Underclasses and the Actor
Palash Biswas
(c/o Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata-
700110, India. Phone: 033-25659551- R)
The news fills my heart with joy as we the Indians
concerned with underclasses do love her as she is an
activist who fights for the underclasses, persecuted
by the ruling classes of this subcontinent.
Yes,Versatile actress and noted social activist
Shabana Azmi received the International Gandhi Peace
Prize in London for her exemplary work for
underprivileged women, especially in the slums of
Mumbai through her movement 'Nivara Hakk'. The
actor's struggle for slum dwellers has now resulted in
the construction of 30,000 homes under a tripartite
agreement among the charity, a private builder and the
Maharashtra government.
Actor and social activist Vanessa Redgrave, who
bestowed on Shabana the prestigious award, said
Shabana was a special person and the world desperately
needs people like her.
The Gandhi Foundation, presided over by Gandhi
director Sir Richard Attenborough, will celebrate the
140th anniversary of the Mahatma's birth in 2009.
She is the first Indian to be honoured with this
award.She was given the award for her struggle
adopting Gandhian means, to ensure the rehabilitation
of displaced slum dwellers in Mumbai at a time when
India is rediscovering the voice and ways of the
Father of the Nation. "We need to look at the model of
development that we are following. It cannot progress
at the cost of many, benefiting only a few," said
Azmi.
It's in real life, not the movies, where SHABANA AZMI
plays her biggest part—as a crusader against
injustice. When I saw her in Shyam Benegal`s film
`Ankur', we knew her just as the highprofile daughter
of Kaifi and shaukat Azmi. Since then she has
identified with all the people`s movement in India.
There may be many more great actresses in the history
of Indian cinema, but the role she plays out of reel
life may not be compared with others. She along with
Smita Patil deglamourized the traditional female lead
on screen and upheld the identity of dalit woman in
general.Her passion is incontrovertible. Her ego can
easily tend toward excessive. Her talent keeps her
famous, and her pulchritude made her that way. In
Bollywood, she tired of formulaic fare and is one of
the few marquee actresses willing to risk reputation
to take adventurous roles in experimental films. Her
portrayal of a lonely woman who falls in love with her
sister-in-law in Deepa Mehta's 1998 film Fire sparked
threats of a ban by censors and violent protests by
fundamentalists enraged at the depiction of lesbianism
in middle-class India.
We saw her with others coming to Meerut by foot from
New delhi in protest of Maliyana massacres in the
later part of eighties. At that time , I was in
Meerut. I may not forget the occassion as it was the
last meeting with Shankar Guha Niyogi, the murdered
leader of Chhattishgarh Mukti Morcha.Since then, we
have seen her active everywhere whenever human and
civil rights are violeted.Azmi's activism has angered
both Hindu and Muslim radicals as well as a variety of
vested interests. But she doesn't care. "I am a
daughter, a wife, a mother, a woman, an actress, an
Indian and a Muslim," she says. "Each of those
identities is important to me." And she doesn't intend
to let anyone forget it.
The actor who was in UK to accept the award,
questioned the use of the veil by women in Islam, in a
country where the veil has attracted a lot of
attention in the recent weeks.The veil is debated upon
as a symbol of the separateness and ghettoisation of
the Muslim community.
Shabana Azmi became the first Indian recipient of the
International Gandhi Peace Prize in the House of
Commons, clearly a mark of the increasing recognition
Indians are getting on the international stage. She is
humbled by the honour whose previous recipients
include the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
among others.''It is a great honour that somehow my
name can be linked to Mahatma Gandhi,'' she added.
Speaking on non-violence, the actor said, ''Violence
should be discarded not just on high moral ground but
on the reality that it does not work. It only spirals
downwards. The greatest lesson from the father of the
nation is that he was capable of standing up against
an adversary, while recognising his rights.''
Azmi, who was described by no less than a person
Satyajit Ray, as the finest dramatic actress of India,
told PTI "I am honoured at being chosen for such an
outstanding award, whose previous recipients included
the Dalai Lama."She said she was happy that her
involvement for rehabilitation of slum dwellers had
borne fruit. At least 13,000 slum dwellers have been
rehabilitated owing to her effort.
She has unequivocally condemned and fought against
religious fundamentalism, on hundreds of occasions
from different platforms. She has never lagged behind
in any endeavour to normalise matters, whenever
communal amity and peace is held to ransom by
anti-social elements. Shabana Azmi is always at the
forefront in fight for a just cause whether it is for
the cause of slum dwellers of Mumbai or for
alleviation of those suffering from AIDS.
As an actress, may be Shabana is past her prime. But
as a champion of progressive ideas, national
integrity, peace and harmony she has many more miles
to traverse. We wish her a long life so that she keeps
on serving the society with the ardour, so inherently
characteristic of her.
Azmi has starred in some of the greatest Indian films
like Ankur, Mandi, Arth, Khandar, Paar, Sparsh,
Godmother and Tehzeeb.
Azmi is already the recipient of the National Award
for Best Actress five times, which includes receiving
the coveted gong thrice in a row from 1983-85 for her
roles in the films Arth, Khandar and Paar. Her other
achievements include the Filmfare Award for Best
Actress three times and the Filmfare Life Time
Achievement Award.
