Tag: Sharmila Tagore

Bengali Flavour At Bollywood Banquet

By Kunal Bose

The Bombay film industry among the largest in the world has from its beginning been enriched by participation of the country’s best in the trade, from story to script-writing to direction to music to acting. It is only natural that Bengal where creativity gets precedence over wealth generation will have historically a major presence in films made in Bombay, since renamed Mumbai.

So when silent films were made and then through the decades of evolvement to the present times, geniuses and also brave hearts of the kind of Himanshu Rai to Devika Rani (they were a married couple), to Nitin Bose to Bimal Roy to Mukherjee brothers to Ashok Kumar brothers to Sachin Dev Burman to Hemanta Mukherjee to Salil Chowdhury made a mark in the industry in western India, which in course of time gave itself the moniker Bollywood.

If you leave the distinguished Ashok Kumar and Kishor Kumar and in recent times the immensely talented and versatile Mithun Chakraborty, recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Bengali male actors have been found shy in trying out their luck in Bollywood. Having some hold on the Bengali screen, they don’t want to navigate the uncharted waters of Bollywood for fear of losing of what they have achieved in their home state.

Good looking but not so good in acting Biswajit had a few remarkable successes such as Bees Saal Baad and Kohraa, where he had the good fortune of teaming up with Waheeda Rehman. But as it happens with many in the industry he could not hold on to the success for long. Bollywood or for that matter other film centres across the world are replete with instances of promising careers of both male and female actors going down the tubes for which they themselves have to blame.

Legendary Uttam Kumar, whom Satyajit Ray considered a “star in the true Hollywood sense” and an “instinctive actor” postponed it far too long before he made his debut in Bollywood with a forgettable Chhoti Si Mulaqat. The film bombed leaving Uttam Kumar in financial and mental despair. Perhaps, he would have done better had he accepted the Raj Kapoor offer to act in his film. Raj Kapoor had other major disappointments with two other Bengalis: He could not prevail upon Suchitra Sen to act in his film and then nothing would have made him happier if Ray would be ready to make a film under the RK banner.

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In contrast to the verily indifferent presence of Bengali male actors in Bollywood films, their female counterparts from Suchitra Sen (Devdas, Andhi, Mamta, Bombai Ka Babu and Musafir) to Sharmila Tagore (An Evening in Paris, Anupama, Aradhana, Amar Prem), to Rakhee Gulzar (Jeevan Mrityu, Lal Patthar, Reshma Aur Shera, Sharmeelee) to Moushumi Chatterjee (Zindagi, Aag hi Aag, Agnee, Piku) had had a commanding screen presence over as long as they were doing their work.

Among them all, Suchitra Sen will always remain an enigma, for she would jealously guard her privacy. Suchitra conquered the hearts of millions, especially when she was paired with Uttam Kumar even though she never had much time for film journalists. When she was still in demand, Suchitra in search of inner peace quit acting and became a recluse much to the disappointment of her legions of fans.

Her withdrawal reminded one of German actress Marlene Dietrich, who became increasingly reclusive in her final years, both physically and emotionally. Didn’t iconic Swedish actress Greta Garbo seek a kind of oblivion once she settled down in a New York apartment on retirement from acting? She wrote in a letter: “I am almost always alone. I would often talk to myself.” Suchitra Sen was never lonely in that sense. She had for company her daughter Munmun and two granddaughters.

Fortunately for cine lovers, the three other Bengali actresses – Sharmila, Rakhee and Moushumi – are still engaged in acting in films and people are saluting them for their efforts defying age. Sharmila’s return to the Bengali screen with the just released Puratawn (ancient in English) which deals with mother-daughter relationship, family challenges of adjustment in the face of changing values and problems of ageing, including forgetfulness. Sharmila who plays the role of Mrs Sen the mother has always been as candid as one cane be where she would be unsparing of herself.

This streak of her character was once again in evidence when she told The Telegraph: “Normally, I don’t like myself. I am very critical of myself. I keep finding out faults and saying I could have done better. But in Puratawn, I felt I did okay… I think I have done a good job and convincing job.” Incidentally, she recently had an occasion to see Nayak and “I loved myself there as well.”

Alas, we may not once again see Sharmila doing any more films because of the age factor and heavy demands that film shooting makes on actors. The other day, Sharmila made admission that Puratawn was her swan song in film acting. “You need to be physically fit to shoot a film, and I’m not sure my health will permit that anymore.” Sad that is. But she is leaving behind a rich oeuvre, with the maiden film being Apur Sansar by Satyajit Ray. Sharmila is one actor who with equal ease essayed a role in an art film as in a commercial cinema.

Sharmila Tagore – The Graceful Rebel

Sharmila Tagore – The Graceful Rebel

By Mahendra Ved

A lady soon to celebrate her 80th birthday held forth for two hours, without a pause and a sip of water, as witnessed at a recent public reception, surprising all. And if, in her 67th year of work, one of the longest runs in Indian cinema, she spoke with erudition, without being critical of others, she commands respect.

Sharmila Tagore remains in the limelight, surrounded by a family of stars, with Tagore pedigree and royalty to match. Imagine her modelling alongside daughter-in-law Kareena Kapoor Khan, at least 35 years her junior. She remains in the public eye, selectively, and elegantly.

