Video interview "Cover Story"

Great thanks to reader Mihiri who left me this fabulous link in a comment a couple of weeks ago; it slipped off my radar screen somehow (Blogger handles comments somewhat inelegantly) and I missed it until quite recently.

What it is: a lovely video interview of Shabana Azmi from about four years ago, by Vir Sanghvi for (what I presume is) a television show called Cover Story. In the twenty-minute interview Shabana ji sings a Carnatic swaram, and discusses the difference between commercial acting and art-cinema acting, the Stanislavski method, why she became a film actor, being afraid to smile, why she decided to join a hunger strike for the rights of displaced slum-dwellers, and why she has refused to join any political party, among other things.

My favorite part of the interview is a story that is both about Shabana ji and about her parents. In 1986, Shabana Azmi joined her famous first hunger strike for Nivara Haq, an organization devoted to fighting for slum-dwellers whose homes are destroyed by government and private development, because she felt it was useless for her to lend her voice to the organization if she was not also prepared to go the distance demonstrating with them. It was a decision she made from the heart, quite risky for her career and her public perception, but she believed it was the right thing to do. Government officials tried to convince her mother, Shaukat Kaifi, to stop her, but Shaukat would not. Still, Shaukat was concerned for her daughter's well-being, and when Shabana ji's hunger strike was five days old, she sent a telegram to Shabana's father, Kaifi Azmi, who was then away in Patna. She's getting sick, Shaukat said, what can I do? Please talk some sense into her. Kaifi's response: "Best of luck, comrade."

You can watch the video here. (A note: I was only able to play the video in Internet Explorer; the player interacted poorly with my ad-blocker in Firefox.) And thanks again to Mihiri!

A visit with Shabana ji

Going through some older news clips, I came across a sweet blog posting that I had missed previously. It is by someone named Ananda, on a blog that appears to be affiliated with an orphanage in China called Home of Hope. Ananda writes:

Today I had lunch with Shabana Azmi at her home.... We spent a very pleasant afternoon together. As soon as I entered her home, she wanted to know the secret of my “trimness”. And insisted that I show her my work out. So I spent the first half hour ..as a exercise consultant, and we did crunches together on the floor. ..she is quite an impulsive lady !

The post goes on to say that Shabana agreed to endorse Ananda's Home of Hope project, so perhaps we will hear more about this in the future. You can read the rest of Ananda's post here.

News roundup

I've just caught up on a couple of weeks' worth of Shabana Azmi news, and I've written several posts which I'll put up for you over the next week or so. (Hey, you can't expect me to use up all the good stuff at once!)

Here are a few interesting news items to get started:

• Shabana ji appeared at the launch of author Gouri Dange's new book 3 Zakia Mansion. Shabana ji read excerpts from the novel and spoke very highly of it. Ms. Dange herself was kind enough to leave a comment here at SLP the other day, and I invite her to please tell us more about herself and about her work. In the meantime, you can read a little about the book here at the SmasHits wesbite, and see some pictures from the event (including the one at the top of this post - as usual, click the picture for a better look). I also found a lovely video of the event, which you can watch here.
  

• I mentioned some months ago that Shabana Azmi had a kind of mentor role for Smita Patil's son Prateik. Prateik's debut movie Jaane tu ya jaane na (Aamir Khan's production) opened this week. Here's a short interview in which Prateik talks a bit about the movie and about Shabana ji. "She is like my mom," he says.
  

• Finally, a number of news outlets carried a news wire report that Shabana Azmi has been appointed by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as a Good Will Ambassador for its HIV/AIDS program in its member countries. "Apparently, the actress' name was recommended by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)," the article reports. It continues: "Shabana's role as a Goodwill Ambassador would involve facilitating the implementation of SAARC regional strategy on HIV and AIDS. She would also take up the issue of creating awareness about the deadly disease." This is really big news, a huge honor for Shabana ji, which I believe she will also take as a huge responsibility and a huge opportunity to make a significant difference on the problems of HIV and AIDS, problems I know she cares about very much. I look forward to reporting more about this here as the story develops.
  

Greetings, and roundup

My apologies for the unannounced hiatus, folks - a month has gotten away from me as I have been focused on projects unrelated to Hindi films (one of which, sadly, is my job). But I'm not happy with those priorities and don't want to let that happen again.

