RAJNI - Rajni (1985) I t's hard to believe today that Priya Tendulkar was not the first choice for Rajni. It was only after Padmini Kolhapure stepped down that Basu Chatterjee turned to Tendulkar to play the crusading housewife who single-handedly takes on the corrupt system. Vijay Tendulkar's spunky daugh- ter became a role model for women across the country. Meter-down cabbies, easily bribed ration officers and phony sadhus rejoiced when Rajni finally went off the air. But the fear she'd sparked off remained. Nineteen years later, when Tendulkar passed away, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his message of condolence said, "Her crusading role in and as Rajni gave voice to many important social issues." TULSI - Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000) T ulsi is a towering figure who's taken liberties galore as Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi went through the generation leap twice. A lowly priest's daughter she marries a millionaire's son, is widowed, gets her Mihir back just when she is about to take the pheras with another man. As a mother she sets her errant elder son right by cutting him off without a penny, pulls the trigger on another son and disciplines the ille- gitimate offspring of her souten. She's gone through a memory loss, survived a 20-year-exile, returned to the family fold, been sent to an asylum, emerged from sure death with a new face and lives to fight another battle. Not as Smriti Malhotra-Irani but Gautami Kapoor. TARA - Tara (1993) W hen writer-co-producer Vinta Nanda launched Tara in 1993, she expected only the metros to connect with her modern miss who has a mind of her own, drinks, swears, holds a job, has a pre-marital liaison with a married man and ties the knot with another, conceives a child and is happy being a single mum. Navneet Nishan who played the title role says that she was "dead certain Tara wouldn't be accepted." But for five years she ruled our living rooms. The Tara cut became a fad and weeping patnis suddenly turned daunting. Far ahead of its time, Zee TV's flagship show gave us a woman who was flesh, blood and flawed. PARVATI - Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii (2000) S he started out as Sita. And Saakshi Tanwar despaired about how "anybody could be so good and sacrificing when some- body else kept stepping all over her." It took a visit to Rajasthan to discover that there were women like Parvati in her own family. In the last seven years, Tanwar has moved from bahu to ma to dadi without having taken the pheras herself because as she once joked, "Who will marry Parvati bhabi?" The only consolation is that Sita has now become an avenging Durga. Kill me! SHANTI - Shanti (1995) S he was a journo on a mission.. to avenge her mother's rape and the shame of her birth. Targetting two powerful business tycoons, Shanti walked the path of vengeance. What made the familiar plot inter- esting was that Mandira Bedi who played her looked heart-breakingly vulnerable despite her flashing kohl-lined eyes, and her trademark bindi that became a fashion state- ment. PRERNA - Kasauti Zindagi Kay (2001) N o other actress could have played Prerna," Shweta Tiwari has boasted. And in a way she's right. From college girl to unwed mother, reluctant wife, stepmother, grandmother and even great- grandmother, Tiwari has held Kasautii Zindagi Kay together. It was only when the seven- year-itch bit her and she decided that she needed a life beyond Prerna that the show folded up. Just goes to show that it's a woman's world out there in the soaps. SAVI - Hasratein S avitri or Savi of Hasratein was a woman who followed her heart. She stepped out of the secu- rity of marriage to move in with her married lover. She later separated from her husband and son, official- ly, but her lover didn't divorce his wife and the couple didn't get mar- ried till the end even after they conceive a child together. Shefali Shah (then Chaya) who effortlessly stepped into the role after Seema Kapoor gave it a cer- tain dignity and respectability. "I got dozens of letters from women wishing Savi the best and hoping she'd get to keep her man. A lot of people were for this woman rather than against her," marvelled a heartened Shah. SIMRAN - Astitva.. ek prem kahani (2002) W hat made this prem kahani different was the fact that its heroine was a 37-year-old unmarried doctor swept off her feet by a much younger photogra- pher into a wedding shrouded in ambiguity and an insecure moth- erhood. Simran's problems were compounded by a bitchy saas and an unfaithful husband. Ajai Sinha's Astitva... expound- ed the myth that age is no bar in love. It comes up baar baar and shakes up even the always-in- control Simran made memorable by Nikki Aneja Walia. KAJALBHAI Hum Paanch (1995) K ajalbhai was the tomboy you and I were when we were grow- ing up. Only with her the effect lingered as she becomes the mohalla's dada. Every one of Hum Paanch's sis- ter are unforgettable, from the fem- inist Meenakshi to the batty man- mad Sweety, from the gossipy Choti to the hard-of-hearing Radhika played by Vidya Balan for a while. But it was tirchi topiwali Kajalbhai who got the maximum seetis. Bhairavi Raichura was so per- fect in her guise that when she turned feminine to romance Shekhar Suman in Ek Raja Ek Rani no one recognised her. JASSI - Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (2003) A desi take on Ugly Betty, Jassi with her buck-teeth, glasses, dowdy clothes and do-as-the- boss-wishes servility still caught the imagination of the Indian masses. It wasn't just the girl-next-door appeal of the story but also the fact that Mona Singh was never out of 'costume' till her on-screen transition, that had them hooked. However, once the ugly duck- ling turned into a swan and Armaan Sir fell for her, the plot lost some of its sting.