Along with Vyjayanthimala (90) and Waheeda Rehman (86), she is the last of the heroines who have straddled the last century’s second half, moving from black & white to colour, from matinee shows to single and multi-screens and from television to OTT series. It is difficult to club her with these two seniors and contemporaries like Mala Sinha and Asha Parekh as a ‘yesteryear’ actress. For, she has a movie in the pipeline ready to be released next year.

Granted, she was ahead of her times in public persona, billed as a ‘sex symbol’, and for her choice of roles. But is she a ‘quiet rebel’ as hosts of the show sought to project? “It feels nice. But no rebellion. I did what I did because I wanted to and felt it was necessary.” Period.

Of myriad things ignoring the advice of many, she played an old woman/mother in Aradhana when only 25. Her role was etched well, but appearance does matter to the discerning. Critics have applauded the mother’s performance but found the appearance not convincing enough. Like Alia Bhatt as ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’. She played a prostitute in Mausam, years before Alia and Kareena. Her swearing that shocked many carried the day.

Her most significant contribution when it comes to appearance is staying slim, her age apart, after marriage and as the mother of three. After her first pregnancy, one recalls late Bollywood film gossip queen Devyani Chaubal’s writing that at parties, every eye was glued to Sharmila’s waist more than her face.

She must have excited generations of men. A young army officer who went to war in 1971, recording the harsh life he then lived, wrote that the only ‘soft’ possession he had was Sharmila’s photo on the transistor he was gifted. It kept him going amidst blood and the booming of guns.

She began when just 13. She was fortunate to be discovered by Satyajit Ray, already a big name after Pather Pachali. She played ‘Devi’ and says it remains her best film. Ray, “Manik Da”, remains her idol. She did more movies with him even as she pranced around in a starkly different cinema with the likes of Shammi Kapoor.

Although many others from Bengal carved a niche for themselves in Bollywood, Sharmila remains the most successful. And she didn’t transit; she kept working in Bengali cinema, even as she paraded in a bikini in Bollywood. The latter bit was controversial, but hugely popular. People forget that she was not the first to don a bikini. Nalini Jaywant did it in Sangram (1950) and Nutan wore a swimsuit in Dilli Ka Thug (1958).

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The story has it that Sharmila was to marry the Nawab of Pataudi, and the game of cricket, Mansoor Ali Khan. The final say was with the Nawab Begum who was flying to then-Bombay. A nervous Sharmila asked her staff to remove overnight all the posters of An Evening in Paris that advertised her in a bikini.

Her marriage linked two worlds of glamour – cinema and cricket. Some more such alliances followed in later years. But it also meant conversion. She embraced Islam. The conservatives felt that this was an ‘insult’ to the Tagore family legacy. She joined the other interfaith couple, Nargis and Sunil Dutt. High profile and respected, the quartet has in a sense defined India’s secular ethos.

For an A-lister in an era that required the heroine to emote heavily to make the necessary impact, Sharmila rarely screamed or raised her pitch to show her anger and frustration. Her weeping was but a few drops of tears on her dimpled cheeks. No bawling and hiding her face. A bit too sophisticated, some said then. But it would gel with today’s trend of emoting.

Beyond Satyajit Ray, she was the favourite of not just Shakti Samanta who launched her in Bollywood, but also those who gave a more meaningful cinema like Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Gulzar.

In her days of running around the tree, she walked and swayed daintily, pursued by prancing heroes. She popularized the curved hair strand falling on the side face along with the bird-nest hairdo. Her grace and charm on the screen have been an inspiration to many a present-day star like Priyanka Chopra, as acknowledged by them.

A ‘rebel’ or not, Sharmila remains bold in public. In a recent interview, she said that she refused when her husband, Tiger Pataudi, asked her to go into the kitchen thrice a day: ‘He started cooking himself’.

To complete her CV, Tagore is a recipient of two National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2013, the government honoured her with Padma Bhushan for her contributions to Indian culture through performing arts.

She also served as the chairperson, one of the longest tenures, of the Central Board of Film Certification from October 2004 to March 2011. During that period, despite her past ‘bikini’ persona, she would caution against nudity and vulgarity in cinema.

Call it lucky, bold or thoughtful, her decisions came forth at the right time. Her schooling suffered when she began working. She was regarded as a bad influence on her classmates. Her father advised her to commit herself to a film career.

She straddled Bollywood and Kollywood with ease, contributing to box-office hits in the former and carving a niche of her own in the latter by working in films of Ray and others. Arguably, no other actor, despite being a woman and a family person, has retained the top slot for so long.

Looking back at her motherhood journey, she said, “When I had Saif, I was very busy. I was working two shifts a day and for the first six years of his life, I was absent. I went to the parent-teachers meeting and attended his plays but I don’t think I was a full-time mom. My husband was there, but I wasn’t. Then when I became a mother, I became an overzealous mother. I wanted to feed him, bathe him and everything. That was the other side of the pendulum. I made a few mistakes, honestly.”

Very hectic, life has not exactly been a roller-coaster. She revealed last year that she was diagnosed with cancer. This and other recent admissions and revelations, perhaps, indicate that she may soon be gracefully slipping into her well-earned “phursat ke raat-din”. But one never knows how the mind of the ‘rebel’ works.

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