Naseeruddin Shah

Naseeruddin Shah was born in 1950 in Barabanki. He started acting at the age of five in his bathroom. He was an ardent fan of Shammi Kapoor. While he was at the Pune Film Institute, he got an offer to act in Shyam Benegal's film 'Nishant'. Subsequently, he did several Shyam Benegal's films in supporting roles. But his major breakthrough came in the film 'Junoon', released in 1978 and then the film 'Aakrosh' in 1980.

His films 'Masoom', 'Khandahar' and Taar', established his credentials as an actor par excellence. The films 'Katha' and Testonjee' exemplified his ability to effectively portray difficult roles of emotions and varying characters. His portrayal of a blind man in 'Sparsh' is a landmark in the Hindi film histrionics.During the late eighties Naseeruddin drifted to the arena of commercial films like 'Tridev' and 'Najayaz'. Though he may have forsaken the art movement yet his fans will remember him as a man who helped kindle the fires of the art revolution.

Born in 1950 and educated at the National School of Drama in Delhi, Naseeruddin Shah is now one of the icons of New Indian Cinema along with Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and Om Puri; indeed, he is arguably one of the finest actors in the world today, though the nature of world culture is such that the most mediocre American actors are more widely known around the world. Though his use of hesitant speech and casual gesture to signify psychological complexity sets him apart from mainstream actors, he has gained a fair amount of success in commercial cinema too.

Like many of the other actors of his genre, Naseeruddin Shah was first noticed by Shyam Benegal. He acted in Benegal's Nishant (1975), Manthan and Bhumika (1976). One of his most intense performances was given in Saeed Mirza's Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai ("What makes Albert Pinto angry?", 1980). In the movie, he plays a garage mechanic from Goa who dreams of the expensive cars that he repairs but that are far beyond his reach. The film is set in a Catholic setting, primarily because Mirza did not have the courage to tackle Muslim issues. Naseeruddin Shah has also acted for other New Indian Cinema directors including Mrinal Sen (Khandan, 1983) and Sai Paranjpye (Sparsh, 1979). Besides these "serious" roles, he has a penchant for comedy.

His roles in Ketan Mehta's films and also in films like Mandi, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, and Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! (1983), have endeared him to the Indian public. He has also not shied away from accepting roles in mainstream Hindi movies where he has played a variety of characters, though his slight frame has ensured that he is most often cast in a comic role. However, directors also utilize his great acting talent when a "character role" has to be played. What is surely most arresting about him is the sheer versatility of his talent. Naseeruddin Shah has also played and directed English and Hindi plays. This is not unimportant, since many of the most brilliant film actors came to the cinema after a long stint as theater actors. With his wife Ratna Pathak, Naseeruddin Shah continues to act regularly in plays, often at Shashi Kapoor's Prithvi Theatre

Born in 1955 in Pune, Smita Patil entered the film industry after a brief stint as a television announcer. Her first major role as the woman who leads a Harijan revolt in Shyam Benegal's Manthan (The Churning) won her critical acclaim. Exceptional performances such as the outspoken tribal in Ketan Mehta's Bhavni Bhavai and as the struggling actress, Hansa Wadkar, in Benegal's Bhumika (The Role) established her reputation as a versatile actress both in India and abroad. In what was a unusual honor for an actress who was then less than 30 years of age, and had been working in the cinema for less than 10 years, her work was celebrated at the festival of La Rochelle and by the French cinematheque in 1984.Alongside Shabhana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, and Om Puri, Smita Patil was to be an integral part of the New Indian cinema, and she was to feature in a very large number of films which offered some glimpse of the life of the working-class and marginalized in India. Smita Patil, who was also an activist and a member of the Women's Centre in Bombay, was deeply committed to the advancement of women's issues, and gave her endorsement to films which sought to explore the role of women in traditional Indian society, their sexuality, and the changes facing the middle-class woman in an urban milieu. In Jabbar Patel's Marathi film Umbartha (1982), Patil played the superintendent of a women's prison who finds the courage to leave her husband after he casually admits to having had adulterous affairs. One of her most memorable feminist roles may have been in Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala (1985), where she plays a village woman, Sonbai, who is much desired by the feudal master. Cornered in a chili factory by his men, she extricates herself from a most difficult situation by throwing chili powder into his eyes.

Smita Patil was a woman of exceptionally striking beauty, though scarcely of the type that predominates in the commercial cinema, and she displayed an equally extraordinary maturity in every performance she ever gave. Though she was to appear in some commerical releases, she was clearly out of place in those roles. Her career was tragically cut short by her death in 1986 during childbirth, as if in ominous reminder of the precariousness of the lives of women in India. Her talent as a photographer has only been recently discovered after the 1992 exhibition of her photographs, Through the eyes of Smita, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Bombay.