Kalpana Mohan

Chacha Nehru was her ideal: “You know he is real. He is like Lord Krishna. So full of love — love in its purest and finest sense. Whenever I looked at him, I ex­perienced an inner joy and ecstasy. Around him was that something, aura.”

Archana, who became Kalpana, remembers that memorable day when she sat on the lap of Panditji at the AICC session in Nasik in the fifties.

“I was seven years then. He fondly kissed me. I found it rough and in order to find out from where this roughness came, I stroked his cheeks.”

Kalpana, who starred in Professor with Shammi Kapoor, happened to grow up in the Nehru family, as her father was a member of the Congress. He went to jail during the freedom movement and suffered greatly. Later, her father left the Congress, which put an end to her “flirting” with Nehru.

“You know I used to admire him so much, that I wanted to be like him, in the sense that I wanted to be popular also, but as a dancer. We moved from Delhi to Ambala due to financial circumstances. I came from a middle class family. There was not much to go around. My dream col­lapsed, as I had to give up dancing lessons. I was a disciple of Shri Daya Shanker, a well-known master in Delhi.

I used to dance four-five hours a day. No music, no instruments, but I kept practicing what my gu­ruji taught me.”

That means you did not go to college?

“I did, to the Gandhi Memorial National College. I gave up after two years. Dancing was my forte. Luckily I got a stipend of Rs. 75 a month from the Bharathi Kala Ken­dra. My joy knew no bounds. I per­suaded my mother to let me go to Delhi. She did.

“You know I was always fond of make-up, but I did not have the money, to pay for it. So when my friends came to wish me goodbye, they gave me a make-up set, each of them buying one piece.”

Back in Delhi, Kalpana kept on slogging at Kathak, but after the day’s grueling practice, coming home was not a pleasure, for her granny never liked her dancing. She treated the kid roughly.

“But what to do? With Rs. 75 I could not live on my own. Luckily, Amjad Khan, then a little boy in his teens, now the famous sarod player, and I were friends. He offered to help me. I told him I could not afford to pay any brokerage. He said, don’t worry and true to his word, he brought in a broker and showed me a place which I liked.”

That was another phase of Kalpana’s growing up years of vicissi­tude. She must have been around thirteen-fourteen then. She made good progress in Kathak and became the cynosure of critics and connoi­sseurs and wolves.

“I found that girls less gifted than me were getting better attention from the masters. You know how some of them are! But I couldn’t do that. That was a revelation to me. It was during this that a gentleman named Krishnan saw me dance and spoke to Col. Gupte, who was in charge of the Cultural Wing at Rash­trapati Bhavan.

“Soon after, our troupe was invi­ted to perform at an outstation. I was so thrilled. This was the first time I was getting a chance to go outside to dance. Besides, it was like a picnic. I borrowed bits and pieces from people I knew, because I couldn’t afford a dancing kit. When I reached the destination, from where the whole group had to leave, I came to know I was not to dance, as the chance was given to the daughter of the Administrator. I cried and I cried.

God had always come to my res­cue. A liveried chauffeur and a uniformed man, came in a big car. I was asked to go for dancing practice at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“After the final rehearsal, I was selected. My selectors were watching the faces of Panditji and Indira Gandhi to see the reaction on their faces, because I was supposed to dance before President Tito. After it was over, I came out and stood be­hind, with the others in the corridor Panditji came out, took my hands in both his and held them for a while, touched my head, ‘You dance very well. Don’t give it up.’ ”

It was around this time Kalpana happened to meet a noted Urdu writer, who persuaded her to join films. Her father refused saying, “It is a dirty line and I will break her legs,” but when the writer said, “If she worked in my picture and if I treated her like my own daughter, then will you let her?”

To that the father had no answer and that was how Kalpana came to Bombay, the Hollywood of India. Although she starred in Teen Devi­yan opposite Dev Anand, and a couple of others, Professor was a run-away hit. Then came total, oblivion. It has never happened to any other heroine.

How is it that with Shammi Kapoor as your hero and the picture a bumper hit, you did not get any offers again?

“There were plenty. But Shammi Kapoor cut me out from the pictures. And he refused to work with me. `She is a nut, cranky’. Now how can I tell you the reasons? Two promi­nent producers confirmed it, but took a promise from me not to tell him, as they were afraid of not get­ting dates from him for their under­production films.

Kalpana watched the subsequent post—Professor years go by, while other less gifted heroines took her place. “I couldn’t flirt with heroes or directors like some other heroines did. I never tried to break anybody’s home. They came up, made money, earned fame and popularity, while I slithered into oblivion. Is this the price I have to pay for being nice? I don’t blame anyone.”

Out from top banner films and that too with Shammi Kapoor those days, meant a big thing as the news spread. “Maybe she is cranky, some­thing must be wrong with her,” they said, and gradually heroes stopped telephoning her and producers stop­ped coming home with cheque books and contracts.

Frustration overtook her, but just before this, while she kept mulling over what her rivals did to latch themselves on to heroes, a man came into her life. A well-known writer.

