh milegi, kahin toh milegi, aaj nahin toh kal...'

Vrindavan brings to mind lush green landscapes with forests along the Yamuna where Krishna performed his ‘leelas’. Today, the 48 ‘ghats’ of Vrindavan built by Raja Himmat Bahadur 600 years ago in the classical Braj-Rajasthan tradition along the river front are all but destroyed through governmental indifference and by a group of builders determined to take over this prime property.

Bollywood actress-turnedpolitician Hema Malini, instead of getting herself photographed wearing an expensive Kanjeevaram sari with ripe wheat stalks in her hand as she did in 2014 and then again in 2024, could have used these ten precious years she has represented the Mathura Lok Sabha constituency to restore and preserve this unique heritage.

She describes herself as a Krishna devotee whose dream for her constituency of Mathura, which includes Vrindavan, remains incomplete. She is seeking re-election citing divine intervention, as Krishna wants her to complete the tasks’ set into motion ten years ago.

One day before filing her nomination, Hema Malini performed Yamuna puja at Vishram Ghat. The Yamuna she paid homage to is a dark, stinking body of water, just as it was ten years ago when she performed similar pujas in 2014 and 2019, insisting even then that her top priority would be have the Yamuna cleaned. Those in Vrindavan and Mathura believe Krishna’s legacy would have been much better served if she had worked to have the waters of the Yamuna cleaned.