Best Debutants Ever
Some women are just made for cinema.Most actresses learn on the job. They graduate from film to film, and learn from co-stars and filmmakers. The stereotypical Bollywood routine involves starting with a few duds before one major blockbuster catapults them into stardom, after which -- provided they truly have talent -- there's no looking back.
Yet sometimes destiny and dedication collide with immense serendipity the very first time around. Sometimes, actresses start off in the best way imaginable.
Here, then, are then actresses who did it right from the start. Ten leading ladies who ruled -- right from the word go.
10. Chitrangda Singh - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
India collectively fell in love as soon as we saw the strikingly gorgeous Chitrangda Singh in Sudhir Mishra's tale of young ambition and realistically complicated relationships.
Revolutions are planned and friendships embittered, but Kay Kay Menon's Siddhartha and Shiney Ahuja's Vikram inevitably look longingly at Chitrangda's Geeta, a wonderfully written character, cerebral and stimulating yet essentially a conformist. A sensational debut.
9. Saira Banu -- Junglee
Shammi Kapoor's Chandrashekhar is an aristocrat who has been raised to believe laughter is something commoners indulge in. With an exaggeratedly pursed mouth, the poor little rich boy reaches Kashmir where he meets a girl called Rajkumari. Now the optimistically named girl isn't a princess, or rich enough for his family to approve of, but Chandrashekhar can't care less.
It's the effervescent Saira Banu absolutely turning on the irresistibility, and all he -- or any of us -- can do is goggle wistfully. Wow.
8. Kalpana Kartik -- Baazi
Guru Dutt's uber-cool directorial debut saw suave street gambler Madan (Dev Anand) being sucked into a vortex of evil, with only the love of a noble lady doctor keeping him going.
The film remains eminently admirable, and Kartik's portrayal of Dr Rajani is so wonderfully self-assured that it's hard to believe the film is her first.
7. Konkona Sensharma -- Mr & Mrs Iyer, Page 3
Konkona performed frequently as a child actress in mother Aparna Sen's films, but nobody was prepared for the ovation that would follow her first grown-up film. The English feature Mr & Mrs Iyer saw Koko playing a Tamiliam woman, and so perfect was her mastery of accent and inflection that we were all bowled over.
Her first Hindi feature, Page 3, cast her as a struggling entertainment journalist, and her role bagged her much well-deserved acclaim. Clearly a girl who knew just what she was doing.
6. Seema Biswas -- Bandit Queen
Occasionally, there are actors who provide biopic performances so iconic that they constantly end up being confused for the original (Just ask Ben Kingsley). Biswas was doing a play for the National School of Drama when director Shekhar Kapoor spotted undeniable talent and brought her forth to screen, putting her through one of the most gruelling and demanding roles in Indian cinema.
For all of us who never met the lady herself, Phoolan Devi is Seema Biswas, the actress putting in a truly powerhouse performance.
5. Smita Patil -- Charandas Chor, Manthan
Patil first stepped into cinema with Shyam Benegal's Charandas Chor, a children's film adapted from the eponymous play by Habib Tanvir. In this classic folk tale, Patil delightfully played a lovelorn princess -- and clearly Benegal realised he had found another muse.
A long collaboration followed, and while Charandas might have had her in a supporting role, she soon found a full-fledged leading role in Benegal's compelling Manthan, one that immediately marked her out as one of the country's premiere actresses.
4. Dimple Kapadia -- Bobby
She was sixteen, for God's sake.
An elfin little girl with big, lovely eyes, nobody quite portrayed innocence as memorably as Dimple in her first outing. She was candid, striking, and a true natural.
A young Rishi Kapoor gawked haplessly -- while, off-screen leading romantic hero Rajesh Khanna immediately went and married the lass -- but the verdict was clear: here was a girl who would redefine glamour and grace, and make it look very, very easy indeed.
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3. Waheeda Rehman -- CID
One of the most stunning actresses to ever grace the silver screen, Waheeda started out as a vamp. And what a vamp she was. A child actress in Telugu cinema, Guru Dutt spotted her in a song and snatched her off to Bombay, to cast her in his next production, CID, directed by his longtime associate Raj Khosla.The film was one of the coolest thrillers in Bollywood history, and Waheeda was full-on devastating in her decidedly noir role. Next came Pyaasa, and the rest is history, the kind that is mercifully available on DVD and necessitates several blissful watches.
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2. Sharmila Tagore -- Apur Sansar, Kashmir Ki Kali
Beginning your career with Satyajit Ray is no mean feat, and Tagore was just fourteen when she acted in Apur Sansar, the third in Ray's revered Apu Trilogy.Disarmingly raw and refreshingly unschooled, the actress was spellbinding, and went on to act in several Ray films, mostly alongside her first co-star Soumitra Chatterjee, the director's favourite leading man.
Her first Hindi feature came about with director Shakti Samanta's Kashmir Ki Kali, a film where she had to portray Shammi Kapoor's plucky, stunning love interest. Needless to say Sharmila did this with such elan that more people noticed her than the irrepressible leading man, and as they say in hackneyed biographies, a star was born.
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1. Shabana Azmi -- Ankur
Who better to perch atop a list like this than the most prolific of India's finest actresses?
Shyam Benegal's motion picture debut was a terrific little film featuring newcomers Azmi and Anant Nag in the lead roles. Azmi's character, that of a servant driven to infidelity, is a very well-etched and multifaceted one, and the actress is incredible in the part.
So overwhelming, in fact, was her impact with this film that she won the National Award for Best Actress. On debut.
Playing a perpetually perturbed character, Azmi smiles only once in the entire film -- during the song Yahi To Hai Woh in the background. It's a powerhouse performance, and one that gifted us with an actress to admire and cherish.
We're still smiling.
link
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/nov/24sd8-best-actresses-ever.htm
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