Meena Iyer (DNA; November 21, 2017)

Sarika and Kamal Haasan’s daughters, Shruti and Akshara, recently lost their maternal grandmother, Kamal Thakur. The octogenarian, who was living in suburban Mumbai for decades, took ill and was bedridden for a while. Neighbours said she had a lonely death and few visitors in her last days.

It’s sad but true that the visitors didn’t include her estranged daughter Sarika or her now-famous granddaughters, Shruti and Akshara. It so happens that Kamal and her daughter Sarika split when the latter walked out of her mother’s home back in the early ’80s because of irreconcilable differences.

In the three-and-a-half decades gone by, several family friends tried to get the mother and daughter to patch up. However, that never happened. Sarika moved to Chennai around 1985. There, she met Kamal Haasan, married him, and had two daughters. Since Sarika was not in touch with her mother, her young daughters, too, didn’t get a chance to know their maternal grandmom.

About a fortnight ago, Kamal, who had age-related issues, passed away. Her last rites have already been held. It is now being suggested that her suburban flat will be given to her only child, Sarika. Incidentally, Sarika’s parents split up when she was very young. The actress is in touch with her father. He was last spotted publicly with Akshara and Sarika at the special screening of the former’s debut film Shamitabh in Mumbai in 2015.