In the meantime, Shabana Azmi has been as busy as I have and so there is a lot of news to catch up on. Here's a roundup of some of the news from the last month.

• Not much news on the possibility of a Benazir Bhutto biopic -TimesNow reports that there is something in the works, but Shabana ji won't talk about it.
  

• There are some vague reports, though, like this one from the Press Trust of India, that Shabana ji is involved in a film about the founding of Bangladesh, to be directed by Shyam Benegal, in English. I'll keep an eye out for more on this interesting-sounding project.
  

• There was news some time back that Shabana ji was involved in a project with director Rituparno Ghosh. But this report by Subhash K. Jha says that Ghosh has decided to make the film in Bengali instead and dropped the Hindi cast. I can't say I'm unhappy about this development - I don't much like the Rituparno Ghosh films I've seen, and the idea of remaking Kaagaz ke phool strikes me as daft, to say the least. I'd be excited for any new film with Shabana ji, but I'm just as happy for this not to be one of them.

• Onir's comedy Sorry Bhai, starring Shabana ji, Boman Irani, Chitraganda Singh, and Sharman Joshi, is in post-production, and expected to be ready by the end of June. We should start seeing a release date and promotion soon. This is definitely one to look forward to, folks - it will be great.

• In her activist avatar, Shabana ji spoke movingly last month at a conference of NGOs dedicated to issues of women's health. "It is sad that on one hand our country is emerging as a global power and on the other the health issues of women in rural areas go unnoticed. Even if it is not an institutional delivery, it is the right of every human being to give birth without any crisis," she said. You can read some of her other comments here.

I've got some more posts lined up for the future so I promise I won't vanish for a month again. But here's what you can do to help me out: write a guest post! Write something about Shabana Azmi - a film review, a list of your favorite movies, a paean extolling her virtues, or even a critique - and email it to me. I'll post with or without your name as you prefer. SLP is yours - please consider submitting a guest post.


The gorgeous sure didn't disappear during my absence!

Shabana Azmi's columns in *Harmony*

In a democracy, people need to become active participants, not passive recipients of government policy.

-- Shabana Azmi

Source: This column which Shabana ji wrote for Harmony magazine in 2004. I have to send a hearty thanks to SLP reader fadista di mouraria for bringing these wonderful columns to my attention. Harmony magazine is the publication of the Harmony for Silvers Foundation, which is an NGO dedicated to improving the lives of India's senior citizens. The foundation's mission is "to create an environment where silvers, irrespective of their cultural beliefs, can retain their dignity, self-respect, pride and self-confidence."

The foundation's website features about fifteen brief pieces that Shabana Azmi wrote for the magazine between 2004 and early 2007, in which she urges seniors not to be complacent, not to settle for less than their due rights and respect. She encourages seniors toward grass-roots mobilization, taking advantage of their leisure time and connections:

A positive force that can bring about revolution, senior citizens have so much in their favor. To begin with, they have the time. There's also the tenacity and perseverance that come with age and wisdom to see projects through. They know that impatience won't get them anywhere. The youth, with all their energy, are no match for the elderly as they lose patience easily and may take the easy route out. Not seniors. For them, the harder, the better.

(She writes with awareness that the readership of the publication, which is in English, is educated and middle-class.) In one column she holds up the powerful US lobbying organization AARP as an example of what mobilized seniors can achieve, and suggests that there is a need for an Indian organization to step up to that level.

In addition to her calls to activism, some of the columns are touchingly personal, including anecdotes about her mother and other elderly people close to her heart; I particularly liked this one about her mother (in which she calls herself a "spunky lass"). I also liked this one, in which she talks about several elderly people who inspire her. In this column, she describes rushing to help and elderly man struggling to get down the stairs in a train station. Can you imagine a movie star helping a stranger in a train station? If I weren't already completely in love with this woman before, I would be now.

These articles are lovely, just a wonderful find.

Roundup

Still no further news about the Rituparno Ghosh film, but a reader brought this small item to my attention, according to which Shabana Azmi is working on a project called Sorry Bhai. The film is by Onir, who directed Bas ek pal and My Brother Nikhil, and purportedly stars, in addition to Shabana ji, Sanjay Suri, Boman Irani, Sharman Joshi, and Chitrangdha Singh. Once again there's very little out there about this; here is a tiny little story that identifies the film as a romantic comedy with Shabana ji and Boman sahib playing the parents of the leads. That sounds like fun; more news when it comes.

