Not too many remember her from the 1963 Bengali film Mahanagar, but I still carry with me the memory of a young face, washed clean from an interrupted bath, peeking out from behind the door of the washroom, to ask her sister-in-law about her result. She was Jaya Bhadhuri then, barely 15, yet she held her own against seasoned actors like Anil Chatterjee and Madhabi Mukherjee in this Satyajit Ray classic.
She was such a natural in front of the camera that it surprised me later to learn that when Ray had approached her for this supporting role of Anil Chatterjee’s sister, Jaya had been in two minds about doing it, unsure about whether she wanted to pursue acting. It was her father, journalist and author Taroon Coomar Bhaduri, who pointed out that such an opportunity might never come her way again. He was proud when she not only landed the part, but also caught the eye on screen. Later, when she told him that she wanted to study acting at the Film & Television Institute of India in Pune, her baba did not oppose her decision.
It was at the FTII that Hrishikesh Mukherjee spotted her in a student’s film and offered her his coming-of-age story, Guddi. Fifty years have passed since and Jaya Bachchan is a dadi today, but for her many fans she remains the schoolgirl ‘Guddi’.
Romu N Sippy, who was the film’s executive producer, remembers her as a pleasant person and a thorough professional. “She had just come out of the institute but one could see instantly that she was brilliant, quick on the uptake and wonderfully spontaneous in front of the camera,” he recalls.
No wonder Mukherjee, who was a hard-to-please disciplinarian, was so impressed with this pint-sized actress, the only one who called him kaku instead of dada or Hrishida. He quickly understood that she didn’t need make-up or costumes, her charm lay in her girl-next-door simplicity and her girlish laughter and her talent which outshone the spotlights.
Quiz Romu, who was the associate producer on Bawarchi, the executive producer on Chupke Chupke and Mili and the producer of Koshish, about his leading lady and he says, “There’s not much to say because there was never any instance of discord between us. The only thing I remember is that it was thanks to her that I produced my first film, Mere Apne.”
Mere Apne released in the same year as Guddi, Upkar and Jaya’s Bengali film, Dhanyee Meye. It was a remake of Tapan Sinha’s 1968 National Award-winning Bengali film Apanjan, revolving around an elderly widow who on realising how self-centred and exploitative her own family is, moves out, and is ‘adopted’ by two warring gangs of educated and unemployed young man, who incited by local politicians, often engage in street violence despite her repeated pleas.
“It was Jaya who suggested we make the film in Hindi,” informs Sippy. Sinha had wanted to direct the Hindi version himself and Gulzar had gone to Kolkata to translate the script for him. But he insisted on going with the same cast as the Bengali film, which was not acceptable to the producers, following which Gulzar bought the Hindi rights, reworked certain portions of the original story and rounded up a motley bunch of young actors. His biggest casting coup was Meena Kumari who stepped in for Chaya Devi. She was only 38 at the time, but was persuaded to play an old woman. She was very ill, often burning with fever, often too weak to walk, but the actress in her persevered to give an unforgettable performance.
Meena Kumari passed away soon after the film’s release, but Mere Apne changed the careers of Vinod Khanna, who cast away his bad man image and graduated to becoming a leading man, while Shatrughan Sinha stepped out of bit roles and guest appearances to make a name for himself as a bad man. Dinesh Thakur was the unlikely hero of Basu Chatterjee’s middle-of-the-road film Rajnigandha, but it was the stage that he dedicated his life to. The surprise was Danny Denzogpa, the lad from Sikkim, who played the ventriloquist Sanju and went on to become one of Hindi cinema’s greatest villains.
Today, in the film and Jaya’s golden jubilee year, Romu Sippy gives full credit for Mere Apne to the actress. “She did not feature in the film, but the idea for making it came from Jaya,” he reiterates.
