Deepti Naval

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s a professor in English and her mother Himadri Gangahar, a teacher. So readers may wonder, how did Deepti display so many shades of creative skill? Well the credit for the same goes to her mother because she had much fascination for art and music. She was a competent painter and a great cinema devotee. It was her bedtime stories to Deepti that began to influence young Deepti, who soon began exhibiting her creative talent. When her mother enrolled her in a music class, Deepti began to grasp the complicated Indian ragas easily. By the age of 10 she had mastered many ragas by heart. Unfortunately, she had to quit music and move to USA, when her father got a job at New York University. Deepti Naval developed interest in cinema at American Theater in New York At New York, Deepti did not lose touch in Indian Classical music but her passion for Fine Arts grew and she did her graduation in Fine Arts from New York’s reputed Hunter University. Her subject of study was Painting. While studying she also developed interest in Photography and eventually she was inclined to American Theatre. It was here at the American Theatre Deepti Naval developed interest in drama and realistic cinema. Deepti confesses that she grew watching typical commercial cinema and her favorite actresses were Meena Kumari, Nutan and Waheeda Rehman. However when she was exposed to American Theatre she was deeply influenced by the neo-realistic cinema.

Shyam Benegal introduced her in his film Junoon When Deepti Naval came to Mumbai to try her luck in Hindi cinema she was clear in her mind that she was not interested in the typical masala Bollywood films but wished to act in sensible art films. Hence she directly approached, filmmaker Shyam Benegal, the film director who was spearheading New Wave Cinema in Mumbai and had established a prominent place for art cinema with his films like Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika etc. Interestingly Benegal was impressed by Deepti Naval’s devotion for art films and introduced her in his film Junoon (1978). In this film Deepti Naval had a small, yet unconventional role of a young girl, who soon becomes widow and undergoes atrocities of society. The film was set during pre-independence era. The movie was hit and Deepti Naval won critics appreciation for her cameo. Deepti Naval became star with Ek Baar Phir After Junoon, Deepti did few more cameos in films that were offbeat like Gulzar’s Jallian Wala Bagh (1979) and Bapu’s Hum Paanch (1980). While Jallian Wala Bagh was a big flop, Hum Paanch like Junoon was a commercial success. The film celebrated silver jubilee and gave stardom to many art cinema actors who worked in the film like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Raj Babbar and Mithun Chakraborty. These actors later ventured into commercial Bollywood and became popular stars while Deepti Naval continued doing arts cinema. After the success of Hum Paanch, Deepti Naval got her first film as a leading actress in the film Ek Baar Phir (1980). The film was directed by an upcoming filmmaker Vinod Pande. In this film Deepti played the role of a woman, who marries a film star (Suresh Oberoi) but is subjected to humiliation and tribulation despite being educated and gifted with art of painting. Hence she leaves her celebrated husband and begins an independent life as a painter. The subject of the film inspired many women to break the chains of slavery of their husband and live a life of pride grooming their art and qualifications. The film celebrated Silver Jubilee and was a huge hit. Interestingly after the success of this film Suresh Oberoi her co-star too joined Bollywood commercial stream but Deepti Naval did not get enticed by the allure of money and fame of commercial cinema. Deepti Naval joined the league of Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil Deepti Naval’s next film was the hard hitting film Kamla based on famous writer Vijay Tendulkar’s play by the same name. It was based on a true story exposing how the rich and the famous exploit tribal women and make them their mistress. In this film Deepti Naval played the title role of Kamla, a tribal woman, who is bought by a journalist (on an investigation mission) and later in a press conference he reveals the truth how tribal women are easily purchased and exploited. It was in this film Deepti Naval got the privilege to work with Shabana Azmi, who played the journalist wife and suspected her husband for keeping a mistress. The film won rave reviews for Deepti Naval and many critics even praised Deepti Naval for overshadowing Shabana Azmi. In this film Deepti Naval had few dialogues but it was her eyes and face through which she vividly expressed her emotions. Later she did many thought provoking roles in films like Mirch Masala, Ankahee, Andhi Gali, Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho, Main Zinda Hoon, Didi, Panchvati etc The success of these film placed her in the leagues of great art cinema actresses Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. Deepti Naval’s stint in Commercial Cinema Deepti Naval has always ignored commercial cinema because money had never been her passion but she loved travelling and when money would be consumed in travelling she would do a single commercial film to fulfill the expense. Also after the death of Vinod Pandit, she was broken own and took a brief retirement. However when she underwent a major ailment and needed money for hospital bills, she was forced to do commercial film. Thus Deepti utilized commercial only as a means to make money during times of crises. Some of her commercial films are Subhash Ghai’s Saudagar (1991), Feroz Khan’s Yalgaar ( 1992), Boney Kapoor’s Shakti –The Power (2002), Farhan Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) etc