Last week, the column spoke about the leading men who had essayed roles much older than their real age, and this week I am writing about the adventurous golden girls who dared to sport silver in their hair.
Katrina Kaif is playing a senior citizen for some sequences in Bharat... just like she did in Baar Baar Dekho a few years ago. There’s Madhuri Dixit in a TV commercial appearing as both a contemporary woman and her grey-haired mother... looking rather incongruous as she did when she play-acted old in Dil Tera Aashiq and Ansoo Bane Angaarey way back in 1993.
Good roles before vanity has been the credo for many a serious actress, right from the golden era. Nargis was only 28 years old when she played the strong-willed peasant woman who ages onscreen and is shown as the mother to two strapping young men, Sunil Dutt (28) and Rajendra Kumar (28), in the cult classic, Mother India (1957). Ironically, though she married Sunil Dutt eventually, she was never romantically paired with him onscreen.
Mala Sinha was but 25 years old when she played debutant Shashi Kapoor’s mother in Yash Chopra’s Dharamputra (1961). She had been the leading lady in Yash Chopra’s debut film Dhool Ka Phool which is possibly why she reposed faith in him and played the de facto hero’s mother in his next film.
Fortunately, this bold choice didn’t affect Mala Sinha’s career as a romantic lead. Hits like Gumraah, Himalaya Ki God Mein and Aankhen were all released subsequently and she remained a popular actress for the next 10 years!
Bengal’s doyenne Suchitra Sen made an occasional foray into Hindi films only when she obtained a role equal to her talents. In 1966 she starred in the successful Mamta and seemingly had no issue with the fact that in this double role, she played a young lawyer (paired opposite Dharmendra) as well as her aged mother (paired opposite Ashok Kumar).
Sharmila Tagore sprang a major surprise when at the young age of 24, she agreed to star as Rajesh Khanna’s lover in the first half of Aradhana (1969) and his mother in the second half.
The film came soon after her earlier outing with director Shakti Samanta, An Evening In Paris, in which he had cast her as glamorous sisters – a rich heiress and a cabaret dancer.
Aradhana was a striking change of image for the actress. She was determined to prove that there was more to her than glamorous roles... and she did. The film proved to be the biggest hit of her career.
Of course, bold gambits don’t always result in awards and rewards. Nutan played foster mother to Jeetendra in Maa Aur Mamta (1970) while Waheeda Rehman played Jaya Bhaduri’s obsessive mother in Phagun (1973) and these films coincided with the end of their careers as romantic leads.
Interestingly, Meena Kumari’s Mere Apne (1972) in which she played a white haired nanimaa was released in the same year as her uber romantic Pakeezah, but she tragically passed away soon thereafter at 39.
In the testosterone heavy late seventies with multi hero films ruling the roost, leading ladies acceded to playing older characters if it meant cornering a good role.
In 1981, Hema Malini was the glamorous female lead in blockbuster multistarrers like Naseeb and Kranti, but she was also the lead in Dard, in which she is shown to age by decades on-screen.
Rekha was only in her mid-20s and considered the glamour icon of her times when she gamely signed on to play a character who is estranged from her husband (Jeetendra) and ages till she is shown as the grey-streaked mother to young heroes Arun Govil and Sachin in Judaai (1980). In Baseraa (1981) she played Raj Kiran’s aunt and foster mother.
Raakhee has been remarkably bold with her choice of roles. After a two-year break for marriage and motherhood, when she returned to films with Kabhi Kabhie (1976) Raakhee’s beauty and hazel eyes were justifiably extolled; but, significantly, she had also dared to play Rishi Kapoor’s mother in the second half of the film.
In the 1980s, while still playing superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s leading lady, she simultaneously accepted Baseraa and Rocky in which she was the mother to younger heroes like Raj Kiran and Sanjay Dutt. The giddy climax was reached when after memorably playing heroine to Amitabh Bachchan in eight films (including superhits like Kabhi Kabhie, Kasme Vaade, Trishul, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar ) she accepted the offer to play Amitabh’s mother in Shakti ! And this was released in the same year as Bemisaal (1982) in which they played the romantic leads.
While most heroines who have played older characters have a major chunk of the film showcasing their character’s youthful days, Smita Patil picked up the gauntlet at 30 years of age and did Mohan Kumar’s Amrit (1986) that focussed on Rajesh Khanna and her lives as senior citizens who have lost their respective spouses and are sidelined by their adult children... but forge a brave new bond with each other.
At the zenith of her career in the 1980s, Jaya Prada proved willing to don the grey. While she had a double role in K Vishwanath’s Sanjog (1985) as the older mother who loses her mental equilibrium and her concerned daughter, in Sindoor (1987) she gamely played Neelam’s foster mother who is reconciled with her suspicious husband (Shashi Kapoor) only after the daughter has grown up.
Recently, Tabu reprised the much-older Mrs Havisham from Great Expectations in Fitoor but It didn’t stop her from playing the femme fatale to great effect in the noirish Andha Dhun. Grey hair or a grey-shaded role...it’s all in the game.
Dinesh Raheja is an Indian author, columnist, TV scriptwriter, and film historian. In 2017, he initiated The Dinesh Raheja Workshop in which he teaches Bollywood aspirants everything related to the media.