She has also received the prestigious Crystal Award at
the World Economic Forum - Davos, 2006 for her
contributions in the field of culture.
But the measure of Shabana Azmi's humanity is none of
those things. It is her willingness to say, simply,
what others are frightened of saying. "The trouble,"
says Azmi, "is that I can never keep quiet." That
volubility has indeed caused her problems, but it's
also made the 51-year-old Indian actress an outspoken
secular hero espousing tolerance in a state riven by
religious conflict.
It should be very clear that it's not her movie roles
that have made her a hero for modern India. She has
consistently—and loudly—railed against real-world
injustice. Early in her career, she took up the cause
of slum dwellers in Bombay—where she lives—who had
been ruthlessly evicted by municipal authorities.
Since 1993, appalled by the then bloody riots between
Muslims and Hindus, Azmi, a Muslim, has become a
forceful critic of communalism and a tireless crusader
to end religious extremism.
Azmi does not just fight for her co-religionists. In
fact, her greatest battle has been against
fundamentalist Islamic leaders. Post-Sept. 11, Azmi
was among the first in the country to publicly
criticize militant Islam. When the imam of Jama
Masjid, India's largest mosque, said Indian Muslims
should join the jihad in Afghanistan, Azmi urged him
to go—alone. Her outburst encouraged other Muslim
moderates to step forward and counsel tolerance.
Shabana Azmi is the resurgent face of feminism of
modern India. It is a different matter that she is
equally acclaimed for her brilliance on the celluloid.
Her social activism and the courage to call a spade a
spade, has made her a cut above the rest, of the usual
lot of Bollywood stars. Shabana's striking countenance
that fits into a vast spectrum of roles; coupled with
her unmatched prowess, to emote and empathise with
versatile characters, has made her hold sway on a
genre of cinema for three decades. She is the pioneer
of parallel movement in the Indian cinema and is the
undisputed monarch of her territory. It is highly
unlikely that times shall find her an heir, to carry
forward her prolific legacy.
Shabana is quoted by Hindu, "What worries me is that
so many women are coming into television as directors
and writers and still there is no change. It's because
they are coming with a different agenda, propelled not
by women's empowerment but by market forces."
A part of the article published by Hindu as follows:
`BEING AN actress, you would think, would be a
self-absorbing thing, leaving little time to dwell on
things outside yourself. That too if you are an
actress who has set such standards of performance that
no treatise on Indian cinema would be complete without
a reference to you. But not so for Shabana Azmi.
Parliamentarian, goodwill ambassador to the UNFPA and
one of the most vocal and visible faces of activism in
India, Shabana Azmi's walk from actress nonpareil to
activist began more than a decade ago when she joined
hands with film-maker, Anand Patwardhan, to raise her
voice on behalf of the slum dwellers, who in cities
like Mumbai constitute over 70 per cent of the
population and yet have no rights as citizens. With
Nivara Haq Samiti, Shabana fought — and continues to
fight for the past 16 years. As she puts it, ``if
these people ever decide to go on strike, the cities
will come to a grinding halt.''
Since then, Shabana has championed many causes — some
of the most visible being her fight against the
suppression of creative expression and her subsequent
brush with the saffron brigade when she was to star in
Deepa Mehta's ``Water." (Her controversial role in
Mehta's earlier film, ``Fire'' had already set the
tone of that debate!)
And more recently, she became the voice of the liberal
Muslim and was in the eye of a storm when she
suggested that Imam Bukhari should be airdropped in
Afghanistan for supporting the Taliban so that he
could fight for them. The Imam's insulting rejoinder —
that too on national television — evoked a shocked
response across the country and in Parliament, but did
not deter a dignified Shabana who said that it only
went to show the Imam for what he was...
Shabana Azmi. Celebrity with a cause (several,
actually). Incredibly articulate, passionately
committed, with a rare felicity with sound bytes; all
these combined with liberal dollops of politically
correct glamour. Naturally she was one of the main
draws at a recent theatre festival in Mysore. The
history books controversy was just freshly hatched,
the festival's theme was one dear to her heart — the
state of the contemporary Indian woman — and Shabana
was in full sail...
Talking to Shabana Azmi is like sailing down a river.
All you can do is flow with the current, strong, sure,
impatient if you interrupt or resist, taking you
inexorably downstream..."
Here is an interview:
On women's empowerment, Shabana has this to say:
``We can't talk about empowering women without
redefining the concept of power. To me, power is
legitimate authority rather than something that you
use against another section of society in order to
control it and be more powerful. It is about the
sharing of power.
Empowerment has to happen from within, from women
themselves. If people step in from outside saying, "We
will empower," they can do nothing. Empowerment is
facilitating, encouraging women to articulate their
needs, about which they are already very clear.
The problem with the empowerment of women in India
is...
Women's empowerment without two things is impossible.
The first is education — and it's not just enough to
make women literate. We have to give them education
that will shape and change their outlook. Look at the
kind of education that women get today — full of
gender stereotyping and with a strong communal bias.
