{"id":3608,"date":"2016-06-05T21:16:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T15:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2016-06-05T21:16:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T15:46:30","slug":"happy-birthday-tabu-eternal-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3608","title":{"rendered":"Tabu: Eternal Beauty in the Era of Manufactured Comebacks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

B<\/span><\/p>eing Tabu is no easy feat. In fact, it took even <\/span>Tabu<\/span><\/a> a while to become Tabu. <\/span>\n\nShe started as a gawky <\/span>teen<\/span><\/a> in her awkward debut in Dev Anand\u2019s <\/span>Hum Naujawan <\/span><\/i>(1985), with her girl-next-door face. The first two decades of her Bollywood career were uneventful; she often played the demure lassie to the dashing hero \u2013 roles that couldn\u2019t be further from her personality and oeuvre. <\/span>\n\nThink of her running about the pianos in <\/span>Raah Mein Unse<\/span><\/i> with <\/span>Ajay Devgn<\/span><\/a> or prancing about in those horrendous outfits in the synthetic <\/span>Ruk Ruk Ruk<\/span><\/i>. Even back then, even though the \u201990s made a lot of garbage palatable, there was a sense that Tabu was too good for the men she was paired up with, too good for the trash she was forced to do… before she could become Tabu. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nIt was only with <\/span>Astitva<\/span><\/i> (2000) that she came into her own. The Mahesh Manjrekar film that went on to win the National Film Award for best Marathi feature film, truly gave us a glimpse into what Tabu was capable of \u2013 and perhaps only Tabu could be capable of. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\nThis was at the beginning of the noughties when her peers were busy playing the perfect heroines \u2013 <\/span>Preity Zinta<\/span><\/a> was channeling her inner manic-pixie dream girl yet again in <\/span>Kya Kehna<\/span><\/i>; <\/span>Aishwarya Ra<\/span><\/a>i was playing the coy, adarsh daughter and the dreamy lover in <\/span>Mohabbatein<\/span><\/i>. But Tabu made the tough choices, she decided to be picky. So after <\/span>Hera Pheri<\/span><\/i>, she gave us <\/span>Chandni Bar<\/span><\/i>, the only tolerable Madhur Bhandarkar movie in his filmography. <\/span>\n

Words do no justice to the versatility of Tabu, but her performances certainly do.<\/blockquote>\nYes, Tabu also went down the path of<\/span> Golmaal<\/span><\/i>. But she also went the <\/span>Haider <\/span><\/i>way. In Vishal Bhardwaj\u2019s masterful retelling of <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s<\/span><\/a> greatest tragedy <\/span>Hamlet<\/span><\/i>, Tabu played the scheming \u2013 but also cornered \u2013 wife, and the mother whose relationship with her son flirts dangerously with the illicit. Set in the troubled background of Kashmir, Tabu brought a tragic, undefinable, mad quality to her role. <\/span>\n\nCould anyone else have done it? Could anyone else step into Bhardwaj\u2019s Shakespearean universes? Could anyone better the pitch-perfect Lady Macbeth\/Nimmi in <\/span>Maqbool<\/span><\/i> or the turbulent Gertrude\/Ghazala in <\/span>Haider<\/span><\/i>?<\/span>\n\nNow, at the close of more than two decades after the noughties, when many of her contemporaries have either faded into oblivion or have staged half-assed comebacks, Tabu is still around. She never really left the arena to really have to make a comeback. Yes, there were a few lean years after the highs of <\/span>Cheeni Kum<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>The Namesake <\/span><\/i>in 2007, some excursions into Telugu cinema. Even when she resurfaced in the mainstream with <\/span>Life of Pi<\/span><\/i> in 2012, there was no PR machinery at work, urging us to pay attention to her, as there was with <\/span>Madhuri Dixit<\/span><\/a>, Aishwarya Rai, Kajol, and their many comebacks.<\/span>\n\nTabu might take a few steps, but they are almost always significant ones. Her start to 2018 was dismal with <\/span>Missing, <\/span><\/i>a dampening thriller, but the finesse with which she played her character could chill anyone to the bone. And <\/span>Andhadhun<\/span><\/i> was a role written for her. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nThat\u2019s the beauty of her performances. Once you see her sink into a character, it is impossible to imagine any other actor stepping into the role. <\/span>\n\nHer role in <\/span>Cheeni Kum <\/span><\/i>is often glossed over, as people talk about her other powerful performances. I, on the other hand, will always be smitten by the smiles and counterattacks with which she makes a man twice her age fall in love with her. Who would\u2019ve thought that an Indian audience, accustomed to watching Raj spread his arms wide in the Alps, would fall for a love story so unconventional? But there was Tabu flirting with both <\/span>Amitabh Bachchan<\/span><\/a> and us in every frame, matching the megastar beat for beat.<\/span>\n\nWords do no justice to the versatility of Tabu, but her performances certainly do. In <\/span>Drishyam<\/span><\/i>, you see her crumbling from a tough police officer to a mother who begs to know what became of her son. In <\/span>Fitoor<\/span><\/i>, an otherwise disappointing take on Charles Dickens\u2019 <\/span>Great Expectations<\/span><\/i>, Tabu took on a role rejected by Rekha, and one wondered if she could be the Miss Havisham we envisioned. While Aditya Roy Kapur and <\/span>Katrina Kaif<\/span><\/a> failed to match up to Pip and Estella, Tabu made an exemplary Begum Hazrat Jaan. Her angst, helplessness, and commitment to her role provided some grace for the doomed film. <\/span>\n\nThis is Tabu\u2019s legacy \u2013 her tragic characters have deep, even more tragic layers. She is that crazy diamond that will keep shining on. Happy 48th birthday, superstar. Remain Tabu<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words do no justice to the versatility of Tabu, but her performances certainly do. She is ethereal as the courtesan Saeeda Bai in Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy, and in Andhadhun, her eccentric and evil Simi steals the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":3609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[6794,2611,6795],"class_list":["post-3608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-happy-birthday-tabu","tag-tabu","tag-tabu-birthday"],"yoast_head":"\nTabu: Eternal Beauty in the Era of Manufactured Comebacks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Words do no justice to the versatility of Tabu, but her performances certainly do. 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