The Importance of Being Dimple Kapadia
Although counted amongst one of the finer actors in Indian cinema, one of Dimple Kapadia’s substantial achievements is often forgotten. Today, when every time an actress faces the camera after a gap of a few years, which would be seen as a regular trait when it comes to actors in any other part of the world, its celebrated as a comeback. If one were to look closely at Hindi cinema then it wouldn’t be too presumptuous to say that Dimple Kapadia crafted one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Indian films as well as created a legacy that stood out when compared to contemporaries.
Following a dream debut in Raj Kapoor’s Booby (1973) that catapulted her to the A-List, Dimple Kapadia was the automatic choice to feature opposite her first co-star, Rishi Kapoor, who had signed on a barrage of films immediately after Bobby. Along with Kapoor, Kapadia, too, was poised to become one of the busiest stars of the 1970s but she gave it all up to marry Rajesh Khanna. Dimple was just 16 when she married Khanna in 1973, who is believed to have asked her to quit acting, and as a result contemporaries such as Neetu Singh ended up filling in for Dimple in the films opposite Rishi Kapoor.
By the time Dimple Kapadia walked out of her marriage in 1985 the landscape of popular Hindi cinema had completely transformed. Most of her peers such as Neetu Singh and Mumtaz had quit acting or like Rekha, Hema Malini, Rakhee and Sharmila Tagore had moved on to play the strong-character-roles. The younger generation of leading ladies that included Amrita Singh, Sridevi, Poonam Dhillon, and Meenakshi Seshadri to name a few had more than established their presence. Although Dimple Kapadia was just 28, factors such as being married, a mother of two children and being out of public memory for over a decade or in other words things that the industry insiders believed worked against heroines, become a hurdle. Moreover, Dimple was trying to ‘return’ at an age where most heroines would be made to ‘retire’ and this is where she changed it all forever.
The films that Dimple Kapadia featured in immediately upon her ‘return’ in the mid-1980s were indicative of the era. Although this made the roles that came her way run of the mill, they also displayed a high degree of an effort on her part to somewhere fit in. One of the first times that audiences got to see her after Bobby was in a film called Zakhmi Sher (1984), which was a remake of a Telugu blockbuster called Bobbili Puli (1982). While Jeetendra featured in the lead role that was portrayed by N.T. Rama Rao in the original, Dimple Kapadia reprised the role played by Sridevi but the film is barely recalled today. As an actor, Dimple found few her bearings in Aaitbaar (1985) and Arjun (1985), which cemented her onscreen pairing with Sunny Deol, the two had featured in Manzil Manzil (1984) as well, but it wasn’t until Saagar (1985) that she managed to announce her return.
Written by Javed Akhtar with the idea of re-launching Dimple Kapadia, Saagar gave the actress a second-shot at films and she made the most of the film. Ironically enough, had Dimple continued to act post-Bobby, she would have been relegated to character roles by the time Saagar happened but destiny had a totally different script in mind for Dimple. The film might not have been as successful as Bobby but not only did it get rave reviews besides fetching Dimple the Filmfare Award for Best Actress but also gave her a new identity. Rumours have it that Rajesh Khanna was not too pleased with the kind of role she played, but Dimple Kapadia was beyond it all. Interestingly, it was Dimple and not Sridevi that director Balu Mahendra’s originally wanted for Sadma (1983), the Hindi remake of his Tamil hit Moondram Pirai. (1982) but Kapadia had already committed to Ramesh Sippy for Saagar (1985).
Immediately on the heels of Saagar, Dimple went on to feature in an array of films that saw her carve a niche for herself and stand-out from the rest of the lot. If Feroz Khan’s Jaanbaaz (1986) created her sultry diva image, Mukul S. Anand’s Insaaf (1987) gave her a femme fatale makeover, Mahesh Bhatt’s Kaash (1987) became her Kramer Vs. Kramer moment where she packed in scary realism to portray a woman tormented due to her husband’s insecurities. Watching Dimple Kapadia in Kaash where she makes the viewer physically experiences whatever her character, Pooja, is going through makes you realise just how organic a performer she truly is.
Dimple Kapadia’s career has been peppered with moments of transition and while most actors reflect on the before and after phases, a few like Dimple Kapadia excel in the transition. For many, Dimple’s comeback with Saagar would have been enough to write the history books with but there are two instances where she managed to achieve a lot with just a handful of films in between periods of being busy with regular, routine fare. If the first of them was between Saagar and the beginning of the 1990s with Jaanbaaz and Kaash, the other was in the mid-1990s with Kalpana Lajmi’s Rudaali (1993) and Mrinal Sen’s Antareen (1994). The former featured her in her National Award winning role of Shanichari, a widow whose life has been besieged with misfortune and the latter was her only Bengali film that saw her play a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who falls for an anonymous man during a series of telephone conversations.
IN the last few years, Dimple Kapadia infused life into characters that popular Hindi cinema finds uncomfortable with such finesse that one wonders had it not been for her what would become of Dil Chahta Hai’s Tara Jaiswal or Being Cyrus’ Katy Sethna? If not for Dimple Kapadia would we have been lucky enough to experience a Neena Walia in Luck By Chance or been able to find Rosalina in Finding Fanny?
Dimple Kapadia turns 61 on 8 June.
