The face that expressed a thousand emotions

Rakesh Chopra

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Smita Patil would have been 61 this year had not God plucked one of the finest flowers of Indian cinema in the prime of her life. Two weeks after giving birth to son Prateik, she died of childbirth complications on December 13, 1986, all of 31. But in merely a decade, she left a body of work that most actors are unable to leave in a lifetime.

Born in Pune into a politician’s family, Smita had dark complexion and was often mocked as ‘Kali’. In Mumbai, a Doordarshan director saw her photographs and appointed her as a Marathi newsreader. The poise with which she read the news won her many admirers, including filmstar Vinod Khanna, who would rush back from work to catch the evening bulletin.

Filmmaker Shyam Benegal chanced upon her after seeing her in an FTII diploma film and cast her in Charandas Chor, a children’s film. Nishant pitted her against the redoubtable Shabana Azmi, who recounts their love-hate relationship, saying they were good colleagues, who could never be friends.

For her convincing portrayal of Marathi actor Hansa Wadkar in Bhumika, Smita walked away with the National Award for the best actress. Amol Palekar says he is yet to see an actor in Indian cinema other than Smita, who could convey myriad emotions without uttering a word. Rediff.com included her role of the gritty Sonbai in Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala as one of the 25 greatest performances in Indian cinema. She tried her luck in commercial cinema and did that rain song “Aaj rapat jayen” with Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halal. It offended her sensibilities and made her cry.

Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t tire of recounting an incident that showed Smita was very intuitive. He was shooting for Coolie in Bengaluru when he received a call in his hotel in the dead of night, and a worried Smita said she just had a dream that something untoward had happened to him. And the next morning, he had that infamous injury on the sets. Smita visited him in hospital everyday bringing him flowers, the superstar reminisces. In Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth, Smita loves a married man and wants to settle down with him. The theme also played out in her real life as she fell in love with Raj Babbar, a married man. The family did not take kindly to this. The media also was livid as it could not stomach someone championing the cause of women on celluloid as a ‘home-breaker’ in real life. There were enough demands of troubled marriage, which the couple could not cope with.

It’s been three decades since that arresting face left us, and today as one hits YouTube for watching the “Janam janam ka saath hai tumhara hamara” number from Raj-Smita starrer Bheegi Palkein, their cackling on-screen chemistry leaves a lump in the throat. Alas, their togetherness was shortlived as their real life could not live up to the haunting Lata-Rafi melody.