It was no match, as ideal matches go, for the simple reason that Kalpana was full of life, outgoing, with voluptuous physical features, that even a Shammi of those days couldn’t tame, and Sachin, as I knew him then, quiet, introvert, a con­trast.

However, they got married. It did not last long. There was nothing to hold them together, as physically and mentally, they were as different as chalk is from cheese!

As the first marriage was declared null and void, she married a Naval officer. He was not earning much. Probably, he married her for the glamorous girl Kalpana looked in those days. There again, he and she were no match either. Probably he thought Kalpana would earn big. That did not happen. That marriage too went on the rocks. Besides, by then she had lost the potential to make a comeback.

“What is the use? Imagine my own father-in-law threatening me, won’t drink a glass of water, if you don’t transfer the bungalow in my son’s name.’ ”

Kalpana didn’t. The only property she wisely bought and kept to her­self. She is living off it, by keeping a tenant. By the way, there is a daugh­ter from the marriage to the Naval officer.

After a battle royal for the cus­tody of the child, Kalpana is now free, a divorcee. The daughter is eight years old and is schooling in Panchgani.

“I miss her and I spend sleepless nights and visit her often. The school principal scolds me, ‘I haven’t seen a mad mother like you. If you can’t do without her, why did you put her in boarding school?’ Perhaps she does not know how a mother, who is brought up the way I am, feels!

Want to make a comeback?

“Never.”

After the divorce Kalpana told her husband : “I have no bitterness for you. If we can’t be a goocl hus­band and wife, let’s be friends. Will you come and see your daughter on her birthdays at least ?”

Are you getting any alimony?

“I don’t expect even four annas from him. I won’t take it. Why should I take anything from a man, who could not understand me! After the daughter is eighteen, I’ll leave it to her, what she wants to do.”

Today, still looking charming but her figure a thing of the past, Kal­pana lives in her unkempt weeds- scarred bungalow.

“I call my tin shed terrace house Shantiniketan and feel at peace here. I am alone and for the first time in my life I feel my life belongs to me and me only. I am at peace.” – ( Kalpana interviewed by Krishna in 1977. )

Munawwar Sultana

What does one expect when one is to visit a heroine of yesteryear? A room full of faded pictorial memories, an aged, grey-haired forgotten lady, wistfully thinking about the days that were. But things at Munawwar Sultana’s (now Mrs. Munawwar Sharaf Ali) were different. The room where we sat had a framed tapestry, a modern painting and other evidence of a good life. And the lady bounced in looking still young and fresh and content at playing mother and grandmother to her large and happy family.

We asked her to talk about her days in films. “My career ?” she said. “It’s been such a long time­ – I left films 22 years ago and I’ve forgotten a lot.” Born in Lahore to a family which was strict in its upbringing, Munawwar Sultana was educated at home. Her love for acting made her want to join films. “I wonder if today, girls are still attracted to films as I was,” she said.

So when she was asked by Maheshwari to play the heroine in his   she didn’t know how she’d do it, as she was very shy. But yet she signed. Her co-stars in that film were Kishore (a cousin of Mahe­shwari’s) and Aruna “an actress from Bengal, I don’t remember her full name, it’s been such a long time.” The picture was a success.

Munawwar now wanted to come to Bombay to work. Her wish was almost fulfilled when A. R. Kardar signed her to play Mumtaz Mahal in his Shah Jahan. But then came the great explosion in the Bombay docks and her mother said no. She thought her career ended there. But no, along came Mazhar Khan to Lahore with a contract for two years at Rs. 4000 – 5000 per month and house rent. She came to Bombay in 1945 and made her maiden appearance under M. K. in his Pehli Nazar. She did two more films with him co-starring with Motilal, Veena, Minoo and Baburao Pendharkar. One was left incomplete. Kardar had not forgotten her and signed her for his Dard with Suraiya and it was a jubilee hit.

She worked with Mehboob in Elan, Shantaram in Andhon Ki Duniya, co-starring with Manmohan Krishna, Leela Chitnis and Mahipal (his first film). She did Udhar with Dev Anand, Majboor, a great hit, with Shyam, Sheikh Muktar’s Dada with Shyam and Begum Para, Kaneez again with Shyam, Babul, in which she starred with Nargis and Dilip Kumar, Sartaj with Motilal, Laxman Lulla’s Watan, and Raat Ki Rani and so on.

It was in her work that she meet her husband Sharaf Ali, who used to supply the furniture on the sets. He also produced two movies of hers — Meri Kahani with Surendra and Pyar Ke Manzil with Rehman. And that’s where they got to know each other. She had no intention of giving up her career yet and so they waited. After completing almost a decade on the screen, she bowed out to play wife and mother.

What roles did she play ? “I was a suffering heroine,” she said with a laugh. “Movies those days were like that — sober and tragic.” The artistes re­spected their producers and directors, ” aaj tho artistes ke din hain.”

