Title: Madonna's 'next
best thing' is yoga
Author: Ramesh Chandran
Publication: The Sunday
Times of India
Date: March 5, 2000
Often described as 'pop's
former boy toy', Madonna, having left behind her sexcapades, scandals and
headline-grabbing wild times in her latest cinematic avatar, is now tackling
the role of of an adoring mother and mature woman in love in her new movie,
The Next Best thing, released here this week, in which she enacts the role
of a yoga instructor.
The pop icon, who popularised
mehndi, Indian customised jewellery, embraced "Eastern philosophy" and
appeared in a splashy photo-spread in which she devised new and befuddling
ways of wearing a sari in Rolling Stone magazine has found a new passion
Ashtanga yoga.
At 41, her "taut and
supple" body is seen by entertainment weeklies as testimony that this rigorous
form of yoga has been good for her. It has catalogued her restless "shape-shifting"
across the pop-cultural landscape over the past 17 years. Having now taken
to yoga "seriously", Madonna is described by her friends as radiating "serene
contentment". People magazine has quoted Rosie O' Donnell, a close friend,
as saying, "She's so much more calmer, so much more centred than she used
to be."
For her role in The Next
Rest Thing, she reportedly went through the demanding schedule that Ashtanga
yoga demands, and in one scene in the film, her real-life yoga instructor
apparently appears as one of her students. The movie credits Mysore-based
K. Pattabhi Joi, among others, for offering guidance, and her co-workers
claim Madonna's latest Indian passion is not another fleeting diversion
that bored celebrities often indulged in.
While she was pregnant,
she had seriously pursued Hatha yoga. The Next Best Thing, co-starting
Rupert Everett, opened here to mixed reviews. Madonna, who has managed
unprecedented success as a singer with world-wide sales, has never quite
managed to make an impact in Hollywood despite several determined efforts
and a promising start in Desperately, Seeking Susan. Everett plays her
droll gay confidant in this romantic comedy. which has drawn comparisons
with another film starring Julia Roberts and Everett, My Best Friend's
Wedding. In this film, after a night of carnality with the yoga instructor,
she discovers she is pregnant.
The Madonna character
persuades her friend, despite his sexual preferences, to raise the child,
parent-style. Trouble emerges soon enough in the form of an investment
banker (Benjamin Bratt) with whom the yoga instructor fails in love and
seeks sole custody of the child. Directed by John Schlesinger (Midnight
Cowboy, Marathon Man), the film raises some powerful ideas. What rights
does a gay father have against the right of the heterosexual couple-but
it fails to address them squarely.
Originally, the Madonna
character was meant to be a swimming instructor, but it was changed to
that of a yoga instructor since she "loved yoga" and disliked spending
hours in chlorine. The movie may not make an impact at the box office but
inevitably. Madonna continues to make the headlines.
The movie's soundtrack
includes her remake of of Don McLean's American Pie-currently a top 40
hit on the Billboard-100 chart-and in a typically raunchy version, she
flashes her bottom. Madonna's 1999 single, Beautiful Stranger, which she
co-wrote for the bit film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, won for
her the best song written for a motion picture, television or other visual
medium at last month's Grammy Awards. And for someone who has managed to
figure in the "worst dressed" lists, Madonna made a remarkable transformation
this Year when fashion magazine W ranked her No 3, in the company of the
U.S.'s most coveted party guests Bill and Melinda Gates. and Britain's
Prince William.
She is now repeatedly
quoted in her interviews as saying she has found contentment-in her daughter
Leon, her new love interest, British director Guy Ritchie, and in her daily
yoga regimen.
