Film Impressions

NOSTALGIA: Bhumika (1977)

A CAREER-DEFINING ROLE

A girl who grows up too soon, a mother who doesn’t know how to balance her own needs with that of her daughter’s. A woman in search of her true identity. An actress whose reel life often spills over into her real self, creating tempestuous situations she can barely cope with. Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika, based on the book Sangtye Aika, by Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar, traces these dilemma’s in the life of the poor village girl Usha as she rises to stardom and drifts from one traumatic relationship to the next, in her constant quest for fulfillment.

Smita Patil was just 22 when she essayed this role of a lifetime. It fetched her a National Award and tremendous critical acclaim.

The Women of Bhumika: Please wait for the slideshow to load, and navigate using the 'next' and 'previous' links.

SLIDESHOW TEXT BY VIKRAM PHUKAN. These images are screengrabs from the official release DVD. No copyright infringement intended.

NOSTALGIA: Umbartha (1982)

Smita Patil’s closest friend Jhelum Paranjape recalls how when the actress immersed herself in a role, she often ‘became’ the character. Given Smita’s affinity towards women’s issues and concern for their disadvantaged status in contemporary society, the part of Sulabha Mahajan in Jabbar Patel’s Umbartha (The Threshold) was especially close to her heart. More so, because the character of the intense and fiery social worker adapted to screen by noted playwright Vijay Tendulkar from Shanta Nisal’s Marathi novel Beghar (Homeless), seemed so much like her mother, Vidya Patil, a dedicated social worker. While playing Sulabha, Smita married her mother’s poise (evident in her precise body language), with her own passion and vulnerability. It may not have fetched her the National Awards Bhumika and Chakra did, but won enough acclaim to warrant a special retrospective of her films in France and earned her recognition as a feminist icon.

NOSTALGIA: The Legacy of Navketan Films

In 1949, Dev Anand and elder brother Chetan Anand launched their banner Navketan Films and ushered in an exciting era that not just redefined the way Hindi movies were made, but also launched several talented artists and technicians. It was under the Navketan roof that directors Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla and Vijay Anand, music directors S D Burman and R D Burman, cinematographer Fali Mistry and V Ratra did some of their best work. Together they produced films that continue to keep audiences riveted, decades after they were made.

BAAZI (1951): Navketan’s second production marked the directorial debut of Dev Anand’s friend, Guru Dutt. An urban crime caper featuring Anand, Geeta Bali and Kalpana Karthik, Baazi was characterised by Dutt’s attention to detail, evinced in every aspect of the film—the stark cinematography, sharp editing and a unique approach to song picturisation as seen in the Geeta Dutt number, “Tadbir se bigdi hui taqdeer”.

with Geeta Bali in Baazi

NOSTALGIA: Dev Anand's Heroines

A quintessential ladies man, Dev Anand romanced the most gorgeous screen goddesses of the black & white era before launching many a stunning face including Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim and Tabu. His magnetism and effervescence combined with the charm of talents like Vyjayantimala, Sadhana and Asha Parekh created several magical memories in films like Asli Naqli, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai and Jewel Thief. We walk down memory lane to list the women who did some of their best work in the company of the evergreen Dev Anand.

SURAIYA: Legend has it that Dev Anand was so enamoured by his Jeet co-star Suraiya, he proposed marriage on the film’s set and even gave her an expensive diamond ring. Suraiya’s grandmother tossed the ring into the Arabian Sea and a few years later, Anand tied the knot with co-star Kalpana Karthik while his erstwhile ladylove never married! The duo starred in a handful of films like Vidya, Shayar and their most famous screen collaboration, Afsar, before being forced to part ways. But Suraiya’s presence left a deep impact on Anand’s career as he modelled himself after her favourite Hollywood star, Gregory Peck—imitating his distinctive hairdo and his casually stylish loose-limbed mannerisms.

NOSTALGIA: Dev Anand's Best Roles

That mischievous, sparkling smile, those arms flapping carelessly in the air, neatly puffed hair and an air of studied casualness. These qualities defined Dev Anand’s acting style from the early days. While Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor bore the mantle of seriousness, Anand oscillated between characters from the murkier underbelly of urban India and suave and sophisticated gentlemen. Anand’s best work invariably saw him portraying heroes with shades of grey who somehow redeem themselves in the end.

BAAZI (1951): It was with Guru Dutt’s Baazi that Dev Anand adopted the stylised manner of acting and distinctive dialogue delivery that would define his screen persona over the next five decades. As Madan, a minor gambler who inadvertently gets embroiled in a murder mystery, Anand left his first indelible print on celluloid and made a place for himself among the most popular stars of his generation and then some.

King of the filmi noir—Dev Anand

NOSTALGIA: Dev Anand

A STAR IS BORN

In November 1998, I interviewed Dev Anand about his first break in Hindi cinema in 1946. Charming and genial as ever, he sat in his ornate office at Navketan in Bandra recalling his journey to Bombay and how he stood at the gate of Prabhat Films in Pune determined to find a job as an actor. It's the smile I remember the most, because he wouldn't let it fade for even a moment. There were pauses between sentences when he seemed to have gone far away—perhaps back to that momentous rainy day—before coming back to reiterating how much he enjoyed life and work. That and a notebook filled with the handwritten script of his next film...

It's been a long and eventful journey," says the 75-year-young Dev Anand of his glorious romance with the silver screen. Fifty-odd years after he first flashed his enchanting smile for the camera, the ageless superstar's eyes still sparkle as he proudly displays his latest script—neatly handwritten in a bunch of notebooks. Dev Anand is already thinking of his next big film and animatedly talks about several others in the offing. "That's what keeps me going. I never feel bogged down or depressed, simply because there's so much do. When I'm working on a film, I still put in 16 hours a day."

PHOTO ESSAY: The Women of Bhumika

Shyam Benegal's Bhumika—The Role (1977) featured Smita Patil in arguably her greatest role, for which she won her first National Award. One of Benegal's masterpieces, Bhumika was based on the autobiography of Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar. Amol Palekar, Anant Nag and Sulabha Deshpande play significant supporting parts, as well as a roster of fine women performers who are the subject of this slideshow.

Please wait for the slideshow to load, and navigate using the 'next' and 'previous' links.

These images are screengrabs from the official release DVD. No copyright infringement intended.

PHOTO ESSAY: The Women of Junoon

Sanjana Kapoor has recently announced her departure from Prithvi Theatre, and the setting up of Junoon, an organisation will take plays from around the country to smaller towns. Here is a look at a film in which she made her first appearance—Shyam Benegal's cult classic, the similarly named Junoon, in which a host of women had strong performing parts. This continues our restrospective on The Women of Benegal. Junoon, based on Ruskin Bond's novella, A Flight of Pigeons, and is amongst the few films that dealt with the 1857 mutiny, a list which includes Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Ketan's Mehta's Mangal Pandey—The Rising.

Please wait for the slideshow to load, and navigate using the 'next' and 'previous' links.

These images are screengrabs from the official release DVD. No copyright infringement intended.

ESSAY: Why Helen is my Idol

Our guest contributor, Canadian drag queen Muffy St Bernard writes about the Helen who’s her idol. The article originally appeared in Bombay Dost magazine.

I DON’T know who Helen is. I have only seen a few of her films. I've never read Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb. I don't follow gossip columns here in Canada or abroad. I couldn't see her documentary before this article was due, and even if I could have, I don't think I would have wanted to because I hate doing research. But I don't need any of that information to explain why Helen is one of my idols.

Muffy St Bernard appears courtesy of DMent. Outfit is by Lydia Bellenie of Delirium Clothing, based on the one worn by Helen during the "Baithe hain kya" number in Navketan’s Jewel Thief (1967). Hair by Melissa Baumunk  of Brown Salon  (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada). Photography by Jenn Wilson

NOSTALGIA: Gautam Rajadhyaksha

HIS PICTURES TELL THEIR OWN STORY

In memory of ace photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha who passed away on the 13th of September, we reproduce an interview from 2004 (featured on Rediff) when he complete 25 years of his photographic career and looked back on the journey and the glamorous and colourful people he captured in his lens along the way...

“Every person has his character written on his face,” says ace lens man Gautam Rajadhyaksha. If that is true, then what you read on the face of the man who has made the most beautiful faces of the silver screen look even more ravishing, is that he is simple, honest and nice. He may have spent the last 25 years making a living off glamour photography, but behind the glitter of the diffused portraits that have become his signature style, is a man who has his head and heart firmly in place.

He attributes it to his solid middle-class upbringing.