January Poll results

Well the results are in: you share my bias toward Shabana Azmi's 1990s looks.



Our ultra-superficial January Poll asked: in which decade is Shabana ji at her loveliest? And the winner, by a large margin, was the 1990s, taking 11 votes, almost half of the total. The 80s are not far behind with six votes, followed by a split between the youthful 70s and the formidable present, three votes each.

I recently commented elsewhere that I generally think women are most beautiful in their 40s (some just continue improving even beyond that), and that this basic fact is obscured by our youth-obsessed culture; I have seen numerous young fans of Hindi film shocked to discover that Madhuri Dixit, or Juhi Chawla, or even Sridevi look even better today than they did in their so-called "primes". That the 40-something Shabana Azmi should be the clear winner of the January poll shows that SLP readers are already well aware of this fundamental truth.

Coming up: a seasonally appropriate February poll that is genius from the mind of Beth. Stay tuned.