Shabana Azmi
Stellar roles in Hollywood and Bollywood
Pallab Bhattacharya,New Delhi
Veteran actress-activist Shabana Azmi is on a roll. She is just back from shooting in an American film dealing with a subject close to her heart. Secondly, her classical songs in a forthcoming Indian feature film in English have been appreciated by experts in the field, Anup Jalota and Alka Yagnik.Azmi, one of the finest actresses produced by the parallel cinema, has acted in films directed by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani. She now awaits the commercial release of Hollywood movie Waterborne as well as Indian project Morning Raga, which also stars newcomer Perizad Zorabian who shot into fame with Joggers' Park, featuring versatile Victor Banerjee. In Waterborne Azmi plays the role of a Sikh woman who runs a big convenience store in Los Angeles. When a water crisis breaks out, she finds an opportunity to make a fast buck by over-pricing the bottled drinking water. Her son resents this move. When a terrorist attack occurs in the US and hate-crime breaks out, the Sikh woman is injured, prompting her son to take revenge on her American girl friend, which is resisted by the mother. Directed by debutante Ben Rekhi, an American of Indian origin, the film ends on a positive note sending out the message that racism and hate-crime of all kinds are bad. What Azmi likes about Rekhi's film is that, unlike many Hollywood films, made by directors of Indian origin dealing with the identity crisis of the Diaspora in the US, Waterborne looks at a problem facing the mainstream American society. Back home, Azmi cannot wait for the audience response to Morning Raga, directed by well-known playwright Mahesh Dattani. Not that the actress is singing for the first time in a filmshe has done it in two earlier movies, Saaz and Tehzeeb. But singing in Morning Raga was special for her as she underwent training in Carnatic music for a month to essay the role. Morning Raga is the story of classical singer Swarnalata who gives up singing for 20 years after being petrified by the death of her son in an accident. When a lively Pinkie (played by Perizad Zorabian) and her fiancé Abhinay (played by Prakash Rao) come in touch with her, Swarnalata agrees to teach Carnatic music to Pinkie but refuses to perform in public function. Azmi is happy that scripts of films are still being written with lead roles for actresses of her age.
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