‘Smita Patil came with no filters’: Shobhaa De’
October 17 marks the birth anniversary of Smita Patil. Ajit Ramachanddran gets author & columnist Ms. Shobhaa De’ to illumine her takes on the television newscaster, front-liner actress and close confidante she misses deeply
Ajit Ramachanddran
‘Smita Patil came with no filters’: Shobhaa De’
October 17 marks the birth anniversary of Smita Patil. Ajit Ramachanddran gets author & columnist Ms. Shobhaa De’ to illumine her takes on the television newscaster, front-liner actress and close confidante she misses deeply
MUMBAI: At her plush penthouse – decorated in mucho-riche style and offering a sighting of the Arabian Sea that’s insanely refreshing – an affable, furry canine is peering at you intently.
Another set of eye-balls too is watching you keenly. They belong to Ms.Shobhaa De’. Displaying unnerving charm that is never in deficit, De’ unleashes a gaze that sends seismic tremors up the spine.
Minutes later, she sits herself down smilingly, green-lighting the Smita-centric interface…
Television Stunner
“The first time, I saw Smita Patil reading the Marathi news on Doordarshan in the 1970s, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was so radically different from everybody else. She was a newsreader who wasn’t trying to look too attractive and pretty or stick flowers behind her ears or make a bouffant or have pancake make-up on, which was the trend at that time. There was no affectation of a fruity Brit accent like a lot of them did at that time. Smita was just a woman who had such a compelling presence on the small screen, at that point. There was so much personality there! She wasn’t conventionally good-looking or beautiful, but there was something more to her that added to her appeal, apart from her voice, of course.”
Maiden Magic!
“I recall the first time I met Smita. I was in Pune, at the Osho Ashram. Smita was in and out of the place. I think she was dating Vinod Khanna at that time, if I’m not mistaken. She was such a natural, spontaneous, exuberant girl and I liked her free-spiritedness. I liked the fact that she really didn’t give a damn! The Maharashtrian bond between us was very powerful, very strong. We spoke in Marathi in Pune at that point which was a big high, because others around us were not speaking the language. Marathi became our own little secret language at that time.”
Honesty Undiluted
“Smita Patil came with no filters. In her life or her interviews, there was nothing at all that was synthetic about her. She was truthful and candid and told it like it is. I like that because they always make the best interviewees. You don’t have to waste time trying to break them to get a quote that is genuine. It was already there. But generally, and inevitably, a journalist and star relationship has its ups and downs, because they expect a certain kind of preferential assessment of their lives, because you know them. With Smita, there were no such issues. She was someone who was earthy and a very real woman. Smita was very blasé’ about her success, which I think is fantastic! She took her work very seriously, she didn’t take herself very seriously. Maybe, Smita would have achieved very different heights if she had the same focussed ambition as some of her contemporaries.”
Super Connect
“Smita and I were very, very compatible on many levels. You strip away all that from Smita Patil, the sort of exoticised version of her and she was just another simple Maharashtrian girl. We could actually sit down anywhere and have varan-bhaath and puran –poli and maybe talk about stuff that was close to our hearts. Although she did have plans of turning director, we never got down to discussing it ever.Smita was a very spontaneous girl and in a sense, so was I. I don’t like things being planned to the last detail. I like the idea of making decisions from the heart, which are slightly risky. There has to be an element of uncertainty. Smita and I made a jeep trip spontaneously, where we got to see some original lavni dancers.”
Life Interrupted
“Although many say that astrologers had told Smita that she would not live long, because she had a short life-line, she never discussed it with me. What mattered to Smita was what she was feeling and her passionate involvement with a man, a project, or whatever it was, at that point of time. That was in her DNA. To be with the moment and in the moment.I didn’t ever see that brooding, morbid side to her which would be thinking about death or any of that. She was too much of a lover of life, living every precious moment of it to the fullest.”
The Next Smita Patil?
“To begin with, I think it’s a very lazy media gimmick to keep talking and looking for the ‘Next So- And –So.’ From the time of Madhubala, they have been looking for the ‘next Madhubala’, the ‘next Madhuri Dixit’, the ‘next Smita Patil’, and so on. Each person who comes in and succeeds the way Smita did, comes with their very own special qualities. You don’t come in to become the ‘Next So-And-So.’ You come in to be yourself. You don’t come in to become number two to someone else. That, in itself, is an unfair yardstick to use for a newcomer, or anybody else for that matter. And I would never ever make that mistake.”
(Facebook: Public Profiles : Shobha Rajadhyaksha De’ ; Shobhaa De Blog)
(Twitter: @DeShobhaa )
(Instagram : @Shobhaade )
SMITA PATIL: BRILLIANCE SNUFFED OUT!
Bonny Baby Day: October 17, 1955
Celestially Claimed On: December 13, 1986
International Accolade: First Asian actress to be honoured by celebrated French filmmaker Costa Gavras with a retrospective of her films at La Rochelle and Cinematheque Francaise in France; an honour she shared with other top-drawer luminaries such as Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann and Robert De Niro, among others
Indian Highs: Padma Shri (1985); National Awards for ‘Best Actress’: ‘Bhumika’(1977) & ‘Chakra’ (1980)
Abiding Admirers: Numerous, the world over. And still in mourning.
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