Raashii Khanna on Arundhati Roy's memoir: 'Love and hurt can coexist'
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Actress Raashii Khanna has opened up about the emotional complexities of mother-daughter relationships, drawing on her reading of Arundhati Roy's memoir 'Mother Mary Comes to Me'. In an Instagram post on 3 November, Khanna praised Roy's unflinching account of her bond with her mother, Mary Roy, calling it an extraordinary portrait of contradictions — love and hurt, admiration and pain — residing within the same relationship.
What Caught Raashii Khanna's Attention
Khanna's post centred on how Arundhati Roy portrays her mother as a towering feminist figure who challenged societal norms and forged her own identity — yet whose fierce, uncontained personality also left emotional wounds on those closest to her. The actress highlighted that Roy's memoir neither glosses over Mary Roy's achievements nor conceals the personal damage their relationship entailed.
'There is something extraordinary about 'Mother Mary Comes to Me': the way Arundhati Roy holds the contradictions of a woman who could be both a force of nature and a source of deep hurt,' Khanna wrote in her post.
Key Themes the Actress Highlighted
Khanna elaborated at length on what she described as the memoir's greatest achievement — its willingness to make room for a woman to be simultaneously a revolutionary and a deeply flawed mother. She noted that Roy's account explores what it means to love someone who has caused pain, to acknowledge their humanity without dismissing one's own hurt.
'Mary Roy was a formidable feminist who challenged the world and carved out a place for herself, yet the same fierce, uncontained spirit could wound those closest to her. Arundhati writes of her with a startling honesty that neither diminishes her mother's achievements nor conceals the wreckage left behind. What emerges is an inheritance of extraordinary complexity: a daughter shaped by the very person she has struggled to understand, carrying both her mother's fire and the scars of its burning,' Khanna quoted in her post.
She further shared Roy's observation that 'tenderness and cruelty can inhabit the same person,' framing the memoir as a meditation on motherhood, memory, rage, and resilience.
The Full Passage Raashii Shared
Khanna's Instagram post also included Roy's reflection that the memoir 'asks what it means to love someone who has hurt you, to recognise their humanity without denying your own pain.' She called it 'a portrait of motherhood, memory, rage and resilience, and of how the private lives behind public triumphs are rarely as simple as the world imagines.' Along with her written thoughts, Khanna shared a series of photographs of herself reading the book.
What's Next for Raashii Khanna
On the professional front, Khanna will next appear in the upcoming film 'Mauja Hi Mauja', which also stars Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan. The film is among the more anticipated releases featuring the actress, who has steadily expanded her presence in Hindi cinema. Her literary engagement on social media, meanwhile, has drawn attention for its depth and sincerity — a contrast to more routine promotional content from film personalities.