Tuesday, November 9, 2004
The mother of Bollywood
Nirupa Roy (aka Kokila Balsara) passed away last month (October 13th), I learnt only today. An actress who made a career out of playing the teary-eyed (sometimes blind) long-suffering mother, she was a costume designer’s joy (one sad-looking unwashed saree for the entire movie is not too hard to stock).
Jokes apart though, here was an actress who had no qualms in playing mother to an actor older than her (Dev Anand in Munimji (1955)), at a time when heroine roles were still being offered to her. Her pre-glycerine-factory career included playing the heroine in over a hundred films ranging from mythologicals and social dramas to off-beat cinema classics like Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen (1953) against stalwart Balraj Sahni.
Amidst the angry-young-man, wounded-hero histrionics of Amitabh, she stood her own and shone as the moralistic mother in Yash Chopra’s Deewar (1975). Playing a mother who chooses righteousness over the love for her son, this was arguably her most famous role of all for moviegoers of today. A role preserved in time with the famous dialogue —
Vijay (Amitabh): Mere paas paisa hai, bangla hai, gaadi hai, kya hai tumhaare paas?
Ravi (Shashi Kapoor): Mere paas maa hai!
(Translated : I have all the wealth and luxuries in the world, what have you got? I have a mother on my side!)
May her soul rest in peace.
Yep..I agree. Thats a classy dialogue she is most remembered for.Poor Soul even if she appeared colorful in the beginning of any movie, people knew it was not long before the all white saree will be donned.
RIP Ms.Nirupa Roy
Tuesday, November 9, 2004 @ 6:44 PM
Apt title. Deewar’s famous dialogue has been relived in so me ads (on mtv and all). The costume designers had a field day but the makeup man must have worked his ass off to give her a destitute bees-saal-pehle-pati-bichadgaya look. Is that picture from the movie “Mard”?
Tuesday, November 9, 2004 @ 6:54 PM
Remember the MTV parody on the dialogue?
Vijay (Amitabh): Mere paas dhan hai, daulat hai, gaadi hai bangla hai,3 CD changer with remote control hai
…tumhaare paas kyaa hai?
Ravi (Shashi Kapoor): Mere paas maa hai!
Vijay (Amitabh): (Lifts his hand and holds a lifaafa with red beans in it)—to mere pass RAJma hai.
OR
Vijay (Amitabh): Mere paas dhan hai, daulat hai, gaadi hai bangla hai,3 CD changer with remote control hai
…tumhaare paas kyaa hai?
Ravi (Shashi Kapoor): Er….Can you repeat the question?
And yes…Rest In Peace Ms. Kokila Balsara. You will be missed and not forgotten.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 @ 12:10 AM
hmmmm,yeah..she was indeed the baap of all Maas..wasnt she? :)
bollywood would never be teh same again the quintessential mother
MHSRIP!
-OM
ps:errm…. Deewar did you say? Is this the same Deewar in which AM dies in the end or are we talking abt a diff movie? :)
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 @ 2:09 AM
oh, my previous comment was withouth the ‘without’..plis bear
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 @ 2:10 AM
[Paddy] So true. Rare to find her dolled up in zari sarees, flowers in hair, et al. One movie that comes to mind as an exception to that rule (mainly cos I saw it just last week) is Jawani Diwani. She plays bhabhi to the hero (Randhir Kapoor), stays happily married and in full color throughout, almost always smiles, and except the occasional bhabhi tumne maa ki kami mehsoos nahin hone di scenes, doesn’t indulge in over-sentiment. Quite a hatke role for her, i’d say! :)
[pingoo] ‘destitute bees-saal-pehle-pati-bichadgaya look‘ :D Nice! You know, jokes apart, for her Do Bigha Zameen role she actually wore old unwashed sarees bought from Chor Bazaar for days together, just so she could get into the role completely. Such dedication! I have no idea where the photo is from, although the very mention of Mard scares me!
[manjusha] Arrey, I didn’t know about the MTV parody! Thanks for sharing, it sure brought a chuckle! :)
[oxy_moron] Totally! Yes the very same Deewar. Why the doubt? Would this question have anything to do with my well-known refusal to watch movies like Deewar and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar cos Amitabh dies in them? *suspicious look*
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 @ 2:46 PM
Dedication, yes it is !
“although the very mention of Mard scares me! “
lol what’s so scary about ‘Mard’ ?
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 @ 11:37 PM
What’s NOT scary about Mard is a better question to ask! I have made a conscious effort to wipe out all traces of it from my memory, so don’t make me give you examples, pleej? It just IS scary! Not in a Bees Saal Baad way of course, but in an emotionally scarring kind of way.
*memories of mard tangewaala, main hoon mard tangewaala come floating back, much to my agony*
Monday, December 6, 2004 @ 1:20 AM