Yesterday was Nandita Das’s birthday. More than three decades ago, she came from Delhi and won the hearts of many. Deepa Mehta was the first to launch her in Fire and she went on to do her sequel in Earth. The parallel or the art cinema looked upon her as a replacement for Smita Patil and Jamohan Mundra signed her for Bawandar and Govind Nihalani for Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa. They were all memorable films but Nandita Das kept saying she was ill at ease with showbusiness. It is not as if she didn’t enjoy acting. She had always been an artiste- street plays, theatre, television, documentaries, she had done it all and craved for more but the mainstream cinema didn’t make her feel at home.
She continued with her pursuit, wrote screenplays, directed films, authored books, rather did everything connected to performing arts that brought her joy and matched her sense and sensibility. Nandita Das has a classic face; she is made for the camera. Das knows she is photogenic but not obsessed with it, in herself and others, Nandita Das looks for substance and stability. On her birthday if I have to pick my one favorite film of hers it would be Earth: 1947 telling the story of partition and is based on the famous book Ice Candy Man