What about her co-stars who are still in the business? Glad that Dilip Kumar is still continuing and doing character roles. “He’s such a fine actor, it would be a shame to see such a fine actor wasting his talent. Age,” she says, “is a natural thing and nothing to be shy about. With age, one matures and so our acting gets better. All artistes should realize this. If there is love for acting, the work continues.”

On films today—”The off-beat films are good.” As for commercials, “you see one movie, you’ve seen all. It’s the same characters, roles, story. They work in a rush — naturally, when money is concerned. So how can they concentrate on playing different roles each shift? So they sign on the same types of films and roles…”

“We also did three-four shifts at a time, but we didn’t rush from shift to shift; we gave our dates, so that we would be on one set for a week.” They studied their scripts and scenes beforehand, because they had the time, before going on the sets; rehearsed each scene before it was shot. And so they immersed themselves into the characters they were playing and gave memorable performances.

“It’s not that our actors are not as good as those abroad. Look at Sanjeev Kumar. I think he’s a good artiste. But the foreign stars take one shooting at a time and are therefore able to concentrate and are exceptionally good.”

Today, away from the glamour of filmland, Mrs. Sharaf Ali leads a contented retired life amidst her vast family, the even tenor only occasionally broken by the brood of grandchildren clamouring for her attention. And sometimes, when she looks back, she can happily remember the years when Munawwar Sultana was the reigning queen of the Indian screen. (Munawwar Sultana interviewed by Piroj Wadia in 1978).

Raja Sulochana

Actor and dancer Pilliarchetty Bhakthavatsalam Naidu Rajeevalochana, 77, known simply as Raja Sulochana passed away in her sleep on 5^th March, 2013 at her Chennai residence. She was suffering from breathing problems. Two daughters and a son survive her.

Raja Sulochana was born on August 15, 1935 at Bezawada (Vijayawada) in the erstwhile Madras Presidency. She was trained in a variety of classical dance forms, including Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam, from a young age by an array of greats including Kalamandalam Madhavan, Vempati Chinna Satyam and KN Dhandayuthapani Pillai amongst others. Cinema soon beckoned and she debuted in HLN Simha’s 1953 bilingual Gunasagari (Kannada)/Sathya Shodhanai (Tamil). She went on to act in more than 200 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Aficionados of the golden age of Hindi cinema may remember Raja Sulochana in films such as Chori Chori, co-starring Nargis and Raj Kapoor and Sitaron Se Aage, co-starring Ashok Kumar and Vyjayanthimala.

Raja Sulochana married director Chittajallu Srinivasa Rao (1924-2004) and a very good example of their professional collaboration is Tiger Ramudu (1962), where the by now renowned dancer and actor acted alongside NT Rama Rao. If you take a look at the roster of Raja Sulochana’s co-stars in the 250+ films she acted in, they read like a who’s who of Indian cinema and include MG Ramachandran, Dr Rajkumar, Sivaji Ganesan, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and many more.

Raja Sulochana was one of those rare human beings who give back to the industry that fostered them. Pushpanjali Nritya Kala Kendram, a dance academy she founded in 1961, has produced generations of talented classical dancers.

I first came across Raja Sulochana’s work while watching a rerun of Dr Rajkumar’s debut film Bedara Kannappa (1954), also directed by HLN Simha; then again in Rangoon Radha (1956), A Kasilingam’s remake of Gaslight; and thereupon in scores of hits of the ’50s and ’60s.

However, the most unexpected and delightful encounter I had with her work was when I was commissioned to write Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography by Penguin Books. I had watched most of Superstar’s films before, including the early work, but one that had slipped through the cracks was R Pattabhiraman’s Gayatri (1977). In the film Sridevi, playing the titular Gayatri, a timorous 16-year-old, is married to the wealthy Rajaratnam, played by Rajinikanth, and moves to a palatial bungalow in Madras. Raja Sulochana plays Sarasu, Rajaratnam’s seemingly decorous spinster elder sister. Seemingly, because, of course, all is not what it seems. We get an early indication of Sarasu’s character when she is dressing up Gayatri for her first night. As interpreted by Raja Sulochana, Sarasu manages to invest a wealth of meaning when she kisses Gayatri on the cheek. Matters become clearer when she says that Gayatri is so beautiful that she herself feels desire for her.

I felt the whole thing was creepy and then I realized that I was meant to feel that way. The mise-en-scène created by Pattabhiraman is brilliant, as is the acting by both the ladies. Raja Sulochana is truly chameleon-like as Sarasu. Soon, she abandons all pretense of decorum and changes from widow’s weeds to flamboyant Western clothes or heavy, colourful silks and, to Gayatri’s horror, also smokes and drinks. However, when Gayatri’s parents come visiting, she changes back into her old, decorous self in a jiffy. In a film already featuring strong acting by Rajinikanth and Sridevi, Raja Sulochana delivers the command performance. And for what’s the secret behind Sarasu’s changing colour so often, you’ll just have to watch Gayatri.

Rest in peace in the great studio in the sky where you are now reunited with your husband (A tribute written by Naman Ramachandran).