Remembering Smita Patil on her 64th birth anniversary

Smita Patil was a leading actress of Bollywood who won the heart of millions with her natural acting skills. She was born in1955, in Pune. Her mother was a minister and a social-worker. She studied at a Marathi medium school in Pune and graduated from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. She was married to Raj Babbar, the Hindi film actor.
Smita was never trained to be an actor. She was discovered by accident in the early 1970s and left her contemporaries in the shade by trusting her directors and her intuition. By the '80s she was trying to straddle a mid-path between parallel and commercial cinema.
Smita Patil entered Bollywood after a brief stint as a TV news reader. Shyam Benegal casted her in the children's film Charandas Chor (1975), and offered a short role in Nishant (1975). Her first major role was Benegal's Manthan, here she plays the role of a woman who leads a Harijan revolt. Next was Benegal's Bhumika, which was a biography of Indian actress Hansa Wadkar. Smita strongly believed in realistic cinema and did films like Gaman, (1979) and Chakra, (1981). Govind Nihalani's Aakrosh is another feather in her cap, where she played the role of a tribal woman who is brutally raped and murdered. In 1981, she worked with Satyajit Ray in his tele film Sadgati. She worked with distinguished film directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and Mrinal Sen.
Most of Smita Patil's films represent femininity that stands against male-dominated society. She has also acted commercial films, her glamorous roles in the films like Shakti and Namak Halaal are still remembered. She even acted in regional movies like Marathi movie Jait Re Jait, Mrinal Sen's Bengali film Akaler Sandhaney and Ketan Mehta's much acclaimed debut in Gujarati cinema, Bhavni Bhavai.Smita Patil will always be remembered as an actress who displayed extraordinary levels of maturity in her performances. Some of famous films are Manthan opposite Girish Karnad, Bhumika opposite Amol Palekar, Aakrosh with Om Puri, Chakra with Naseeruddin Shah, Namak Halal opposite Amitabh Bachchan, Arth with Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mandi with Aditya Bhattacharya, Subah with Girish Karnad, Aakhir Kyon opposite Rajesh Khanna, and Mirch Masala with Naseeruddin Shah. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for the film Chakra in 1981. She received two National Film Award for Best actress for Chakra in 1981 and for Bhumika.
Smita Patil had the exceptional ability to stand out, even in a supporting role, evident in the films Govind Nihalani's Ardh Satya, Aaj Ki Awaaz and J P Dutta's Ghulami. In the mid-1980s she did several films with Rajesh Khanna such as Aakhir Kyon, Amrit and Nazrana. In 1987, she received accolades for playing the role of brave and fiery Sonbai in Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala.
Apart from acting, Patil was an active feminist (in a distinctly Indian context) and a member of the Women's Centre in Mumbai. She was deeply committed to the advancement of women's issues, and gave her endorsement to films which sought to explore the role of women in traditional Indian society, their sexuality, and the changes facing the middle-class woman in an urban milieu.
Patil was married to actor Raj Babbar. She died on December 13 in 1986 at the age of 31 due to childbirth complications. Over ten of her films released after her death. Her son, Prateik Babbar is a film actor who made his debut in 2008.
The writer is a freelance contributor.