Film Impressions

NOSTALGIA: The Eerie Prophecy of 'Pet Pyaar Aur Paap'

A DEATH FORETOLD

After watching films day in and day out for years on end, one thinks there's little that can inspire shock or awe. But it's not true. Take, for instance, this Smita Patil film I'd missed watching for nearly 30 years. It was first released in 1984 with an adult certification—hence seeing it then was out of the question. And I may have stayed untouched by it forever but for my equally film-crazed uncle who had spent considerable time trying to source a particular Asha Bhonsle song from the film which he remembered fondly. After scouring the Lamington Road footpath and exhausting every possible source on the internet, he had all but given up, when I miraculously discovered a VCD of the film on Flipkart.

ESSAY: A Life Observed

TWENTY FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING

It would be silly to reiterate my obsession with Smita Patil, which, if anything, has only intensified with the passage of time. Yesterday was her 25^th death anniversary and still the wound refuses to heal. It’s not just a date on the calendar, but a marker for a loss that seems personal and irreparable even for someone who never met her.

Yet it’s heartening to know that I am not alone.

A few hundred people queued up outside Ravindra Natya Mandir last evening for a programme called ‘Moortimant Asmita’ which Smita’s friend and biographer Lalita Tamhane has conceived in her memory. The hall filled up in no time and people were packed in all corners, spilling into the aisles and standing against walls. Smita’s parents were present too and gracious enough to speak of their daughter, even when it was evidently painful for them to do so. Vidya Patil’s face still looks ravaged like that one tragedy literally brought her life to a standstill. “It would be impossible to cope with the loss, but for Prateik’s presence,” she said, visibly moved. “But the pain doesn’t go away for even a moment and the only heartfelt wish is that Smita's son (who she candidly recalls was wayward and difficult till not so long ago) does her proud.”

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.

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, part of our Shyam Benegal retrospective.

ESSAY: Smita And I

A MEMOIR

I can't put a finger on exactly when I fell in love with her. I must have been 10, or thereabouts. Memories only come back as random scraps, the kind I once gathered on the pages of a diary from a year gone by. Painstakingly, relentlessly, lovingly. The dates had lost their relevance, but that thick book, it's ugly brown cover adorned with the logo of a tin manufacturing company, was the sole repository of my obsession.

Manthan was based on a story written jointly by Verghese Kurien and director Shyam Benegal and was set amidst the backdrop of the White Revolution of India (Operation Flood) which started in 1970.

PEOPLE WE LIKE: Smita Patil

MY SCREEN GODDESS

To say that I have been obsessed with Smita Patil for 25 years would be an understatement. But that’s the only way to describe my love affair with an actress whose shocking death in 1986 left an inexplicable void in my life. I’ve spent the next 23 years gathering any scrap of information I can get hold of about her and watching her films over and over again to rationalise my fixation. Yet, when it comes to Smita, reason fails.