Dinesh Kamath's column 'Movie World: Tabu completes 25 years as Bollywood Heroine' that was published in Newsband

Movie World

Tabu completes 25 years as Bollywood Heroine

By Dinesh Kamath

Tabu has just completed 25 years as a Bollywood heroine. Her first release as a Bollywood heroine has made a lot of noise because she was Shabana Azmi’s niece and was making her debut opposite the in-form Rishi Kapoor. The film, Pehla Pehla Pyar, did not do so well at the box office. Even her Sanjay Kapoor co-starrer Prem, ended up as a super-flop. Tabu’s second release Vijaypath, opposite Ajay Devgn, scored bullseye at the box-office. In Vijaypath, Tabu played the hero’s lovergirl who gyrates to the peppy Ruk ruk ruk number. This made her the darling of the masses.

Andhadhun and De De Pyaar De attest that Tabu, at 46, is going strong as ever, more than most heroines of her generation. Many of her contemporaries quit films for marriage. Others tied the knot with big filmmakers or actors.

Maybe, the tag of being Shabana Azmi’s niece helped. The young Tabu actually became popular in that early sombre role. Her Maachis went onto become a hit. Tabu won a National Award and Bollywood, where success matters above all else, noted the fact. In no time, she was deemed an actress who could be profitably fitted into an offbeat package of realism.

As Maachis led to offbeat and arthouse projects such as Astitva (2000), Chandni Bar (2001), Maqbool (2003) and Haider (2014), Tabu was quick to balance these projects with mainstream hits including Virasat, Chachi 420, and Hera Pheri. She won a second National Award for her tragic role of a bar dancer in Chandni Bar. She came up with strong character roles amid the big-budget multi-star casts of Biwi No. 1 and Hum Saath-Saath Hain.  In 2017 she impressed all with the multistarrer blockbuster, Golmaal. Her dark roles in Haider and Fitoor were greatly appreciated.

Here are interesting information about some of her films in which she excelled:

MAACHIS (1996): Tabu won her first National Award for Gulzar’s film on Punjab insurgency of the 1980s.

Maachis (English: Matches) is a 1996 Indian Hindi period political thriller film directed by Gulzar and produced by R. V. Pandit. It stars Om Puri, Tabu, Chandrachur Singh and Jimmy Sheirgill in the lead roles. The film portrays the circumstances surrounding the rise of the Sikh insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s and traces the transformation of a youth from a boy next door to a dreaded terrorist bent on wreaking vengeance.

The title is used as a metaphor that conveys that the youth of any nation are matchsticks that could ignite due to deficiencies in the political and policing systems.

Maachis was a critical and commercial success. Gulzar's direction and the music of Vishal Bhardwaj were strong points. To this day, many songs from the film, particularly "Chappa Chappa Charkha Chale" and "Chhod Aaye Hum Vo Galiyaan" can be heard playing on FM radio or TV channels. Bhardwaj went on to become a director and has directed movies such as Maqbool as well as the highly lauded Omkara. "Chhod Aaye Hum" was the first Hindi film song sung by the now famous Indian singer KK.

Maachis is a film about what atrocities can drive an ordinary human to do. It looks back at the Punjab problem and tries to figure out some of the root causes.

ASTITVA (2000): A middle-class homemaker’s life is thrown in a turmoil owing to ghosts of her past.

Astitva (meaning existence, identity) is a 2000 bilingual film made simultaneously in Marathi and Hindi, written and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. The film tells the story of Aditi Pandit, a happily married woman whose husband Srikant becomes suspicious when she unexpectedly receives a fortune willed to her by her former music teacher, Malhar Kamat. Srikant Pandit tries to figure out why she had received inheritance from Kamat, many years after the music classes had ended, and subsequently makes a discovery.

Astitva won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi in the year 2000.

CHANDNI BAR (2001): Her role of a beleaguered bar dancer won her a second National Award as actress.

Chandni Bar is a 2001 Indian Hindi crime film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime. The film stars Tabu and Atul Kulkarni in lead roles. It also stars Ananya Khare, Rajpal Yadav, Minakshi Sahani and Vishal Thakkar. The film was a critically acclaimed hit and it won four National Film Awards.

MAQBOOL (2003): Tabu stood out amid an incredible cast reprising Lady Macbeth in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Macbeth adaptation.

Maqbool (Favorite) is a 2003 Indian crime drama film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starring Pankaj Kapur, Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Masumeh Makhija in an adaptation of the play Macbeth by Shakespeare.

The plot of the film is based on that of Macbeth with regard to events and characterisation. The film did not perform remarkably at the box office, but won director Vishal Bhardwaj international acclaim. Apart from directing it, he had also composed the background score and songs for the film. Bhardwaj then moved on to adapting William Shakespeare's Othello in his 2006 film Omkara which won him commercial as well as critical success. He then directed Haider in 2014 adapting Hamlet, leading to what is now called his Shakespeare trilogy.

The film had its North American premiere at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. Though the film failed to garner much of an audience during its theatrical run in India, critics were appreciative and Pankaj Kapur went on to win a Filmfare Award for Best Actor (Critics) and a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was screened in the Marché du Film section of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

HAIDER (2014): Vishal Bhardwaj’s Hamlet adaptation saw the actress essay a complex portrayal of an Indianised Gertrude.

Haider is a 2014 Indian drama film written, produced and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, and co-written by Basharat Peer. It stars Shahid Kapoor as the titular protagonist, and co-stars Tabu, Shraddha Kapoor and Kay Kay Menon. Irrfan Khan appears in an extended special appearance. The film is both a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet and an adaptation of Basharat Peer's memoir Curfewed Night, set amidst the insurgency-hit Kashmir conflicts of 1995 and civilian disappearances. Haider, a young student and a poet, returns to Kashmir at the peak of the conflict to seek answers about his father's disappearance and ends up being tugged into the politics of the state.

Haider is the third installment of Bhardwaj's Shakespearean trilogy after Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006). The film was screened at the 19th Busan International Film Festival, and released worldwide on 2 October 2014 to wide critical acclaim and the film was a success at the box office and garnered attention from the media due to its controversial subject matter. The direction, performances of Kay Kay Menon, Tabu and Shahid Kapoor, screenplay, film score and editing received praise and garnered several accolades.

Haider was the first Indian film to win the People's Choice Award at the Rome Film Festival. Among several awards and nominations in India, the film won five National Film Awards: Best Male Playback Singer, Best Dialogue, Best choreography, Best Costume Design, and Best Music Direction.