Dinesh Raheja

Dimunitive she may be, but Jaya Bhaduri has managed to cast a long shadow over the world of Hindi films

When Jaya entered films with Guddi in the early 1970s, chic but torturously coiffed and elaborately made-up heroines (Sharmila, Mumtaz et al) ruled the roost. Jaya, with her unpretentious looks but palpable talent, was a gale of fresh air and proved immensely popular.

Famous songs picturised on Jaya Bhaduri
Song	Film	Singer
Bol re papihara	Guddi	Vani Jairam
Sooni re nagariya	Uphaar	Lata Mangeshkar
Piya ka ghar hai yeh	Piya Ka Ghar	Lata Mangeshkar
Jaane jaan dhoondta	Jawani Diwani	Asha Bhosle, Kishore  Kumar
Patta patta boota  boota	Ek Nazar	Mohammed Rafi, Lata  Mangeshkar
Sare ke sare gama  ko lekar	Parichay	Asha Bhosle, Kishore  Kumar
Banake kyon bigada  re, ooparwale	Zanjeer	Lata Mangeshkar
Baahon mein chale  aa	Anamika	Lata Mangeshkar
Piya bina piya bina	Abhimaan	Lata Mangeshkar
Mera padhne mein  nahin laage dil	Kora Kagaz	Lata Mangeshkar
Maine kaha phoolon  se	Mili	Lata Mangeshkar
Kabhi khushi kabhie  gham	Kabhi Khushi  Kabhie Gham	Lata Mangeshkar

Audiences fell for her extremely endearing personality, a gurgly, effervescent laugh and the ability to illuminate the inner lives of her many complex characters.

Despite an abbreviated-by-marriage career span initially, Jaya became a major star, acted in a string of hits. She hacked a path for deglamourised heroines like the contemperaneous Archana (in Jaya's mentor Hrishikesh Mukherji's Buddha Mil Gaya) followed by Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Deepti Naval.

Even after Jaya married long-time boyfriend Amitabh Bachchan and became Mrs Superstar, she has time and again bagged awards for acting in the ocassional film, produced successful television serials (Dekh Bhai Dekh), and determinedly carved out her own identity.

The often briskly outspoken actress was born to noted author-journalist Taroon Kumar. Acting opportunites came Jaya's way early. She was still in her teens when she acted in Satyajit Ray's Kolkata classic Mahanagar [1963]. Another Bengali film, Dhanni Meye, fetched her a share of the spotlight. After a stint at the Film and Television Insitute of India, Pune, Jaya was offered several Hindi movies.

Hrishikesh Mukherji came down to Pune to meet Jaya at her pricipal's recommendation and signed her on for the titular role in Guddi [1971]. Jaya was a huge success as the filmstar-crazy teen tornado who reluctantly gives up her obsession for matinee idol Dharmendra as she finds herself drawn to the man next door. Jaya's art held little artifice and she could project wide-eyed innocence without a false note. Guddi's giggly, girlish character became closely identified with Jaya. Though it sometimes constricted the range of roles she was offered, it made her a star.

Within three months of Guddi's release, Jaya shone once again in her second Hindi film Uphaar [1971], another tale of a mischievous girl caught in the troubled cusp between childhood and adulthood. The film did well and Jaya was gifted with box-office muscle.

Jaya could illuminate even Anil Dhawan movies like Piya Ka Ghar and Annadaata [both 1972]. Her early films opposite the love of her life, newcomer Amitabh Bachchan, rode largely on her popular appeal.

Though Jaya did her share of commercial films subsequently (eminently successful ones like the 1972 frothy musical Jawani Diwani), she seemed more at home with middle of-the-road cinema of Hrishikesh Mukherji and Gulzar. Playing a peripheral role as Dharmendra's dolled-up girlfriend in the hit Samadhi was not her forte.

Jaya Bhaduri's Landmark Films
Year	Film	Actors
1971	Guddi	Dharmendra, Samit  Bhanja
1971	Uphaar	Swaroop Dutt
1972	Jawani Diwani	Randhir Kapoor
1972	Parichay	Jeetendra
1973	Koshish	Sanjeev Kumar
1973	Zanjeer	Amitabh Bachchan
1973	Abhimaan	Amitabh Bachchan
1974	Kora Kagaz	Vijay Anand
1975	Mili	Amitabh Bachchan
1975	Sholay	Amitabh Bachchan
1981	Silsila	Amitabh Bachchan
2001	Kabhi Khushi Kabhie  Gham	Amitabh Bachchan

In Gulzar's Parichay [1972], she could have been satisfied with portraying yet another extension of her popular Guddi persona, but Jaya worked hard on deciding the mannersims of an obstinate but insecure motherless girl. She struck a great working relationship with Gulzar, whom she called Bhai [brother]. He gifted her with an extremely challenging role in his next Koshish [1973], as part of a deaf and mute couple (opposite Sanjeev Kumar), bravely trying to overcome their disadvantage.

