By Jagmohan Singh Barhok

On Her Birth Anniversary

हज़ार राहें, मुड़के देखीं
कहीं से कोई सदा न आई
बड़ी वफ़ा से, निभाई तुमने
हमारी थोड़ी सी बेवफ़ाई

Shabana Azmi, daughter of noted lyricist Kaifi Azmi and stage actress Shaukat Azmi, was born in Hyderabad in 1950. Her acting prowess can well be judged by the five National Film Awards & equal number of Filmfare Awards she was bestowed with including Padma Shree & Padma Vibhushan.

The actress performed brilliantly in both parallel & commercial cinema & has many a thought provoking film to her credit- “Ankur”, “Swami”, “Arth”, “Thodi Si Bewafaii”, “Masoom”, “Sparsh”, “Avtaar” , “Mandi”, “Shatranj Ke Khiladi” & of course “Paar”. The last film won National Film Awards in three categories in 1985- Best Actress, Best Actor & Best Feature Film in Hindi to Goutam Ghose and Swapan Sarkar. In 1986 it won Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay. I watched this movie few months back and later thought what prompted the makers to experiment with such a risk-oriented or risk prone film – sans songs, glamour or any masala. It was indeed a treat to watch. Interestingly, Shabana & Smita Patil rubbed shoulders with each other as actresses.

Sanjeev Kumar and Shabana worked in many films so did Naseeruddin Shah. The latter worked with her in “Nishant”, “Paar”,”Khandhar”, “Khamosh”,”Masoom” & “Sparsh” to mention few. Married writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar in 1984.

Shabana 18 September 1950.