Sharmila Tagore recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Film Festival Delhi, India, for her contribution to Indian cinema. It is apt that she received this award when the US was celebrating the Women’s History Month dedicated to remarkable women who have led exemplary lives.
Tagore has done that – led an exemplary life. Embracing femininity and feminism simultaneously, she has proved that one does not have to lead with a flag in hand and a crowd shouting slogans, that one can impact a whole society by setting an example.
It is not that Tagore must not have faced any obstacles, that she did not make any mistakes, but today she stands tall and firm with her convictions, her art, and her close knit family.
Tagore has proved that women do not have to lose their femininity to protest or bring in a revolution. Many have watched her distinct style of disagreement when she just expresses her disagreement in the most level tone of the rest of her conversation, with a “don’t you think?” at the end, diluting away all opposition.
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She has mastered the art of convincing without pushing hard. And that applies to everything she deals with in life: art, cinema, food, climate, or even important feminist issues like the men sharing the household responsibilities. Expressing her opinion about home being a woman’s responsibility on her daughter-in-law Kareena Kapoor’s show What Women Want, Tagore mentioned that it would be nice if there were House Husbands like Housewives to take the responsibilities of the family.
Tagore has brought the element of balance to all that she has done as a woman, work, family, social causes, and more. The same element of balance can be seen throughout her life and work. Beginning at a young age with the great filmmaker Satyajit Ray in Apur Sansar, and then Devi, Tagore has proved that she has an innate art of acting which requires a deep understanding of not just the character she is portraying but also of the whole concept of the film’s story.
The balance in her career is visible in her choices. While the regular Hindi films emphasized Tagore’s femininity, the off-beat films elicited her feminist aspect in her portrayals of characters. If she did Ray, she also did a Shakti Samantas glamorous film with song and dance. In her first stepping role in the Hindi Film Industry, her film Kashmir Ki Kali with Shakti Samanta, she did not have to show the talent that Ray had required. However, she looked extremely beautiful. Even in the film culture she was unfamiliar with, she was perfectly at ease portraying the confusion and bashfulness of a young girl poetically.
If she did a Waqt, she also did Anupama the same year, portraying a shy, introverted young daughter of an emotionally unavailable father. Her coming into her own and her rebellion at the end when she chooses to confront her father and walk away with the poet who loves her, was yet another example of perfectly underplayed emotions, an art Tagore seems to have perfected.
Balance again seems to be the key the year she acted in Sawan Ki Ghata and Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi. That same year, she shone in her role as a journalist in Ray’s Nayak. The year she did Aradhana, Talash and Yakeen, she also did Satyakam, a serious and intense film about a man of principles. Tagore portrayed the woman’s mixed and unexpressed emotions of being in love with the man who rescued her and married her, carrying the weight of obligation in her heart, raising a son born of rape and teaching him to carry forth the principles of her husband, all the while standing firm quietly. The entire film, and the scene when Tagore sat at Dharmendra’s deathbed, holding back her crying, is a reminder of Tagore’s mastery in depicting controlled emotions.
That underplay of emotions also prevailed in Gulzar’s film Khushboo. In a single scene where Tagore says bye to the two doctors who leave her alone with a dead aunt, Tagore wrote volumes that other actors would have not been able to. It was only Tagore who could pack such a huge bundle of emotions, expressing the utter hopelessness and helplessness through her voice and look. And, Tagore’s was a very small special appearance in the film.
Bringing the same balance, Tagore did Mere Hamsafar, a commercial Hindi film and Aranyer Din Ratri with Ray, her usual playground for her art, both in the same year. Tagore scored with her role in another commercial film that year, Safar. Tagore’s small gestures, the intensity of her look, and the weariness or pain in her voice have become her signature style, making many a viewers cry for her and with her.
Of Tagore’s films with Shakti Samanta, Amar Prem is still remembered for both her and Rajesh Khanna’s performances. In the same year, Tagore artfully kept up her score with Uttam Kumar in Amanush.
Avishkar, Griha Pravesh and Dooriyan were off beat films where Tagore shone as an actor who had chiseled and matured her art. Even in these, her voice seems to be her biggest asset. She seems to enact withheld emotions, disillusion and regret, all with just the inflections of her voice. Her dialog “Tareeka to achha hai. Yehi mere dada meri dadi se command karte rahe aur mere pitaji meri maa se demand karte rahe. Ke tum mere aaspaas ghumo” in response to a Gyandev Agnihotri poem recited by Rajesh Khanna whom she had loved and married. That scene will remain in the library of portrayals of women raising their voice against male dominance, with love and firmness. The continuing story of the couple, Griha Pravesh, has Tagore bring the reality of a couple out of love, once again with her voice and her expressions.
Such powerful portrayals, a rich career graph, her involvement in other aspects of films including the Censor Board, her involvement with social causes, all have established Tagore as a remarkable woman we celebrate during the Womens History Month. Tagore’s recent films like Gulmohar and Outhouse are reminders of her art where she reaffirms her femininity. She is embracing the silver in her hair with grace, bringing in her feminist side gently.
She has made a difference by showing how to live a balanced life with love and independence in a marriage. She continues to live independently even now after her husband’s passing, spending quality time with her children frequently. She acts, works on causes, meets friends. And she will always keep doing it. Let us hope and wish.