Jaya's initial films with Amitabh (Ek Nazar and Bansi Birju), made few ripples at the box-office. But May 11, 1973 saw the release of Zanjeer, whose immense success would change their lives forever. Jaya had a largely unremarkable 'girlfriend' role in the film, but playing the angry young man of Zanjeer transformed Amitabh into a mega star.

Jaya and Amitabh could now afford to get married. They did on June 2, 1973 taking off for a long honeymoon to London. Unfortunately, it also put Jaya's career in question, especially when she soon became pregnant.

Jaya's career was at its peak then. Hrishikesh Mukherji's Abhimaan [1973], which starred the Bachchans and was released soon after their marriage, was a success. Moreover, Jaya had drawn raves for her performance as the talented singer-wife of an insecurity-ridden crooner and won Filmfare's Best Actress award, too.

The next year, Jaya won another Best Actress Award for her performance in the marital strife drama, Kora Kagaz [1974]. That year, she also gave birth to daughter Shweta and her priorities changed. She wrapped up her last few assignments, like Mukherji's Mili and Chupke Chupke and the Ramesh Sippy blockbuster Sholay [all released in 1975]. Son Abhishek was born soon after and Jaya concentrated on bringing up her children.

Jaya did make a comeback with Yash Chopra's relationship saga, Silsila [1981], giving rise to much speculation. But the film did not make too many waves. Jaya was next seen onscreen only when her children were grown up. Noted avante garde filmmaker Govind Nihalani gave her an author-backed role in Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa [1998], and Jaya adeptly picked up the threads of her acting career once again.

Since then, Jaya has won awards for her stylised but finely-tuned performances in Fiza [2000] and Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham [2001]. Both on and off screen, the one-time guddi (doll) is now a graceful grandmother.

She couldn't care less if most people think that her flourishing career in films was aborted abruptly after her marriage with Amitabh Bachchan. And now, as she plays the lead role in Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa, an adaptation of a Bengali novel of the same name by Mahashweta Devi, she is irked at the media branding it as her grand comeback.

Apart from playing an extremely sensitive character``something that all women will identify with, for despite the progress of mankind the woman's lot hasn't changed at all''Jaya Bachchan is also glad that she is playing her age. After a traumatic sequenceplaying the mother who is called upon to identify her dead sonshe takes a break from the sets to talk to Sudipta Basu about her life under and away from the arc lights. Excerpts:

Can you recall a similar, tense sequence in your career?

There have been a few. Abhaghi was one, where such a strain prevailed right through the film. Abhimaan was another, when I lose the child and then in Silsila, after my fiancee dies in the plane crash.

Why do you resist from referring to Hazar Chaurasi ki Maa as your comeback?That's because I've never really been away from the industry. Silsila might have been my last major film, but I also played a character in Tapan Sinha's series, Women of the Century, last year. Then, I was also supposed to have done a film directed by Shafi Inamdar. The project was stalled after his death.

The gaps in my career have been due to the fact that people stopped making the films that I was comfortable doing. I have not been much of a dancer and couldn't wriggle and jiggle at all. Then the characters that were being made for me were a rehash of Kora Kagaz and Abhimaan. I would have simply ended up repeating myself.

Consider the characters that are being carved out for women in the industry today. Playing run-of-the-mill roles, they (the actresses) end up being overexposed and over-hyped and are branded has-beens very young. Madhuri Dixit is an example. She is being considered jaded when she is actually still very young.

What were your priorities when you stepped into the industry?

Not to make money. (It was to) express yourself sensitively and get appreciated for it.

And the character closest to your heart?

Guddi. Apart from that being my first film, it was also one which I could identify with completely. The entire household there drawn by Hrishikesh Mukherjee was very tangible for its Indianness. There is no gap between the audience and the characters on screen. This was a complete Indian film.

How much of the child-like and bubbly Guddi and Mili were you?They were second nature to me. I am a very restless person. I am a complete extrovert and I enjoy good fun. I hope I am fun to be with as well. n As one who has been the chairperson of the Children's Film Society, do you think today's urban Indian teenager would identify with the child-Guddi and child-Mili?

