Smita Patil: The Actor Who Looked For ‘Arth’ In Her ‘Bhumika’

Eighteen years back I was lucky to see live the pioneer of Urdu and Hindi theatre, Habib Tanveer’s play ‘Charandas Chor‘ by the great Habib Tanveer himself who had come to LBSNAA with his team. This play in 1975 was made into a feature film by another great, Shyam Benegal, and it gave us one of our most accomplished actresses ever, Smita Patil. Today October 17 is her birthday.

When Shyam Benegal discovered her, Smita was already an accomplished photographer and newsreader on Doordarshan. Initially she acted in only ‘Art’ movies or what was called ‘parallel cinema’. It was in this period that parallel cinema, earlier associated with regional movies, made a serious expansion into Hindi cinema as well, and gave us many new actors/actresses, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amol Palekar, Farookh Sheikh, Deepti Naval, Shabana Azmi, and Smita Patil.

Smita, during the initial years, refused roles in commercial films. In this period she won two National Film awards for best actress. The first was for Shyam Benegal’s ‘Bhumika’ starring Smita , Naseer, Amol Palekar and Anant Nag. In the film, Smita essayed the role of the well-known Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar. Interestingly, Bhumika movie was made partly in black and white ( Hansa/Smita’s past) and partly in colour ( Hansa/Smita’s present). This was to tide over financial difficulties, a major problem for parallel cinema.

Smita’s 2nd National film award for best actress was for ‘Chakra’, where she played a slum dweller. Smita, to impart realism, actually visited slums of Mumbai to prepare for the role. The film also won her the filmfare award for best actress and the best actor award for Naseeruddin Shah.

‘Arth’, ‘Mandi’, ‘Aakrosh’, ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Manthan’ and ‘Mirch Masala’ were the other movies which got her rave reviews and high critical acclaim. Commercial cinema makers continued to woo her and in turn she too relented and started taking up roles. Two such movies were ‘Namak Halaal’ and ‘Shakti’ where she acted opposite the Shahenshah, Amitabh Bachchan.

Smita’s role in ‘Shakti’ was providential. Neetu Singh was supposed to act but the movie got delayed by three years and not only Neetu had retired, Smita too had relented on her steadfast refusal to act in commercial cinema. ‘Shakti’, of course remains the one and only movie featuring both Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan, but Smita’s role was noticed as well. The song ‘Jaane kaise kab hua ikrar ho gaya’ remains one of Kishore-Lata’s top duets and presented Smita in a glamorous avatar.

Similarly, Namak Halaal’s song ‘Aaj rapat jaye to’ is one of the best ever Kishore-Asha duets. However, Smita was reportedly very upset with the song and after it was shot, she locked herself up in her room and cried for hours. It was only Amitabh, who could put her at ease. The Smita and Amitabh pair was very much appreciated in this super-hit movie. Amitabh later called her the strongest woman he ever knew who was committed to her work and to her beliefs, and was only awkward as the films she did with him were against her culture and thinking. In fact, Smita told Amitabh once that she felt odd that while she had done so many great movies, people remembered her for ‘Namak Halaal’.

She also did a small cameo in ‘Sharaabi’ and Amitabh in a recent tweet said that it was a delight to have worked with the gracious Smita and the effervescent Om Prakash ji and while they were no longer with us, their legacy lives on.

At the release of a biography on Smita Patil, Amitabh said that she had an premonition about his ‘Coolie’ accident. She rang him up at 2 am and asked him if he was fine to which he said yes and asked her why she was asking. In reply, she said that she had a bad dream about him. The next day, he had his accident. Amitabh said he was surprised to get the call from her as he had not spoke to her since ages and it was 2 am, but sensing it was important he asked the hotel receptionist to connect the call.

Interestingly, Smita Patil’s husband Raj Babbar was supposed to act in both ‘Shakti’ and ‘Namak Halaal’, but that did not happen. In ‘Shakti’, he was replaced by Amitabh Bachchan since the producers-director sensed it a once in a lifetime opportunity for a Dilip Kumar-Amitabh movie. In ‘Namak Halaal’, he was replaced by Shashi Kapoor.

Smita left us young. She moved on when only 31. However her memories will always remain with us.

Happy birthday Smita Patil.