Happy Birthday Sharmila Tagore: Timeless, ethereal, incandescent forever

As a huge fan of hers, I cannot speak to Sharmila Tagore without my voice trembling in admiration. And admittedly there is much to admire about her. I know of no other actress in India with such a wide spectrum of directorial leaps, from Satyajit Ray in Apur Sansar and Devi to Shakti Samantha in An Evening In Paris, Aradhana, Amar Prem, Charitraheen and Amanush. Her co-stars range from Uttam Kumar and Rajesh Khanna to Dev Anand and Manoj Kumar. She had the hits with Rajesh Khanna. But her favourite co-star is Shashi Kapoor, although hardly any of their film together clicked.

Fashion icon in the 1960s and the only actress who looked as comfortable in a saree than she did in a bikini, Sharmila calls himself an accidental actress. As a teenager, she had so aspirations of being an actress. She actually wanted to go to Shanti Niketan. She wanted to be a dancer. Her life changed when she was introduced to Satyajit Ray. It was acting for her from then on.

Sharmila whose most successful innings came after marriage, kept telling herself she would quit after every film. She didn’t like herself in her first Hindi film Kashmir Ki Kali . She promised herself she would do one more film. So it continued. She rejected so many films: Khilona, Tere Mere Sapne, Kati Patang, Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. When she was offered Aadmi Aur Insaan by Yash Chopra she told him she was quitting. She wanted to accompany her husband super-cricketer Pataudi on his world tours.

There was always that conflict between home and career. Ultimately it all balanced out. But there was a lot of sacrifices involved. There were no mobile phones and Sharmila constantly remained anxious about the children while working. It was very important for Sharmila to get her children’s approval to continue with her career. She made her daughters appreciate her work. Every day mother and daughters would discuss her work.

During those days working women had to constantly apologize for balancing a career with home. Society didn’t approve of women who went out to work leaving their children behind. Neither of Sharmila’s daughters resented my work. Now, when her daughter-in-law Kareena goes out to work, Saif does the babysitting.

Looking back Sharmila whose best Hindi films came after marriage, is grateful that everything went smoothly in her life. Her children grew up to be self-sufficient. When her son Saif came into films he had no family backing. He was thrown out of Rahul Rawail’s film Bekhudi in which Kajol was launched. Sharmila rang up Rahul Rawail to request him to take Saif back. But it didn’t happen. Eventually, Yash Chopra launched Saif in Parampara.

No other Bollywood actress apart from Sharmila has had such spectacular innings after marriage. All her most successful films in Hindi— Aradhana, Amar Prem, Daag, Mausam, Chupke Chupke – came after marriage.

Says Sharmila, “I guess it was the right choice of films and director. Ultimately it’s the films that work. I think it is believed that a certain section of the audience doesn’t like to see an actress when she’s married. But I feel if you give them a good story and a good film they cannot ignore you. I did very powerful films like Aradhana, Amar Prem, Mausam, Grihapravesh and Dooriyaan…I guess things just worked out for me. I wasn’t really concerned with whether my films were successful or not.I just wanted to work. I don’t think I was a victim of stardom. I never aspired to be only a star. I wasn’t averse to taking risks in my career. If I read a subject and liked it, I’d do it for a token fee.Basu Bhattacharya or Tapan Sinha hardly paid us. But I loved working with him. One hardly worked with Satyajit Ray for money.”

From her ravishing repertoire, Sharmila especially likes Asit Sen’s Safar and Bhimsain’s Dooriyaan because she played proper professionals in them. She also likes Anupama, Safar, Amar Prem, Talaash, Aradhana…Ray’s Apur Sansar and Devi were her career milestones.

During the pandemic she got an opportunity to watch all her films one by one chronologically. And she liked herself in most, though she admits to being distracted at times .There was an incident during Dulal Guha’s Milan Ki Raat(co-starring Sanjay Khan) in which Sharmila had to fall at the bedside and weep.She just couldn’t stop laughing. Ultimately the director okayed a take where she was supposedly crying but was actually giggling

Sharmila has never isolated herself from the real world.She always wanted a normal life.She wanted to meet people from all walks of life even when she was working on the sets .Today she is hardly seen in films. But as she says, there is much more to life than movies.At the moment she is enjoying her role as a grandmother the most.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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