Children today fall into two categories. The pre-teens and those between 13 and 16. When the mantle of the head of the children's film society fell on me, I immediately sought to build a platform for the two groups by re-naming the society as the National Society for Children and Young People (NSCYP).I realised that children needed to look beyond parks and swimming pools for intelligent entertainment. Overburdened with school bags and regimented academics, they needed the space to express themselves. n As soon as you took over, you invited a few children's filmmakers' wrath by rejecting their films which were otherwise considered good. Bhimsen went on to win the national award.

I would not like to comment on Bhimsen's film, since the case is being heard in the courts. However, it is important for Bhimsen to sit down and do some introspection.

At the NSCYP I tried to change the attitude that bachchon ke liye film saste mein ban jaati hai. Making a children's film is not easy. I improved the budget of the films that would earlier remain on the fringes of Rs 3 lakh. Technical qualities and the treatment of the films were improved. Out of 30 subjects that were submitted, only one would qualify for being scripted, which again would turn out to be very sub-standard. I must confess here that all our films were not of great quality.

Most people feel you have not acted out your potential.

Well, I have had separate roles to play. Being a wife and mother became completely important to me soon after. Even now, when I am on sets I am feeling guilty about the fact that I will not be around to receive my daughter who is coming home today. She is an adult and I wonder if I should feel this way, but then it also means love and concern of a mother. After all, life is not made of one's self.

Your husband once said in a radio interview that Abhimaan was very close to your lives together.

He must have meant about that bit of us being in the same profession.

Otherwise, there has never been any ego hassle between us.

The Bachchan household has always been dogged by controversy spinning around your private lives, as also now... .

One learns to shut one's ears to them.

Do you then see yourself cast opposite your husband in a film?

Certainly. But I will not play second fiddle to him. I never have. Not in reel life and never in real life.

I might have had a small role in Sholay opposite him. But it was very significant and perhaps one of the meatiest roles that I have ever done in my career. Actually, even he wouldn't be happy to see me do any less either.

Meeting
Jaya Bhaduri

Neeman Sobhan

She is easy to spot in the crowded drawing room. I notice her sitting demurely on the sofa as soon as my husband and I make our late entrance. I head for the hostess to apologise to her. She immediately grabs my hand and leads me to the prim figure on the sofa. Of course, I know who she is. But as soon as she acknowledges the introduction her nose crinkles into the artless, famously endearing smile that wipes away the mask of the 'buddhi' and transforms it into the 'Guddi' that any Indian film fan of the seventies would recognize.

Jaya Bachchan is in Rome in her capacity as an Indian Member of Parliament, but for me she is Jaya Bhaduri, the actress who captured Bombay with her Bangali naturalness in her debut film 'Guddi' and my favourite, 'Uphar' (based on my beloved Tagore story 'Shomapti' about a tomboy bride). For the world of commercial Hindi cinema, saturated with glamorous stars, the arrival of Jaya was a breath of fresh air. But for me, a Bangali familiar with the deglamourised world of Kolkata films of an era when actors were untouched by the artifices of Bollywood, I never found Jaya Bhaduri all that extraordinary. She was undoubtedly a natural, spontaneous actress, but I knew of other natural actresses, and I was a fan of Shabana Azmi. So, while I was proud of Jaya Bhaduri because she was Bangali, I was never really her fan. Yet, today, by the time the evening ends, I become a fan. Ironically, I am a fan not of the actress but of Jaya, the woman, the social worker and MP.

The first observation I must make about Jaya Bachchan, apart from the fact that there is nothing of the star celebrity in her modest, well mannered persona, is that she has a lovely face, far lovelier and younger than it looks on screen or magazine photos. Her dusky skin is youthful under discreet make up. In fact, a little enhancing would make her look unchanged from her heroine days. But with her matronly demeanour, it seems as if looking virtuous and deglamourised is an article of faith with her. A wicked thought tiptoes across my mind: she has the same colouring and Indian features as Rekha; perhaps, this is why she has chosen not to go the cosmetic way of her glamorous nemesis!

We talk in Bangla, lapsing often into English. Her prime concerns as an MP are mother-and-child issues and those related to children with special needs. "I love children and have always worked with handicapped children, especially with the improvement of facilities for the care of mentally and physically challenged children." This is a topic close to my heart since I grew up with a brother who was hearing impaired since birth and whom my determined mother helped overcome the hurdles so that today he is a confident young man who speaks as normally as possible and leads a dignified and independent married life. I am touched that Jaya is genuinely interested in my brother's story, specially the struggles of my admirable mother, and the experiences of my whole family.

