Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

The times are changing!

ZIYA US SALAM

Jayaprada makes a comeback to Hindi cinema with a character role in `Tathastu' releasing this Friday.

Gone is the giggle of Sargam, that girl who reminded you of a river in spate. Gone too is the youthful exuberance of K. Visvanath's discovery. More than a handful of summers later, Jayaprada today is a picture of quiet dignity and calm anticipation as she makes a comeback to the silver screen this Friday with Nitin Manmohan's Tathastu. The excitement is not there. Nor is there overweening enthusiasm for the first-day, first-show results. Times have changed. She is no longer the heroine, certain that wherever she might go, the camera shall follow her. She is a character artiste who must yield space to the young: Amisha Patel in this case, happy herself to play a doctor who must do something for a poor child. The young guns have taken over the centre-stage, the old ones just amble on.

Back again

Says Jayaprada, "I am happy to be back on the screen. But the excitement of Sargam is missing. I am calm. I have no butterflies in my stomach. I have been through this all many times in the past."

How come she is not so eager anymore?

"Well, I have experienced all this. And this is more a Sanju (Sanjay Dutt) film. I have an important but smallish role."

Yes, times indeed have changed. In the patriarchal Hindi film industry, while Jayaprada has gone on to character roles, Sanjay Dutt who was her hero in films like Main Awara Hoon and Mardon Wali Baat continues to be a hero. His leading lady now is Amisha Patel who must have been in her diapers when he made his debut with Rocky! Matters little. Says Jayaprada, "We must learn to be happy with what we cannot change. And this film is a meaningful one about the organ transplant scam. It shows a struggle between doctors who are good, and doctors who are bad. I play a good doctor."

Isn't it high time she showed a mean streak on the screen?

"Well, I would like to but nobody is ready to envision me in a negative role at all. They all offer me goodie-goodie roles. Forget films even in real life nobody can think of me with negative shades or a person with a mean approach."

Really, have the times changed? Well, they have.

Jayaprada who once had the producers waiting for her to give the nod for a film, is today waiting for a fellow actor to give dates for her film! The film is to be directed by Kitu Ghosh and marks Jayaprada's debut as a Hindi film producer. It was supposed to be launched on her birthday in April this year but lead actor Irrfan, now riding a crest, could not give time for this thriller which will now get rolling if he gives dates for June! Says Jayaprada, "We intend to shoot in June and August in Mumbai. The intention is to wrap up the film in three months or so and release it by the end of the year. We are only waiting for Irrfan to give dates, everything else has fallen into place."

Also falling into place is a little economy on truth about the film. The film, which has Jayaprada singing a duet with Adnan Sami to Bappi Lahiri's music, is widely reported to mark her debut as a playback singer. Humbug. More than a decade ago in the early 1990s, Jayaprada lent her vocal chords to a song in Sone Ki Lanka and has done likewise for a couple of South Indian films too. Jayaprada, meanwhile, is soaking in the compliments, happy to let the illusion last!

The world is a stage

Also lasting longer is her stint as a dancer for the Amrapali dance-drama. After giving performances in Mumbai, Agra, Lucknow, Aurangabad and Mahua, Jayaprada is ready to give an international touch to her resume. This summer, London will be a stopover, then there are negotiations going on for a similar performance in New York. Back home, Jaipur and Ahmedabad await the lady and her troupe later this year. "Outsiders need a classical dance and culture more. They tend to value it more because they don't get that exposure often enough."

Have the times really changed? Well, hold on for a minute. Taking time off her whistle-stop dance-drama tour and a handful of usual Hindi films - College Campus, Deh, and the Kitu Ghosh film - Jayaprada is doing a cameo in a Telugu film starring Balakrishna. Marking her comeback to Telugu cinema, Jayaprada says, "We are going for shooting to Nainital next week." And then there will be time to thrash out the details with Jahnu Barua with whom she is working in a film.

Not to forget her constituency, Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. "Rampur is a blessing for me. It is probably the most beautiful thing to have happened in life," says this first-time Lok Sabha MP often locked in duel with the local MLA, Azam Khan.

But then in her film career too she was for long involved in a battle for the number one slot with Sridevi. Now, only the stakes and the stage have changed. Do times really change? Well, never mind.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail