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Jaffrey in a jiffy
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Madhur Jaffrey has more than one identity to call her own
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Photo: Anu Pushkarna
Fresh as ever Madhur Jaffrey
Madhur Jaffrey is not your perfect example of a successful actress. She is barely seen in Bollywood; straddles the U.K. and the U.S. on acting assignments, but doesn’t quite do the usual Hollywood flick. She has no airs of a successful actress,
her armour is perhaps ‘the cutest younger sister’ brand of a smile and well, she is petite. Not your idea of a tall, trim, glamorous toast of a party flaunting the latest fashion. In fact, la Jaffrey, going strong at 74 now, can run for ‘the same hair-do for the last 50 years contest’ if there comes by any.
Jokes aside, Madhur is perhaps one of India’s time-tested exports in the field of acting to the West. Someone who broke the invisible glass ceiling long before the Aishwaryas and Shilpas were even born. Often seen in Ivory-Merchant films, Madhur can be credited with bringing these two greats together, which eventually gave us movies like Cotton Mary, Heat and Dust, The Perfect Murder.
Flashing that familiar broad smile caught between her famous blunt haircut with a parting in the middle, Madhur says, “Oh, that’s true. We were all friends. I met James (Ivory) first and then Ismail (Merchant). I used to tell them, why don’t you both get together and make films? It was in 1959. My God, ages ago!”
Well appreciated in many movies and plays, Madhur also runs a parallel career of a successful food writer. Often hailed for introducing Indian curries to British kitchen, her numerous books on Indian cooking are as famous as her cookery shows, be it on the BBC (way back in the ’80s) or the one on Discovery Travel and Living beamed in India recently.
In a relaxing mood at the hotel, our conversation obviously treads off to why are the Westerners increasingly finding attractive in Asian cuisine. “Well, it is not just the dishes. They are getting attracted to Asian cuisine because of related things like the various techniques used in cooking food. And that is why, a lot of buzz is around Japanese, Malaysian, Thai and Indian food and some bit of interest is in Chinese food too.” At present writing yet another tome on Indian cuisine, (“You will see it in 2009”), she points out there has been little experimentation in Indian cuisine by Indian chefs.
“Most of the fusion food is being done by the western chefs. Take Cinammon Club in London. It doesn’t have the real Indian food but a touch of it for that feel of exotica. Both this type of very modified and little modified versions of Indian cuisine are a trend now.” She then relates her experience of having a great meal in Maldives some time ago where an Australian chef laid a table of fusion food. “She did a marvellous job of fusing Australian food with our South Indian food.”
Most regional Indian cuisine, she agrees, is high on taste but low on presentation.
“In Daawat, (an Indian restaurant in New York to which she is attached to as a food consultant) we particularly try to present the dishes in an interesting manner,” she says.
Tired of eating British food while studying drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Madhur, then 19, tried her hand at cooking more out of necessity than love for cooking. Her mother used to send letters full of recipes from Delhi to try out home-cooked food. “I still have her aerogrammes,” she says.
Madhur has not only passed on her interest in cooking to her three daughters but to her grand children too. “All my grand children (between nine and 15 years) cook well, particularly my eldest grandson,” says the proud granny.
Besides, her free time is now being taken more by movie commitments than by plays.
“I am now involved in three movies you would not know of. There is Freebee in Wonderland and Partition, a Canadian film,” she states. Also, she is “thinking of doing a cookery show on TV again.”
Ask her whether she ever thinks of retiring from work, and the lady almost jumps up from her seat, replying with a laugh, “My God! What will I do then?” Just joking Madhur!
SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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