We speak of the need to sensitise society about differentiating between the physically and the mentally challenged; and aid the training of handicapped adolescents towards productive, self-sustaining adult lives.

I ask her if her interest started from the time of her memorable performance as the female half of a deaf-mute couple in the film 'Koshish'? She smiles but immediately deflects the question and the compliment by plugging, instead, a recent film of her mega-star husband. "Oh! You must see the recent film of Amit-ji called, 'Black', about a handicapped adopted girl-child who is deaf, mute and blind since birth." "Like Helen Keller?" "Yes. And Amit-ji plays the father and teacher who is slowly losing his memory to Alzheimer." I gasp, what a story! A handicap within another! "Who plays the child?" I forget whether she said Rani Mukherjee, because in the same breath she continued, "But Amit-ji's performance was so sensitive. The whole film is so beautiful that I had tears in my eyes."

It is obvious that she adores her husband. But I remember her as being the better actress, the one who should have been adored and not have been playing second fiddle either in films or in life to a man who always struck me as a trite and plastic product of Bombay Film industry's hero-manufacturing machine.

Both Amitabh and she graduated from the Pune Film and T.V Institute of India, but it was she who thought of uplifting her Alma Mater. She also started the Children's Film Society. Now with her seat in the Rajya Sabha as MP she has scope to work for issues like literacy, security and health care for women and children.

I know that she has done quite a few films recently that have brought the actress back to the screen with a bang, and I am not thinking of commercial fare like 'Kal Ho Na Ho' (though she made her character come to life even within formula material) and 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham', but stronger ones like 'Fiza' and Govind Nihalani's 'Hazar Chaurasi ki Maa'(based on Bangali writer Mahasweta Devi/Mohasheta Debi's story, 'Hajar Churashir Ma', about an upper class Kolkata mother trying to understand the mind of her Naxalite rebel son after his death).

She sighs: "Challenging or original subjects and roles like that are hard to come by. I am reading many scripts but there is nothing exciting for a woman of my age." "Such a pity that neither our audience nor our film makers seem ready for films about women, who after a certain age are more interesting and beautiful than young girls in conventional romance stories." "Exactly." Jaya responds enthusiastically, about to say more when two Italian ladies are introduced to her. These are women parliamentarians whose interest in Jaya Bachchan is as a colleague. "How many women M.P's are there in India?" She is asked. "I don't know the exact figure, but not many." "Same here in Italia," they nod.

I tell the parliamentarians that Jaya has another identity as a much-lauded actress. They smile indulgently as if hearing about a hobby, not least impressed. How can I tell them that here, within all five foot of her, stands a legendary figure of my times? "Like your Sophia Loren" I start to say, then decide that something will be lost in translation. And I don't want to diminish either Jaya or my admiring memories of her by adding that she also happens to be the wife of India's 'super-star' and the mother of an up-coming star.

They ask,"The young in India must be very spiritual?" Sotto voce I tell her in Bangla that the Italian youth has recently discovered the spiritual wealth of India and are enthusiastic about yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, classical music etc. She laughs, "In India, as everywhere, spiritualism among the young is a fashion. Real spiritualists practice quietly." To me she whispers in Bangla, "I am not a religious person." So says this person who believes in the religion of humanity and its essential goodness; who spends time in the welfare of others rather than in self-promotion; and who is a person at peace, having found her own route to it. I find this unpretentious woman a deep and rich person. We could have spoken for hours. But I take my leave. She takes my hand warmly and gives me the crinkly smile. I feel I am taking leave of an old friend.

Sr. Bachchans with Aishwarys Rai, Abhishek Bachchan left alone

She couldn't care less if most people think that her flourishing career in films was aborted abruptly after her marriage with Amitabh Bachchan. And now, as she plays the lead role in Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa, an adaptation of a Bengali novel of the same name by Mahashweta Devi, she is irked at the media branding it as her grand comeback.

Apart from playing an extremely sensitive character``something that all women will identify with, for despite the progress of mankind the woman's lot hasn't changed at all''Jaya Bachchan is also glad that she is playing her age. After a traumatic sequenceplaying the mother who is called upon to identify her dead sonshe takes a break from the sets to talk to Sudipta Basu about her life under and away from the arc lights. Excerpts:

Can you recall a similar, tense sequence in your career?

