Flashes of a meteorite

Smita Patil in Sadgati

Then there is Smita Patil who passed away on December 13, 1986 at the shockingly young age of 31. The actress who was a fascinating amalgam of a steel-strong will as well as heart-tugging vulnerability, deserves the 'amazing actress' legend that has been built around her.

Smita was the daughter of a minister father and a social-worker mother. Born in Pune, her first tryst with the camera was as a television newscaster. Smita shared a special relationship with the camera and, incidentally, she was very good behind the camera too: an exhibition of photographs clicked by her was held posthumously.

One of the major beneficiaries of the mid-1970s efflorescence of the art movement in Hindi cinema, Smita's film career got off the ground courtesy mentor Shyam Benegal. After he cast her in the children's film Charandas Chor (1975), and in a small role in Nishant (1975), Smita seemed to suddenly hold a monopoly over Benegal. For a while, she even seemed to have won him away from Shabana Azmi, with whom the filmmaker had done some excellent work in Ankur and Nishant.

Smita sprang to the spotlight with Benegal's Manthan (1977), where she played a Harijan woman who spearheads a revolt at the milk co-operative. Next, Benegal cast her in a more demanding role -- Bhumika (1977). A fictionalised biography of Indian actress Hansa Wadkar, Bhumika won Smita a National Award for Best Actress. Smita played the complex role of an actress struggling to lead her life on her own terms and imbued it with an insight that belied her age.

Smita staunchly believed in realistic cinema and accepted offers from new wave directors like Muzaffar Ali (Gaman, 1979) and Dharamraj (Chakra, 1981). For the latter, she visted slums in Mumbai as part of her research and it culminated in another National Award.

With Govind Nihalani she worked in the scorchingly intense Aakrosh (1980), where she played a tribal woman who is brutally raped and murdered. She worked with Satyajit Ray in his television film Sadgati (1981). She also worked in the Bengali film Akaler Sandhaney (1980), directed by Mrinal Sen.

In the early 1980s, Smita finally relented and trained her sights on commercial cinema. She won new fans with the blockbuster Namak Halal (1982) opposite Amitabh Bachchan. Ramesh Sippy's Shakti, also opposite Amitabh, followed in 1982.

Smita had qualms about going the commercial way. She was arguably her best in the realistic films, which she continued to encourage like Mandi (as a sex worker who has an incestuous relationship) and Subah (as a housewife who learns to be self-reliant).

Smita was compared ad nauseum with Shabana Azmi, her senior and rival in the off-beat film arena. So when the two were pitted opposite each other in Arth (1983), comparisons were inevitable. Shabana had the sympathetic author-backed role of the wronged housewife but Smita's on-the-edge characterisation of the guilt-ridden 'other woman' had its fair share of admirers.

Smita teamed up with director Ketan Mehta to play the feisty and fiery Sonbai in Mirch Masala (1987). Smita won raves for playing a masala factory worker who holds out against a lecherous zamindar.

But before Mirch Masala could release, Smita shocked everyone when she passed away in 1886.

Smita has left behind a rich collection of films that showcase her enormous ability to offer the audience a glimpse into her soul each time she performed a role.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent