A week ago, actor-activist, ex parliamentarian Shaban Azmi turned 70 and it is a matter of pride that 46 out of the seven-glorious -decade of her life has been devoted to cinema. Filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor once said that whenever we turn the pages of Indian cinema, Shabana Azmi will be discovered at the turning points.
Azmi reflects the changing face of the Indian woman on screen, not just the modern, working woman but also the homemaker. In the olden days, the heroine was divided between the pious Sita and the evil Shoorpanaka, Shabana Azmi blended her characters with shades of grey to portray a more realistic ardhangini to her husband who reacted according to circumstances.
Launched as a villager in Shyam Benegal’s Ankur, Shabana from the very beginning, juggled all kinds of cinema. If Ankur led to more artistic expressions like Nishant and Kanneshwar Rama, Kantilal Rathod’s Parinay paved a path for the middle of road cinema like Kadambari and more. Shashi Kapoor was Azmi’s first mainstream hero in Fakira and the success of the film led to more commercial films like Amar Akbar Anthony and Parvarish.
To be continued