There have been a few. Abhaghi was one, where such a strain prevailed right through the film. Abhimaan was another, when I lose the child and then in Silsila, after my fiancee dies in the plane crash.

Why do you resist from referring to Hazar Chaurasi ki Maa as your comeback?That's because I've never really been away from the industry. Silsila might have been my last major film, but I also played a character in Tapan Sinha's series, Women of the Century, last year. Then, I was also supposed to have done a film directed by Shafi Inamdar. The project was stalled after his death.

The gaps in my career have been due to the fact that people stopped making the films that I was comfortable doing. I have not been much of a dancer and couldn't wriggle and jiggle at all. Then the characters that were being made for me were a rehash of Kora Kagaz and Abhimaan. I would have simply ended up repeating myself.

Consider the characters that are being carved out for women in the industry today. Playing run-of-the-mill roles, they (the actresses) end up being overexposed and over-hyped and are branded has-beens very young. Madhuri Dixit is an example. She is being considered jaded when she is actually still very young.

What were your priorities when you stepped into the industry?

Not to make money. (It was to) express yourself sensitively and get appreciated for it.

And the character closest to your heart?

Guddi. Apart from that being my first film, it was also one which I could identify with completely. The entire household there drawn by Hrishikesh Mukherjee was very tangible for its Indianness. There is no gap between the audience and the characters on screen. This was a complete Indian film.

How much of the child-like and bubbly Guddi and Mili were you?They were second nature to me. I am a very restless person. I am a complete extrovert and I enjoy good fun. I hope I am fun to be with as well. n As one who has been the chairperson of the Children's Film Society, do you think today's urban Indian teenager would identify with the child-Guddi and child-Mili?

Children today fall into two categories. The pre-teens and those between 13 and 16. When the mantle of the head of the children's film society fell on me, I immediately sought to build a platform for the two groups by re-naming the society as the National Society for Children and Young People (NSCYP).I realised that children needed to look beyond parks and swimming pools for intelligent entertainment. Overburdened with school bags and regimented academics, they needed the space to express themselves. n As soon as you took over, you invited a few children's filmmakers' wrath by rejecting their films which were otherwise considered good. Bhimsen went on to win the national award.

I would not like to comment on Bhimsen's film, since the case is being heard in the courts. However, it is important for Bhimsen to sit down and do some introspection.

At the NSCYP I tried to change the attitude that bachchon ke liye film saste mein ban jaati hai. Making a children's film is not easy. I improved the budget of the films that would earlier remain on the fringes of Rs 3 lakh. Technical qualities and the treatment of the films were improved. Out of 30 subjects that were submitted, only one would qualify for being scripted, which again would turn out to be very sub-standard. I must confess here that all our films were not of great quality.

Most people feel you have not acted out your potential.

Well, I have had separate roles to play. Being a wife and mother became completely important to me soon after. Even now, when I am on sets I am feeling guilty about the fact that I will not be around to receive my daughter who is coming home today. She is an adult and I wonder if I should feel this way, but then it also means love and concern of a mother. After all, life is not made of one's self.

Your husband once said in a radio interview that Abhimaan was very close to your lives together.

He must have meant about that bit of us being in the same profession.

Otherwise, there has never been any ego hassle between us.

The Bachchan household has always been dogged by controversy spinning around your private lives, as also now... .

One learns to shut one's ears to them.

Do you then see yourself cast opposite your husband in a film?

Certainly. But I will not play second fiddle to him. I never have. Not in reel life and never in real life.

I might have had a small role in Sholay opposite him. But it was very significant and perhaps one of the meatiest roles that I have ever done in my career. Actually, even he wouldn't be happy to see me do any less either

'I don't want to change anything about him.
I love Amit for what he is'

Jaya Bachchan

Traditionally, I think the 60th year is a very important stage in one's life. After 60, one's mindset changes. Amit has always been in a different mould. His concerns today and always are his parents and children. I agree with that.

I don't think Amit has been influenced solely by anybody. I think his father has been his main inspiration.

His one outstanding quality is his patience. He is really a recluse, an introvert. I would define him as a very conscientious and good human being.

This book, To Be Or Not To Be, is a birthday gift for him. The family often gives each other books on special occasions, on birthdays. We all love books.

The book has been written by Khalid Mohamed. I have written my bit, as has the family. I have written the foreword. My focus was the man. His professional side was dealt with by Khalid, and the personal side by us, the family members.

