Jab tum chale jaoge yaad bahot aaoge…Parveen Babi sang this beautiful Lata Mangeshkar song in Vijay Anand’s Bullet, her only film with the unstoppable Dev Anand.
I remember a conversation with Dev Saab when we spoke on Parveen. “Now that you ask me I wonder why I did only one film with Parveen. She was just my kind of heroine.Very stylish, effortlessly Westernized, born for the movie camera…How would I compare her with Zeenat? I wouldn’t! It would be unfair to both.”
Parveen Babi died 19 years ago on January 20, 2005. But as far as the film industry was concerned, she died a long time before, after she was reportedly diagnosed as schizophrenic. In her last years, one seldom heard or saw her, except for an appearance on Shekhar Suman’s talk show where she appeared as normal as she could be, except when she took off on her favourite subject – Amitabh Bachchan.
Distinctly overweight, it was difficult to recognise Parveen Babi in the last one-third of her life. She died a lonely, isolated death.
And to think that in the 1970s, she embodied the new-age heroine! Introduced by Babu Ram Ishaara, alongside cricketer Salim Durrani, in Charitra, Babi shot to fame in the films that she did with Amitabh Bachchan – Amar Akbar Anthony, Do Aur Do Paanch, Namak Halaal, Shaan and Khuddar.
In Yash Chopra’s Deewaar, she was cast as a liberated working girl, smoking, drinking and sleeping with her lover, defying every Hindi film heroine rule. At the same time, she could carry off the sari-clad look opposite Jeetendra in J Om Prakash’s Arpan. Parveen Babi’s most glorious moment was when she was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1976 to represent the new face of Hindi cinema.
Then, suddenly, everything began to go wrong for this defiant girl. According to her close friends, Parveen began to lose her mind. Parveen was very uncomfortable with the idea of exposing her feelings on camera. The exhibitionism required to perform in front of a camera tormented her. She quietly and quickly withdrew from the rat race, to the extent that no one could keep track of her.
In the late 1970s, Babi had a tumultuous, widely-publicized affair with Mahesh Bhatt. When in 1982, Bhatt made a sensational film, Arth, based on his affair with Parveen Babi, with Smita Patil playing Babi’s role, she was deeply affected.The film affected her, as did the men in her life.
She was wonderful company, very articulate, a terrific conversationalist, extremely well-read. In fact, she had begun to write her memoirs, which she never completed.
Parveen Babi died a frighteningly lonely death isolated by her own insecurities and paranoia, she was obsessed with bringing down Amitabh Bachchan, accusing him of all sorts of crimes and misdemeanors from being a spy to a terrorist. Mr Bachchan took it all in his stride and never lashed out at her, even when her attacks got progressively vicious and absurd. In the last interview of her life with Shekhar Suman which had to be conducted in her house as she refused to step out of her home for the fear of getting killed, she had made fun of Mr Bachchan being designated the Star Of The Millennium when there were Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley to consider. She also mocked his being considered the Most Handsome Indian Actor when there were Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Raj Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and even Shashi Kapoor’s son Karan, all of whom Parveen considered handsome.
Parveen Babi has, unfairly, been always compared with Zeenat Aman and even labelled as the ‘Poor Man’s Zeenat’. In truth, Parveen was a better actress who never got the opportunities that Zeenat did, never worked with directors like Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, and still left a mark even in the smallest of roles. In her very first film,Charitra in 1973, Parveen flung away the image of the typical heroine to play a girl who is compelled to sleep with her father’s creditor who impregnates her and refuses to own up to the child. It took a director of B R Isaara’s unorthodoxy to launch a new liberated Hindi film heroine whose charitra was not impeccable and who shockingly enough indulged in pre-marital sex. From the beginning, it was clear that Parveen Babi wouldn’t fit into the typical Sati Savitri mould.
Parveen did a string of some very successful films with Amitabh Bachchan including Amar Akbar Anthony in which she played the role of Jenny, Anthony’s sweetheart. They both emerged out of an Easter egg in the film and captivated the audience. But my pick of her films with Amitabh Bachchan is Deewaar (1975) in which she played the liberated, unfettered and unorthodox Anita who shares the bed with Vijay in a no strings attached relationship. Her love theme, I am falling in love with a stranger typified the route that Ms Babi had chosen for her career.
Chandi Sona in 1977 was Sanjay Khan’s incurably silly treasure-hunt film with a treasurable Parveen Babi in that legendary Cleopatra get-up which Time magazine saw and put on their cover, much to the envy of the other top actresses of the time. This is how Parveen Babi became globally famous. This is the film’s only claim to fame. As she goes on a treasure hunt with Mr Khan, Parveen can actually be seen having a whole lot of fun with her dim-witted part. Ever chic and glamorous, we seldom saw her having fun with her characters.
Ashanti in 1982 was Umesh Mehra’s Charlie’s Angels with Zeenat Aman, Shabana Azmi and Parveen Babi whooping it up in style. Parveen seemed to enjoy the role of a gun-toting, karate-wielding kickass female hero. And this was one film she enjoyed making because there was so much sexual tension on the sets. I always wanted to see this stunning beauty in an action avtar. This was Parveen Babi chance, and she grabbed it.
1982 was an exceptionally busy year for Parveen. She worked with Hrishikesh Mukherjee for the first time in Rang Birangi and he told me he wished he had offered her a more substantial role. During the same year, she played the Other Woman in three films: Esmayeel Shroff’s Dil Aakhir Dil Hai, J Om Prakash’s Arpan (stealing Jeetendra away from Reena Roy) and Vinod Pandey’s Yeh Nazdeekiyan in which she played a sexy model named Kiran who steals Shabana Azmi’s husband but returns him back when she realizes she doesn’t want to be branded a home-breaker. Her meatiest part ever, Parveen sank her crooked teeth into it with a wolfish delight. If only she had lived long enough to see sexual liberation hit Bollywood.
Actor Danny Denzongpa in a rare interview with me had opened up on his relationship with the beautiful Babi. “She was my first girlfriend. The way she ended up was very tragic. I was in touch with her until I got married.After she became unwell I was in touch with her. We lived in the same building. She was on the 4th floor and I was on the 1st floor. Although I was dating Kim, Parveen would drop in quite often. She was okay then. Later she became psychologically unstable. She became very sick when she was dating Mahesh Bhatt. Mahesh told me of her condition and I went to see her. It was then that I found out she was frightened and paranoid.”
What made Danny realize how unwell she was? “Because I was friendly with Amitji(Bachchan) she started suspecting I was his agent.She would keep on writing complaints against him to the police and other departments. Then she came to point where she didn’t want to see me because of my friendship with Amitji. I was there for her funeral. What happened to her is very tragic. ”
Beyond the tragedy of a mind caving in partly due the pressures of a business of constant heartbreaks, the story of Parveen Babi’s destruction is the tragedy of how we isolate those who are mentally ill.There was a time when producers were breaking down Parveen Babi’s doors. A good three days after her death the neighbours had to break down her door to give her a decent burial.If only the vultures would leave her alone at least now.
