Shabana Azmi and Smita Patel – the most celebrated actresses of unparallel cinema of Bollywood of 70’s and early 80’s have many mannerisms and similarities in common. There was a striking similarity in the roles they have chosen to act for. Both were interested in women oriented movies and had lead social life in the role of feminist too. So in many cases they were parallel. So, when they competent to each other in their roles media celebrated the events with fuss and spice.

Though Smita Patel has won two National awards and Shabana won 5, an important thing to note is that Smitha died at an early age of 31 in 1986 at the peak of her career with many stories untold and mysteries unfold. But Shabana Azmi got her full life to experiment with the roles she got. Another similarity is that, despite being social activitists, both fell in love with married men and both those persons left their wife and kids to marry these ladies. What an irony! Raj Babbar was one among the co-actors of Smitha Patel’s movies. We have seen both these actresses working together in Arth. But Shabana overpowered Smitha by winning the National award for best actress in 1983. Both these actresses were paired with actors who have theatric back ground. Nasarudden Shah, Om puri and Khurana were most common in their movies.

Yet both these actresses proved that they can work in commercial movies too. Commercial success of Amar Akbar Antony where Shabana Azmi did the role of a thief and Namak Halal of Smitha Patel where she did a rain song with Amitabh Bachchan are the best instances for their commercial successes. Directors like Shyam Benegal always wanted both these actresses in his movie.

They have given birth to the lovely picturation of many Bollywood hits too. All the songs of Smita Patel’s Baazar have been super success ghazals. Dikhayi diye yoon is still remembered for its charm and bliss. Though rivals did exist between these two actresses, perhaps it served them both to bring the best of their talents on silver screen – perhaps the best cold war Indian silver screen has ever witnessed, the conflicts of two equal strengths that existed in Bollywood during contemporary age of cinema and directors!  

Article Posted By : Sandhya Rani  On April 27, 2013lView All Articles

Do watch their movies once to know the real women power

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Keywords :
Smita , Shabana , smita patel , shabana azmi