This is dangerous. We need to change that and educate
the woman to re-define herself and her role in
society.
The second is economic independence. Again it is not
enough for the woman to earn money, she must also have
the right to spend it. We still have working women
having to ask their mothers-in-law permission to buy a
sari. Empowerment is not just the right to earn, but
the right to spend as well...
So, what should be the first move?
First, we must educate the girl child. Secondly, women
must have access to health care. Health is on nobody's
agenda and women's health even less so. What really
pains me is that 54 years after independence, we still
haven't been able to provide safe motherhood in India
and 70 per cent of maternal deaths are entirely
preventable.
So, is the empowerment of Indian women really
happening? What about places like U.P. and Bihar?
A lot is happening. Maybe not as rapidly as we'd like
it to, but it's happening all the same. Obviously it's
going to happen unequally because of the differences
in social development between States. But that's no
reason to despair at all. The wonderful part is that
the women's movement in India has developed its own
indigenous model where the focus is on empowering
women in groups rather than individually as is the
Western focus.
The ideas that are going to revolutionise women's
movement...
Micro credit. It's shaking traditional family
structures because suddenly it is the woman who has
access to money and funding and that forces society to
look again at who she is and what she stands for...
That is why movements like SEWA are so powerful. They
empower women not just to earn money but also to
manage it themselves.
The Panchayati Raj. When women become sarpanchs, they
are being placed at the centre of group development
units and that becomes very empowering. It's
interesting to see how different the issues are for
women sarpanchs versus the male ones. The women want
access to water, to firewood and schools for their
children, whereas the men want to build community
centres — brick and mortar things.
On the regressive stereotyping of women in prime time
television serials and why they are so popular...
What worries me is that so many women are coming into
television as directors and writers and still there is
no change. It's because they are coming with a
different agenda, propelled not by women's empowerment
but by market forces.
On social change...
I truly believe that change can only occur if
society's action complements government action. It's
all very well to blame the State, but are you with the
problem or are you with the solution? I want to be
part of the solution and I'll do anything for that...
Shabana Azmi made her debut in Shayam Benegal's Ankur
(1972). The film paid her rich dividends. Ankur not
only became a harbinger of the parallel cinema, but
also fetched her the first National Award. Later she
went on to win another four – a feat unparalleled in
the annals of film industry. Eight years and fifteen
films after her debut, she showcased her greatest
award winning performance in Mahesh Bhatt's Arth
(1982). Arth brought her yet another National Award
and her first Filmfare award. It also placed her
firmly in the orbit of the galaxy of film stars. She
played a castaway wife, who had the mettle to take on
the world. An equally brilliant performance by her
illustrious co-star, the late Smita Patil, goaded
Shabana to churn out her best. The rest of the three
National Awards came from Khandar (1984), Paar (1985)
and Godmother (1999). In Doosri Dulhan (1982), she
played a prostitute to the hilt - the typical pan
chewing and curse-spewing courtesan, who tries to
seduce a millionaire out in search of a womb to father
his child.
In the eighties, she acted in a large number of
films. In her other two most popular films, like Swami
(77) and Apne Paraye (80), based upon Saratchandra
Chatterjee novels, she plays "the strong, traditional
woman" who gracefully overcomes the infirmities
associated with womanhood. Her second Filmfare award
came from Bhavana. Swami won her the third Filmfare
award for Best Actress. Masoom (1983), Khamosh (1985),
Krishna (1987), Ek Admi (1988), and Disha (1990)
moulded her image as an intelligent, responsible and
thinking actress.
In the Immaculate Conception (1992), an English
trans-cultural drama of Jamil Dehlvi, she played
Samira- a Pakistani lady opposite James Wilby. The Son
of Pink Panther directed by Blake Edwards; Rolland
Joeff's City of Joy; Nicholas Klotz's The Bengali
Night co -starred with John Hurt and Hugh Grant and
John Schlesinger's Madame Sousatzka (1988), all won
her immense International acclaim.
It stands to her credit that she can flit from art
roles to a popular jean wearing Bollywood glam girl
with ease. Her appreciable performances in Amar Akbar
Anthony (1976) and Fakira (1978) bear ample testimony
to this fact. Shabana, the adventurist came to fore,
in her foray into the controversial subject like
lesbianism, in Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996). In
Mrityudand (1997), she picturised a barren woman who
warms up to a socially inferior partner. To add
further versatility to her profile, she played a witch
in Vishal Bharadwaj's horror flick- Makdi (2002).
Lately, she figured in Khalid Mohamed's Tehzeeb and
easily overshadowed the skimpily clad co- artists.
Shabana, the actress of all seasons was included in
the august jury of International Film Festivals held
at Cairo and Montreal.
Shabana is married to an equally famous poet-lyricist
and screenwriter husband Javed Akhtar. The Government
of India honoured Shabana, a veteran of over hundred
films with Padam Shri award in 1998. She was nominated
to the Rajya Sabha, as a Member of Parliament by the
President of India, an honour bestowed upon people who
have attained excellence in their respective fields.
She also has the distinction of holding the coveted
post of United Nations Ambassador of Goodwill on
Population and Development.
palashcbiswas,
gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551
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