Smita Patil (Marathi: स्मिता पाटील) (October 17, 1955 – 13 December 1986) was a leading Indian actress from the 1970s to the 1980s in both Hindi and Marathi cinema.
Along with actresses like Shabana Azmi, she was one of the potent quartet representing India's parallel cinema. In a succession of landmark films like Manthan (1977), Bhumika (1977), Aakrosh (1980) and Chakra (1981).
Patil was also 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.
Early life
Smita was the daughter of a Maharashtrian politician Shivajirao Patil & social worker mother from Shirpur town of Khandesh province of Maharashtra State.
She studied at a Marathi-language school. Her first tryst with the camera was as a television newscaster for Doordarshan Pune, the Indian government controlled television, which was the only channel on the airwaves during those days.
Career
Smita Patil belongs to a generation of great actresses, including Suhasini Mulay and the aforementioned Shabana Azmi and, like them, is strongly associated with the radically political cinema of the 1970s. Her work includes films with parallel cinema directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and Mrinal Sen as well as forays into the more commercial Hindi Film Industry cinema of Mumbai. Patil was working as a TV news reader and was also an accomplished photographer when Shyam Benegal discovered her.[2]
She was an alumna of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. In 1977, she won the National Award for 'Best Actress' for her performance in the Hindi film Bhumika. In her films, Patil's character often represents an intelligent femininity that stands in relief against the conventional background of male-dominated cinema (films like Bhumika, Umbartha, and Bazaar). Smita Patil was also a women's rights activist and became famous for her roles in films that portrayed women as capable and empowered.
She played a non conventional rebellious protagonist in most of the movies. Her presence on screen had a magnetic charm of its own. Her bold and rustic performance was unparalled in the history of Indian cinema, so much so, that the void created after her untimely death still remains. After she was no more, whenever a new actress gave an exceptional performance, people compared her to the fiesty Smita Patil. Unfortunately no one till date has been able to match her remarkably extraordinary potential. It's an honour for any actress to be even considered to be compared to her, such was her enigmatic talent and irresistible integrity and passion for acting. She was a rare combination of haunting beauty, a sensitive soul aand an intelligent mind.
As time went on, Patil moved away from her strictly "art house" reputation and, to the consternation of cinemaphiles, began to take parts in mainstream Hindi Film Industry extravaganzas.
"I remained committed to small cinema for about five years," Smita herself recalled. "I refused all commercial offers. Around 1977-78, the small cinema movement started picking up and they needed names. I was unceremoniously dropped from a couple of projects. This was a very subtle thing but it affected me a lot. I told myself that here I am and I have not bothered to make money. I have turned down big, commercial offers because of my commitment to small cinema and what have I got in return? If they want names I'll make a name for myself. So I started and took whatever came my way."
Initially her embarrassment showed as she mouthed corny dialogue, donned glitzy costumes and struck the archetypical Hindi Cinema dance poses -- but soon her hard-core professionalism won out. In time she was accepted by commercial filmmakers and from Raj Khosla and Ramesh Sippy to B.R. Chopra, they all agreed that she was "excellent". Her fans, too, grew with her newfound stardom. Patil's glamorous roles in her more commercial films -- such as Shakti, Namak Halaal and Akhir Kyon -- revealed the permeable boundaries between "serious" cinema and "Hindi Cinema" masala in the Hindi film industry.
Her association with artistic cinema remained strong, however. Her arguably greatest (and unfortunately final) role came when Smita re-teamed with Ketan Mehta to play the feisty and fiery Sonbai in Mirch Masala (1987). Smita won raves for playing a spirited spice-factory worker who stands up against a lecherous petty official.
Her dusky beauty and dark intense eyes drew attention. Always a bit of a rebel, she would grin when people complimented her on looking lovely in the saris she sported for the telecasts because minutes before going on air, she would have hurriedly wrapped the sari over her jeans.
One of the interesting facts about her and raj babbar:smita acted in a marathi film named umbarthaand raj acted in a hindi movie named dahleez, both the film names have the same meaning.
Personal life
When Patil became romantically involved with the actor Raj Babbar, Patil drew severe criticism from her fans and the media, clouding her personal life and throwing her into the eye of a media storm. Raj Babbar left his wife, Nadira Babbar to marry Patil.
Overnight, Patil was labeled a "home-breaker" by the very Feminist organizations she had worked so assiduously for, and became the target of barbed criticism. Feminists could not understand this radical divide between her expressed ideology, & her conduct in her personal life - probably never having read VS Naipaul's scathing critique of the Indian Mentality in his book An Area of Darkness. In later years, the Indian media showing the very same psychological mechanisms at work, has begun to air-brush history & this pernicious tendency of a glaring disconnect at the heart of the ideologically-committed Indian who blithely behaves in a contrarian manner, as in the following from The Hindu: "It was a nightmare for both Smita and Raj and looking back it was ultimately her dignified silence and restraint that becalmed those troubled times. Ushering in hope for a promising, new future -- but that was not to be." [3]
Death
Smita died as a result of childbirth complications on December 13, 1986, barely 6 hours after having given birth to her son, Prateek Smit Babbar - so named in an extensively televised appearance by her grieving widower, Raj Babbar, whose tearful but long performance in front of the news cameras was seen as unnatural & contrived by most Indians.
Nearly two decades later, one of India's greatest film directors, Mrinal Sen alleged that she died because of gross negligence.[4]
"She passed away even before she could cement her relationship with her just born son, Prateek," a 2002 remembrance noted. "Her son, now a strapping teenager, is not the only 'prateek' (symbol) of her memories. Smita has left behind a rich haul of films that showcase her enormous ability to offer us a glimpse into her soul each time she performed a role."[5]
Prateek made his debut in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na playing Genelia's Brother.
Awards
Winner:
- 1982 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Chakra .
- 1982 - National Film Award - Best Actress for Chakra .
- 1978 - National Film Award - Best Actress for Bhumika .
- 1978 - BFJA Best Actress Award for Bhumika .
- 1982 - BFJA Best Actress Award for Chakra (Film)
- 1984 - BFJA Best Actress Award for Arth
- 1988 - BFJA Best Actress Award for Mirch Masala
Nominated:
- 1978 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Bhumika.
- 1983 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Bazaar.
- 1984 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for Arth
- 1984 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for Mandi
- 1985 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Aaj Ki Aawaz
Partial Filmography
Note: Several of her already completed films were released years after her death right uptill 1989.
- 1975 - Nishant, Charandas Chor
- 1977 - Bhumika, Manthan, Kondura
- 1978 - Bhavani Bhavai, Sarvasakshi
- 1979 - Umbartha (Subah),Gaman,Anvesham,Naxalites
- 1980 - Aakrosh, Sadgati,
- 1981 - Chakra
- 1982 - Bazaar,Namak Halaal, Shakti, Awam
- 1983 - Mandi, Arth, Ardh Satya
- 1984 - Pet Pyar Aur Paap, Aaj Ki Awaaz, Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki, Qayamat, Sharaabi
- 1985 - Aakhir Kyon, Ghulami, Mirch Masala, Chidambaram
- 1986 - Aap Ke Saath,Amrit
- 1987- Dance Dance, Thikana, Insaniyat Ke Dushman, Nazrana, Sutradhar
- 1988- Waris
- 1989 - Galiyon Ka Baadshah
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