My next item isn't directly related to Shabana ji - it merely mentions her in passing - but it piqued my interest enough to share with you. It's a report that cites Andrew Cooper, a Canadian scholar of political affairs and diplomacy, as saying that Hindi film stars ought to be pressed into diplomatic service. (Here's an interview with Mr. Cooper about the same.)

I haven't thought about this much, but it seems a little simplistic and paternalistic. I mean, yes, Bollywood celebrities have global reach and broad influence, but that's what makes them good at selling watches and fashion; it's not all that's needed for diplomacy. While our lady Shabana ji and a few others mentioned in the piece have gotten involved in political affairs, I think it's safe to assume that if the likes of Shah Rukh Khan had interest in using their celebrity in this way, then they could figure out how to do so without some Canadian wonk instructing them. The difficulty of being Shabana Azmi is that she has to take positions that some of her potential audience is uncomfortable with; she's ordered her priorities as she sees fit and has made the decision to do that, but not all celebrities are up for it.

Next, here is a nice little video from Lehren TV about the launch of writer Javed Siddiqui's book Shyam Rang (evening color), a celebration at which Shabana Azmi was present last week. (I'm sorry to not offer a translation of the video at the moment but I need to get going to the office.) I post this mostly to counterbalance the painful pictures from the Jodhaa-Akbar premiere; for Javed Siddiqui's book launch, Shabana ji looked quite herself in a lovely orange sari with a pink choli. There are a few stills here at Smash Hits.

Stumping at the Marathon

In another appearance over the weekend, Shabana Azmi was seen waving a banner at the Mumbai Marathon. India Times reports that she traded her usual fab style for something a bit more sporting:

Wearing a red cap and a yellow shirt with 'Harmony' engraved on it, Shabana was at her sporting best. "Don't you think 'my look' is cute", joked the actor as we spotted her flagging off the 'Senior Citizens' run for Tina Ambani.

Well I couldn't leave SLP's faithful without a picture of that, so I hunted around a bit and found this video at Bollywood Hungama (formerly IndiaFM) (here's an alternate link). I think Shabana ji looks pretty cute. Anyway, she was there in support of Rahul Bose's foundation for tsunami-affected children, called The Foundation.

Raising awareness of women's issues

Shabana Azmi appeared yesterday at an event in Mumbai with her mother, along with other filmi mother-daughter pairs like Hema Malini and Esha Deol (Sharmila Tagore was there too but Soha Ali Khan couldn't make it), raising awareness of a variety of women's issues. The Times of India reports that Shabana ji "spoke about the need to spread awareness about women not being the determinant of a child’s sex."

Those of you who saw Shyam Benegal's film Hari-bhari might remember that this was an issue for Shabana ji's character in that film. Her doctor explained to her that her failure to conceive a son was due to her husband's contribution and suggested that he be tested. This notion enraged her husband and he threw her out of his house. It is still the case that many people are unaware of this scientific fact, and in communities in which sons are treasured and daughters deplored, women can find themselves ostracized and abused on the assumption that the failure to produce sons lies with them alone.

There are two problematic lines of thinking here: first, the premise that girl children are not to be valued as highly as boys, and second, even if sons are desired, that women should be castigated for bearing only daughters when the biological fact is that the male contribution determines the child's sex. Changing both of these attitudes is high on Shabana ji's list of causes near to her heart.

ETA: dormeg at the BollyWHAT? forums found this picture from the event at bollyworld.com - Esha, Shabana, Shaukat, and Hema:

On reconciling actor and activist

My work as an actor or as an activist or as a Parliamentarian are not separate boxes. They are part of who I am; all aspects of my identity are there.

-- Shabana Azmi

(Source: the Lehren video linked in this post.)

In a discussion on another post, commenter Maru raised a thought-provoking question: What to do when admiration for Shabana Azmi the actor conflicts with one's views about Shabana ji's offscreen endeavors?

