It doesn’t mean there were never any punctures within this pigeonholing. In the same year, she played Jasmeet Malhotra in Namastey London (2007), a liberated Londoner who is whisked into matrimony under coercive circumstances by her parents, and eventually beguiled by her husband. Alongside Babita from Zero (2018) where she plays a Bollywood actress struggling against a questionable relationship, and Maria from Merry Christmas (2024), it is considered her most buoyant role. The film has a predictable arc, and ends with the suggestion of a traditional ever after: she is courted into domestication by Arjun (Akshay Kumar). Yet, the persistent imagery is that of the snooty ‘Jazz’ telling her parents, and Arjun off — rather than, arguably, her getting hurtled towards Punjab, at the back of her husband’s bike.
But despite these occasional rips into the typecasted fabric, Kaif’s stardom continued to be characterised, and pumped by her stunning appearance, her love-life and her off-screen people skills. “The minute between cut and action, you don’t need to use your brain”, Kaif said in a 2015 GQ interview, “but after the shot is done, it’s all about people management. It’s the only way to make it in an industry that is so haphazard and highly strung.”
Dancing Queen
The other punctures became apparent in 2010, and 2012, when Kaif did ‘Sheila Ki Jawani’ and ‘Chikni Chameli’ in Tees Maar Khan and Agneepath respectively. Both are item numbers, that, at one point in Hindi cinema came within the purview of the ‘vamp’ of the film, but the lines have since been blurred with the virgin and the vamp dichotomy essentially disappearing after the Nineties. A year after Agneepath, we saw Kaif in ‘Kamli’ in Dhoom 3, where, for five minutes, she does an acrobatic dance to prove she would be irresistible, and reduce us to a puddle of helpless ogling. She does.