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No discussion of meaningful Indian cinema is possible without Smita Patil. She was possibly the first feminist actor on the Indian screen. In a career spanning just over a decade, Patil is unparalleled in the films she did and the roles she breathed life into. Immensely talented and intense, the women she portrayed on celluloid were as real as they were feisty.
While it’s virtually impossible to choose her best films, here’s taking a look at some of the unforgettable characters she created on-screen on her death anniversary.
When you think of Smita Patil’s films, one of the first images is perhaps of her staring into the camera silently in the last scene of Mirch Masala (1987) as the village women in the spice factory unite in the assault of the lecherous subedar played by Naseeruddin Shah. Patil played Sonbai in this beautiful Ketan Mehta film, a village belle who refuses to submit to the subedar’s advances (strengthened by a village of largely sexist men). Patil, by investing Sonbai’s vulnerability with indomitable strength and a fiery independence, elevates the character to be an Everywoman.
Directed by Dr Jabbar Patel in the National Award-winning Marthi film Umbartha (1982), Patil plays Sulabha Mahajan who goes against her conservative husband (Girish Karnad) and mother-in-law’s wishes to build her own identity and career. She takes up the extremely challenging job as a superintendent of a women’s reformatory home, and refuses to compromise with her husband’s adultery. It’s one of her strongest performances with a very strong feminist stand.
Based on the memoirs of Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar, Patil’s Usha in the 1977 Bhumika won her a National Award. The transition of a teenage star into a psychologically lacerated woman who keeps searching for independence, love and respect was portrayed by Patil in all its heart-breaking layers as only she could. She was only 21 when she acted in Bhumika.
A dark look at sexual politics and the venerability of traditions, Shyam Benegal’s 1983 film Mandi had an outstandingly talented cast. And Patil excelled as the virginal prize of the brothel, who is the brothel madam’s (played by Shabana Azmi) favourite, a young girl who oscillates between an alluring boldness and shyness and displays a dubious ingenuity.
Smita Patil played the quintessential other woman Kavita in this iconic 1982 Mahesh Bhatt film - but with a huge difference. Instead of the conventional seductress, Patil breathed life - and indeed bared her soul - to portray a passionate, at times ruthless yet fragile woman reeling under mental illness, and her attempts to find unconditional love. One of her many phenomenal performances, Patil managed to connect with an audience rooting for the abandoned wife (played by Shabana Azmi) with an honesty rarely seen in Hindi films.
(This story is from The Quint’s archives and was first published on 17 October 2016. It is being republished to mark Smita Patil’s death anniversary.)
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