Perhaps more than any other actor, Shabana Azmi's activism is an integral part of who she is, as she notes in the quotation at the top of this post. For me, this is a large part of what makes her so remarkable - she is not merely an effective performer, someone I enjoy watching on screen. There are lots of stars who can captivate me temporarily in a movie, but I've only founded a blog in praise of one of them. Her presence in the movies is what caught my attention; her commitment to social change is much of what continues to hold it.

Shabana ji's dedication is not enough, though; if she were devoted to causes that I felt were wrong-headed I obviously would not admire her as I do. So it's essential, for me, that I happen to agree with her ideals, at least in an abstracted, theoretical way (as I discussed at length in these comments, I am not really equipped to evaluate her specific implementation-level ideas).

But what if you, like Maru, don't share Shabana ji's ideals, and believe that the changes she works so hard to effect will not be beneficial to Indian society?

Maybe with other actors, one can put aside their off-screen foibles and just enjoy watching them do their thing in the movies. Maybe you think Salman Khan is a cutie but can't bear to think about him shooting deer or running over pedestrians in his SUV. Maybe you're riveted by Amitabh Bachchan but wish he didn't have that creepy Amar Singh by his side all the time. Maybe Kajol is enchants you in the movies but strikes you as vapid and bitchy in real life.

These things might be easier to sweep aside than a fundamental disagreement with Shabana ji's politics. Most actors don't project the kind of personal link between their on-screen work and their off-screen activities that Shabana Azmi does. With Shabana ji, it's harder to separate the one from the other. She doesn't, as she notes in the interview linked above: "My work as a Parliamentarian ... is a continuity of my work as an activist which is a continuity of my work as an actor."

This is because the roles that Shabana ji takes, and the roles she is most revered for, are both an expression of her social and political views and a vehicle that she uses to advance them. Any reader of this blog will have seen the statement dozens of times: "Art is an instrument for social change."

I don't think this means that one cannot enjoy Shabana ji's work in the movies without signing on to her ideals, but I do have some sympathy for why that might be a difficult line to navigate. Some stars may cultivate a separation between their off-screen lives and their movie personae; Shabana Azmi does the opposite; the role she plays as a political activist is as important, and as public, as any role she plays in a movie. It is difficult to separate the two, and I think Shabana ji wants it to be that way. She wants her movies to make people think. And I don't know for sure, but I'd like to think that she'd be content so long as watching her movies makes someone think - even if that person conscientiously reaches a conclusion that is at odds with Shabana ji's own favored viewpoint.

AIDS Activism

A lot of money has been spent on awareness and people are aware about [AIDS]. But now, it is time to spend money on treatment and care. Unfortunately I still hear stories of doctors declining to treat an HIV positive patient. That, I feel, is a cardinal sin.

-- Shabana Azmi

Source: Times of India. The story is about Shabana ji's involvement in Mira Nair's AIDS JaaGo project, mentioned previously here. (ToI also is the source of the striking and unusual picture that tops this post.) I also have read that the AIDS JaaGo films will be released on YouTube in February - I will let you know as soon as I find out that has happened.

Report from the HungerFREE rally

The HungerFREE blog has another report of Tuesday's rally in which Shabana Azmi participated. There are also pictures, including the one above, and some pictures of Hollywood actor Tim Meadows and Nigerian actor Hilda Dobuko who joined her there.

Shabana ji looks fantastic, and her rhetorical kung-fu is powerful. "I found it shocking that the United Nations has not thought it necessary to go to all means to put food on the table," she said. "We cannot bask in the glory of development when millions go hungry in a country of abundance." Indignation looks so good on her!

She's amazing!

"Empowerment is about participation in the decision-making process."

-- Shabana Azmi

Source: An entry in the blog of HungerFREE, the organization with which Shabana ji recently appealed to the U.N. to expand its programs to combat hunger. Evidently someone at HungerFREE was impressed with her, as the original title of the post included the breathless editorial that I have borrowed for the title of my post: She's amazing! The HungerFREE site has unfortunately since been edited, but the truth of the statement stands.

Shabana Azmi news roundup

Please forgive me another roundup post. Real life has seemed busier than usual the last several days, and there's lots and lots of news; I can't keep up with it all.

