Happy birthday to Shabana Azmi.

Happy birthday to Shabana Azmi.

The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Shabana Azmi on 18th September, 2010. She had remained an institution by herself. She had been considered to be the greatest performer in bollywood films along with Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri.

She started her journey with Shyam Benegal’s film Ankur in 1974. With her debut, the trend of parallel cinema began in bollywood. There existed a clear difference between glamour girls in bollywood and the serious actresses who graced parallel cinema. Shabana Azmi featured in both forms of films but became unparallel in parallel films. She concentrated on the inner emotions of the characters that were played. She was unparallel in the role of a step mother in Shekhar Kapoor’s film Masoom. Her performance was as brilliant as the performance of Naseer in the film. She was the step mother who initially was attached to her own blood-related daughters but later was moved by the sensitiveness of Naseer’s son Jugal Hunsraj whom she accepted at the end of the film.

In Goutam Ghosh’s film Paar, she showed the life of daily wage earner in Kolkata along with Naseeruddin Shah. The scene where Shabana Azmi swam across the Ganges near Bandha Ghat along with a pack of animals which were supposed to be reached the respective destination, body language, physical effort, expressions all get mixed into one. Goutam Ghosh himself accepted that it was the best film he had made till date.

She was as powerful as Smita Patil in the film Arth. Her husband Kulbhushan Kharbanda led an extra-marital relationship with Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi wanted to leave him for those reasons. She also played an important role in Oscar Winning Director Satyajit Ray’s film Shatranj Ki Khiladi. The other notable films which ended up being masterpieces include Khandahaar, Dharavi, Sparsh, etc.

Shabana Axmi was equally successful in commercial films. She played a prominent part in hit film Parvarish along with Vinod Khanna and Big B. Her performance in the film Amar Akbar Anthony opposite Vinod Khanna was appreciated by the commercial crowds. She gave able lips in the song “o humko tumse ho gaya hai pyar kya Karen” opposite Vinod Khanna. She even did a great job in a negative role in the film Godmother.

Her performance opposite Big B in the film Mai Azaad Hoon, in the role of a journalist requires special mention. She received national award a number of times and won it consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for Arth, Khandahar and Paar. She was even unparallel in the film Godmother and won the national award once more. She had created a benchmark which had been followed by actresses of the present era including Dimple Kapadia and Tabu. The viewers expect her to continue the high standard of work in the years to come.

Well Done Abba had been a masterpiece.

Well Done Abba had been a masterpiece.

The film Well Done Abba made by Shyam Benegal had been a masterpiece. Shyam Benegal had always remained an innovative story-teller and the films had moved the inner impulses of the viewers over the period of time. From Ankur to Manthan, from Sooraj Ka Satwaa Ghora to Welcome to Sajjanpur, his story telling had remained unblemish and no other Indian director other than Satyajit Ray could make the roads, trees, nature speak in the way Shyam Benegal had done.

He had written the story of the film himself. In this film, Armaan Ali was a driver working in Mumbai. He took a leave from his employer to find a groom. He went to Hyderabad, and the search for the groom in the native village took more than three months.

Obviously as he could not keep his word, his job was at stake. But his employer listened to the story of the driver and that was the most important turning point in the film.

Shyam Benegal had given the important role of the driver Armaan Ali to Boman Irani. Boman Irani had proved his versatility by performing in notable role in the films Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai and The Three Idiots. It was a great selection by Shyam Benegal.

The other leading artists in the film included Minissha Lamba as Muskan Ali, Sammir Dattani, Ila Arun, Sonali Kulkarni, Rajit Kapoor, Yashpal Sharma, and others. The music of the film had been composed by Shantanu Moitra.

The notable songs in the film included “pani ko taraste” by Raja Hassan, “sandesa sandesa” by Shreya Ghoshal and Rupankar, “meri bano hoshiyar” by Ila Arun and Daniel George, to name a few. Shyam Benegal’s films had never depended upon box-office success.

Critics will definitely acknowledge the powerful script and breezy story telling. Viewers should watch the film.

Big B's comments on Slumdog Millionaire are baseless.

Big B’s comments on Slumdog Millionaire are baseless.

Very recently Big B has commented that the western world had recognized the efficient work in Indian films relating to realistic subjects. They did not appreciate the quality work done in mainstream cinema where the directors and techinicians also showed their expertise in the respective fields of cinema and the films had been appreciated by the people at large as well.

The reference was made in respect of the awards and recognition given in Anil Kapoor’s film Slumdog Millionaire. The story of the film was related to the life of a slumdweller in Mumbai. He participated in a competition in Television channel where by answering questions a person could be a millionaire. There had been similar competitions in the past like Kaun banega crorepati, dus ka dum, etc. The slumdweller one huge amount of money and it changed his life. A R Rehman had been awarded golden globe award and his background music in the film had been appreciated in US.

Big B’s reference relating to Satyajit Ray’s recognition in US and Europe does not make any sense. Firstly Ray was the first intellectual director of India who could make the nature speak for itself in the film Pather Panchali. There was a scene where Apu dropped the neckless alleged to have been stolen by Durga, his sister in the film, in a pond. The ripples were shown in the pond which came together to hide the truth and the end the story relating to the stealing of the necklace.

Satyajit Ray made the audience think about the ripples and understand that each of his scenes had inner meanings beyond the characters and the dialogues. Similarly when Kanu Banerji, the father of Apu, showed the sari that he bought from the market to his wife, she showed her outburst in tears, as Durga died few days back and it was known to her father. Satyajit Ray played the theme music played by Pandit Ravi Shankar to fade away the sound of the outburst of Karuna Banerji, the mother of Durga in the film.

Satyajit Ray was a path-breaker in contemporary cinema and giants of Indian films like Shyam Benegal and Adoor Gopalakrishnan had referred the number of times they had seen Pather Panchali to learn the art of film making from the legend of legends Satyajit Ray.

Recognition of Satyajit Ray during his illustrious career in US and Europe had hardly anything to do with the poverty existing in Bengal or the realistic subject matters. The recognition was based on the level of excellence that he had reached in each and every film in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

Ray had dealt with classic literature of Tagore in films like Teen Kanya, Charulata, Ghare Baire, he had worked on crime thrillers written by himself like Sonar Kella, Joy Baba Felunath, he had worked on contemporary problems lying in Kolkata in films like Mahanagar in 1965, and Pratidwandi in the early 70s, he had also worked on the fading of rule of feudal lords (zamindari) during colonial rule in films like Jalsaghar.

Ray had been an institution by himself in inventing new grammer of story-telling, working outside the studio, using non-professional actors, experimenting with eastern and western classical music, believing in reflections, etc. Whenever discussions are made in respect of realistic films or art films in India and abroad, it is better if Satyajit Ray’s name is not used for comparison, because he was unparallel, uncomparable and much ahead of his time. In that respect Big B’s comments are absolutely baseless.

If India had given birth to one novel prize winning poet like Rabindranath Tagore, India had given birth only one oscar winning director like Satyajit Ray. Legends of the contemporary period had just learned and learned from these maestros whose works had reached a level of perfection which cannot be matched.