There are certain images that make you stop for a moment. You see them and, before you have even had time to think, they take you somewhere else. Somewhere familiar. Somewhere that belongs to another time. When I saw Kareena Kapoor in a beautiful lehariya sari recently, I was immediately reminded of Karisma and of Shyam Benegal’s Zubeidaa. It made me think of working with my father and of the wonderful opportunity to create costumes for Rekha ji, Karisma, Manoj Bajpayee, Lilette Dubey, Rajit Kapur, Amrish Puri, Surekha Sikri and so many other talented actors.
Image Courtsey: Ashwini Sawant
Zubeidaa had a strong sense of individuality, but she was also vulnerable, impulsive and full of contradictions. We wanted to show those qualities to find their way into the clothes in an instinctive and almost effortless manner. Fabrics, colours, drapes and movement became as important as the clothes themselves.
And then there is another lovely coincidence.
Today, I am out of town, working on a film schedule with Manoj Bajpayee, who is playing Gandhi. Seeing these images while working with Manoj again made me pause and reflect on how beautifully different chapters of our creative lives can sometimes come together.
So when I saw Kareena in a lehariya, it was a fleeting visual connection, the kind cinema sometimes creates between different moments in time. A fabric, a colour or a silhouette can suddenly awaken an old memory. And perhaps seeing Kareena makes that feeling even more special because of the connection to Karisma.
Twenty-five years later, I find myself thinking about those days on the film. The discussions, the fittings, the fabrics and the tiny decisions that eventually became part of a character’s identity. I think of Karisma and the extraordinary world we were trying to create with my father, Shyam Benegal.
For me, that is where costume truly finds its meaning. It should never overpower the person wearing it. When character, proportion, texture, colour and movement come together, the costume becomes invisible in the best possible way. It becomes part of who that person is.
That is what this image brought back to me.
Not simply Zubeidaa, but a time, a creative process, my father, Karisma and the privilege of being part of a film that continues to live in people’s memories.
Sometimes cinema does that. A single image, years later, can quietly open a door to the past. And for me, seeing Kareena in that lehariya was one such moment.
A look. A legacy. And a little nostalgia.
