‘Humiliation is the Most Difficult Feeling to Emote’ Says Actor As She Shares Her Cinematic Journey
By Firdaus Ali
When you pay tribute to the enormous life’s work of actor Shabana Azmi, it is only befitting that the Frank Sinatra’s number “I did it my way” play in the background. For, whether it is performing unconventional roles spanning several genres of filmmaking or fighting unequivocally for better human rights, Azmi has always stood her ground and that is what makes her truly invincible.
Azmi needs no introduction even to the younger crowd that had come to listen to her speak at a Masterclass at BMO IFFSA Toronto 2022, where the actor shared her cinematic journey with attendees, sharing anecdotes, fun moments, and exclusive narratives along the way.
Undoubtedly one of India’s most acclaimed and celebrated actors known for her brilliant acting prowess and neo-realist portrayal of many characters she has played, Azmi is daughter of legendary poet Kaifi Azmi and theatre actor Shaukat Azmi, and an icon to global cinema enthusiasts.
Her strength perhaps lies in her capability to play diverse characters with equal elan. Ankur, Nishanth Junoon, Arth, Khandhar, Paar, Masoom, Mandi, Godmother, the list is endless. Each film uniquely different, each film entrenched in her inimitable and distinct acting style.
Having won five national awards and five Filmfare awards, the seventy-one-year-old actor has also been honoured with the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and has appeared in over 120 Hindi films as well as several international ventures. Madame Souzatska, City of Joy, Fire, In Custody and Halo, the recent Spielberg series, to name a few.
Her interest in acting began after she watched actor Jaya Bhadhuri perform in a diploma film Suman. Says Shabana, “I was completely enchanted by her performance because it was unlike any other performance I had seen. I really marvelled at that and said, ‘If by going to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), I can achieve that, then that’s what I want to do.”
Azmi eventually topped the list of successful FTII candidates of 1972 and started her film career with Shyam Benegal’s directorial debut Ankur, which released in 1974. When she bagged two films (Ankur and Nishanth) upon her very first meeting with Benegal, she went home and told her mother, theatre actor Shaukat Azmi,” I have met this fraud filmmaker who has offered me not one but two films.” Of course, she did not know then, that history was in the making and Benegal would help her bag her first national award.
The film is set in rural India, where Azmi plays Lakshmi, a sensual, free-spirited maid servant, who belongs to the lower caste. Azmi fondly remembers rehearsing a fiery scene for the film, which did not do much but managed to scare a few cows away from the field.
And, to acclimatize her for the role, Benegal took her to the village where they would be filming. This was her first time being in her village and Benegal asked her to get in costume (a short sari) and had her squat on her haunches and eat like a common villager.
A group of students visiting the sets, were thoroughly convinced that she was a maid servant, and this is the time Benegal announced to her that “she had arrived.”
Despite her national and international fame, she credits her success to, “being at the right place at the right time. My acting career started when Indian cinema was on the cusp of change. A new movement known as parallel cinema had caught the attention of cine goers and I was lucky to be part of this great neo-realist movement when it began,” reminisces Azmi.
Azmi feels that acting is all about reacting and being in the moment. Films allow you to enter a world through a single character. Sometimes a film opens a window, and an actor jumps right in. A true actor surrenders to the role and the character.
“A good actor must be a keen observer of life, connect to people and be able to communicate. You always have to be ready to do things outside of your comfort zone. Star gazing from an ivory tower makes you lose touch with life’s realities. That is the difference between an actor and a star,” Azmi rightly points out.
While, Azmi has years of training behind her, she does not follow one clear acting technique, she is known to take to Stanislavsky’s method acting, which allows an actor to use personal histories to express authentic emotions and create rich characters. “Stanislavsky’s techniques allow you to be anything you perceive yourself to be. However, you can use emotional memory only in rehearsals. For the real shot, many more elements are at play for any actor,” adds Azmi.
Azmi feels that all actors have to be neurotic to a certain extent. “You have to be mindful yet lose yourself in your act. You are the opposite of cultured behaviour. You have to always be in the state of emotional preparedness, ready to emote anger, hate, resentment and fear.”
Azmi, who has also trained with the late acting Guru Roshan Taneja says, “Taneja always said that an actor is his/her own instrument. You have no external instruments to rely on. Everything is within you, and it is an actor’s responsibility to bring out that instrument. He always said that it is important to understand the Sur of the character. To feel the role from the heart.”
And, knowing the language of the film is very important for an actor, which is why Azmi has not ventured in any films outside of English and Hindi. “I felt this when I shared the space with Hollywood actors in Madame Souzatska, where I was the only one to speak Bombay English in a global space. “
While, each role was a challenge and a learning experience, Azmi would rehearse and research for unconventional roles, including Mandi where she played the boisterous Rukmini bai, Madame of a brothel in Hyderabad. The role had her visiting three different brothels and learning mannerisms of sex workers. It was this dedication, which makes a scene from the film stand out, where Rukmini bai, looks at her own reflection in the mirror adjusting her hair, amidst ruins and luggage after being thrown out of her brothel space.
The film also featured the late actor, Smita Patil, who is often compared to Azmi for brilliant performances and for their lineage from parallel cinema. “Smita’s death left a huge vacuum. We both had an edge over other actors due to our work in parallel cinema. Even today, Smita and I are often spoken of, in the same breath. She could have easily been Smita Azmi, and I could have been Shabana Patil,” reminisces Azmi.
Both Azmi and Patil rendered stellar performances in director Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth. The film based on Bhatt’s true story of an extra-marital affair, has Azmi playing the betrayed wife and Patil, the “other woman.”
“I owe Arth’s success to Mahesh Bhatt. He is an actor’s director and perhaps the reason I have enjoyed working with the most. Humiliation is perhaps the most difficult to emote and there is a scene where my character (Pooja) asks her husband (Inder Malhotra played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda) for another chance at the marriage. As per Mahesh’s instructions, my eyes had to be tearful, but I could not shed a single tear during the scene. And I did exactly that. One word or cue from the director can make the moment magical for an actor,” adds Azmi.
While Azmi believes that mainstream films are totally divorced from reality, the actor thoroughly enjoyed working with the late director Manmohan Desai in films like Amar Akbar Anthony and Parvarish. “Manmohan Desai spoke it as it was. Like his films, he was honest, endearing and I was putty in his hands. For a scene in one of his films, I was slower in my movements than usual, and he was quick to yell, “jaldi karo. ye Satyajit Ray ki film nahin hain…” such was his candidness and simplicity of Desai.
Even though Azmi has worked with many co-actors, she feels blessed to have worked with the late actor Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. Most of her films have been with Naseer. Masoom, Paar, Mandi, Khandar, Sparsh, Nishant, Pestonjee to name a few. “I have played Naseer’s rich wife, poor wife, middle-class wife, you name it. Any distance between us has mainly been from his side,” she says with a smile.
Naming Amitabh Bachchan as the most hardworking actor she has come across, Azmi feels that this is what makes him truly unique. “He is never satisfied with his own performance, always striving to do better. This is important for an actor.”
Among future ventures for Azmi are Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got to Do with It? which is being shown at TIFF 2022, Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani and the second season of Spielberg’s Halo.
And, when she is not acting or filming? “Well, in any actor’s fallow period, they must stay in touch with life. Connect with human experiences through art or social activism. Art should be used as an instrument of social change I truly believe that art can curate a climate of sensitivity for change. This is what I have always strived for.”
And the results speak volumes, Madame Azmi!