Hindi cinema holds a special place in people’s hearts. Give them an evening of old film music, nostalgia, and two brilliant actors on stage recalling interesting anecdotes from their lives and you have an evening to remember.
That’s what happened at The Rendezvous recently hosted by MAAM Entertainment at Chowdiah Memorial Hall to celebrate their 10 anniversary.
They brought together on stage two of Hindi film’s most adored actors — Waheeda Rahman and Sharmila Tagore for a “chat-musical”. While the actors were interviewed by documentary filmmaker Brahmanand S. Siingh, the talk was interspersed with live music featuring Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and Indian Idol winners who superbly sang hits from the actors’ films. The audience sighed and ooohed at the mention of every song announced — whether it was “Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam”, “Chaudvin ka chaand ho”, “Bhawaraa bada nadaan hai”, “Woh shaam kuch ajeeb thi”, “Kuch dil ne kaha” “Chingari koi bhadke”, “Mere dil mein aaj kya hai” and many more.
Waheeda recalled how she and her sister were learning Bharatanatyam in Andhra Pradsh where her father was posted.
A chance performance in order to promote ‘local talent’ had them on stage in front of India’s last governor-general C. Rajgopalachari when her father was the collector of Vishakapatnam. “Rajgopalachari was amazed that Muslim girls were learning and performing Bharatanatyam on stage. We were awarded medals, our photos came in the newspapers, and then I started getting calls from Chennai filmmakers!” And that’s how she came to start her film career doing a folk dance in a Telugu film! Something that ultimately led her to Guru Dutt.
Waheeda also had the audience in splits recalling the Censor Board’s objection to the song “Chaudhvin ka chand”. The film, by the same name, was a hit, colour had just come into the industry and filmmaker Guru Dutt decided to re-shoot the song in colour. When it went for the Censor Board clearance, Waheeda says: “The lights used in shooting films were so strong, it used to get real hot, and I used to turn red while shooting. The Censor Board objected and asked for two cuts in the song — for two close-ups of my eyes — stating that I looked too sensual! Guru Dutt argued and defended it, saying there was nothing wrong, and that too considering it’s a ‘miya-biwi ka scene’! So I sometimes wonder, if the Censor Board members of those times had seen today’s films, they would have probably fainted!”
The song seemed the hot favourite of the evening as Sharmila Tagore recalled how Tiger (her husband Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi) used to play “Chaudvin ka chand” on his flute to woo her! “Can you imagine Hindi films without music? It makes for the longevity of the film; it becomes a part of your life,” observed Sharmila to thunderous applause through the course of the evening. She traced her career starting in the Bengali film industry and comfortably straddling that with Hindi cinema.
The questions inevitable moved to her bold move of being the first Hindi actress to wear a swimsuit in the film An Evening in Paris (for the song “Aasmaan se aaya farishta”).
“I was naïve and stupid,” responded Sharmila. And went on to candidly explain: “I don’t know… I had a tremendous sense of self, and just thought I looked nice. I was not in India when the Filmfare cover came out and I got a telegram. Shakti-da (noted filmmaker Shakti Samanta) was upset and later sat me down and gave me a lecture that ‘If you do this sort of thing, people will see you as frivolous and idiotic’. It was then I realised I have an obligation to my audience. That there is a paradox and double standard of life – of your public and private face, and what the audience thinks of you. I learnt a pertinent thing — I realised glamour is skin deep but to earn a place in people’s heart, you have to earn their respect.” She recalled days “when heroines were always chaperoned, they wore white, didn’t talk much” and people even objected when she danced with her dance master at the Kashmir Ki Kali wrap-up party!
Both actors opened up about their lives and gave the audience a glimpse of their families, their upbringing, how they came to be in films, on working with their favourite directors. Another segment of the evening featured actor Suchitra Krishnamoorthi in conversation with Waheeda and Sharmila together about “women’s empowerment” where the talk drifted from being career women and working mothers, acceptance of their status in society, sharing chores with husbands, and the hero-isation of men in Hindi cinema.
Sharmila stole the evening with her candid insights; during the discussion with Suchitra, talking of walking the fine line between husband and wife when it came to career and home, she observed, to much thunderous applause: “You don’t hurt a man’s ego, and you don’t hurt a woman’s emotions.”