• Shabana ji has been at the U.N. General Assembly protesting with ActionAid's HungerFREE campaign. "It’s time we took starvation seriously — one out of every four Indians is dying of hunger," she says. "These are startling facts. Everyone looks at these as cold statistics, but we want to make them emotive issues. We want to ask people how they’d feel if their child or parent went to bed hungry." (Source.) India e-news has a few more words about that, along with some of the other stuff Shabana ji is up to these days - home remodeling (me too!), going to the movies for her birthday, talking to the BBC.

• More from the internet stalking headquarters: After the stop at the U.N., Shabana ji is heading to Yale for a conference on India's Future and Women's Global Leadership.
  

• Loins of Punjab Presents opened in India late last week. The cast and crew attended a premiere in Juhu, the Mumbai suburb where Shabana ji lives. Here's Shabana ji with Javed sahib and the kids, Farhan and Zoya -
  

Sweet family! (Here are more pictures from the premiere.) The film has gotten some nice reviews, like this one from Baradwaj Rangan, who recently won a National Award for film journalism. There are lots and lots of articles and reviews since the movie opened, but I haven't read many of them - I don't want to know too much more about the movie before I see it - so no more links. You can read what Manish Acharya himself has to say about it, though, here.

• Not much to say about this nice little biographic piece from Glamsham, but it's a pleasant read.

• And finally, Here's a year-old note (that for some reason just turned up in the news search) about a BBC TV production Shabana ji did last year called Banglatown Banquet. I always thought this sounded like an interesting project and I'd like to see it some time.

Birthday news roundup

Once again, if you missed yesterday's birthday post, please have a look and drop a note if you want to. For today, here's a roundup of a couple of little news articles noting Shabana Azmi's birthday.

• Times of India reports on Shabana ji's sweet birthday wish: great success to Manish Acharya, writer and director of Loins of Punjab Presents.
  

• This wire service report (I'm not sure of its provenance) tells us that Shabana ji didn't plan a party for this year's birthday because her home is under renovation, and she and Javed sahib are living crammed into a small corner of the house. (Let me tell you, I feel her pain on this one - my renovation project is well into its fourth month and I want my kitchen and master bath back!) Also, Shabana ji notes that she is observing Ramadan, another reason to forgo any festivities.
  

• Finally, one more reason a birthday party would have been impractical - it looks like Shabana ji is in New York this week. The Wall Street Journal places her at the UN protesting for the right to food with HungerFREE. Here's a little more about this from Hindustan Times. (Thanks to dormeg for the link.) That last article also provides this week's bon mot:

It's very simple, really. Food needs to be put on everyone's plate.... How can we think of making progress, when everyone doesn't get enough to eat?

I love this woman!

If Shabana ji is in the States this week, it's possible that she won't return to India between now and the Loins of Punjab Presents premier on October 3. I'll keep you posted with any news of further U.S. appearances that may cross my desk here at SLP's cyberstalking headquarters (*) - please let me know if you hear of any as well.

(*) joke.

On charity, activism, and LOPP

With Loins of Punjab Presents set for release in India in just a couple of days there are bound to be a few little articles about Shabana Azmi coming out here and there. Here is one from DNA India; though it's very short, it covers a lot of ground - the movie, activism, Javed sahib, &c. An excerpt:

Though socialites taking up social causes is not new, the actress feels it’s more the merrier. “Many get involved with charity because it’s considered fashionable. But many times, they end up doing a lot more. And it’s very encouraging as they are the movers and shakers of the society,” says Azmi who has been involved with rehabilitation of 12,000 families of slum dwellers in the city. “I am not superior in any way in terms of the kind of work I do. Any bit done ultimately helps the larger purpose,” she adds further.

The rest of the piece.

At least it's not the Congress of Interplanetary Initiatives

Thanks to Sally, who emailed me this morning, I know of one more stop on Shabana Azmi's itinerary for this week's trip to the U.S.: Salt Lake City, for a conference called the Congress of Planetary Initiaives. Its mission statement:

The Object is to locate all possible Areas of Agreement that can serve to foster a World-Wide Affiliation of Peoples who can, while maintaining and respecting Difference, sincerely find Common Cause that will sustain the continued existence of Planetary Life forms under threat today by both Violence and Greed.

That, to my jaded postmodern mind, sounds a little too mushy to really be of much use, but their hearts are clearly in the right place, and I wish them the best. (What's with all the capitalized common nouns though?)