Amit reacts like an excited child if you give him a thoughtful gift. It is not very easy to give him a gift. I don't think materialistic things are important, but he enjoys thoughtful gifts.

It is a pity people have not really exploited Amit's talent as much as they should have. He is capable of a lot more. His father [Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan] wants to see him do Beckett and Hamlet.

I have often been asked what life is like as a superstar's wife. I don't know how to answer that because, to me, he is a husband, and has never been anything but normal --- as a man and father.

I don't know how superstars are supposed to behave, but he is very normal.

He is a lot more normal than many people. And it is very important that he has kept it that way, being head of the family. He has a very basic, very down-to-earth style of living. That is how he has taught the family to live.

He rarely gets angry, but insincerity, irresponsibility make him angry. He dislikes anything that is ugly. It could be a bedsheet, it could be the way someone is dressed. That can put him in a bad mood. And he doesn't even know what put him off till he thinks about it and realises, 'Oh I saw this awful colour somewhere and it put me in a bad mood.'

Amit is not a foodie. He can't be bothered making decisions about mundane things like food. He finds it difficult to go to a buffet and decide what he should eat. He basically thinks it is a big bore.

He can't take decisions easily and quickly. I have often wished he could because I am completely different. We never make decisions for each other. If it is a decision regarding the family, we sit down together and decide together. But individually, we take our own decisions.

I think success has come from giving each other a lot of space to grow, function, and not stifle or control each other's style, thinking, or living. Even when he was busy I was never lonely. We have been a very self-sufficient family. We maintain good contact.

I have never been alone. Whenever there has been something that has bothered me or the children, we have always gone back to each other rather than to anyone else.

I am not a very ambitious person for myself, but for my husband and children, I am. For him I want rest, less stress, because when he is relaxed and when he has no strain, it is a pleasure being with him. Then he is a wonderful, wonderful person to be with. He is so gentle.

Every wife wishes that her husband was less busy. But I don't want him sitting at home telling me what to cook. I do definitely want him more at home to spend more time with me, with the children.

He is older now and not as fit, but he hasn't really changed.

Would I like to change anything about him? No. I am quite happy with the way he is. I love him the way he is.

Jaya Bachchan spoke to Lata Khubchandani

Amitabh's father, the late poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan describes his son's wedding beautifully in his autobiography In The Afternoon Of Time. We present an excerpt from the book:

The wedding, long foreseen, was set for June 3, 1973 and was to be kept secret, because with Amitabh's rising popularity, the crowds of admirers gathering round the house had been growing every day. The only guests to be invited from our side were the Rajans and the Gandhis.

Jaya's family decided not to hold the ceremony at their flat in Beach House but at a friend's place on the top floor of the Skylark building in Malabar Hills, where it could pass off unnoticed. We sent a telegram to Jagdish Rajan to 'come with your family immediately,' with no indication of the reason.

Teji invited Mrs Gandhi by telephone: as was expected, she sent her felicitations but could not come herself (just as well -- her coming would have been the end of the secrecy); Sanjay would represent the family.

Jaya's parents wanted the marriage to be conducted in the Bengali manner, to which we had no objection. The first stage was the var-puja, the veneration of the groom, which involved Jaya's father coming to Mangal (Amitabh's residence) with gifts and conducting a small ceremony; I then reciprocated by doing the same for the bride at Beach House.

I noticed something quite unexpected at Beach House: nobody in the family, apart from Jaya, showed even the slightest trace of pleasure.

The barat was to consist of the groom himself and the three of us, the five Rajans and a party of five baratis: Sanjay Gandhi, Bhagvati Charan Verma, Narendra Sharma, Krishna Kishor Srivastava and Dr Dharmvir Bharati.

Image below: Harivanshrai and Teji Bachchan with their sons Amitabh and Ajitabh, their wives Jaya and Ramola, grandchildren Abhishek, Bhim, Naina, Namrata, Nilima and Shweta, and relative Abhijit Ranjan

That evening, Teji and Jagdish Rajan's wife Indira anointed Amitabh with a turmeric preparation in a ceremony that would normally be accompanied by much singing and festive tumult, but here had to be done in a hushed quiet. The joy that was so confined by this constriction spilled out in a tingling of the spine and a tearful glimmering of the eye, especially in Teji's case.

Amit looked so splendid that his mother prayed to Hanuman to protect him from the evil eye. Before fixing the bridgroom's veil of flowers, I said, my voice thick with emotion, that anyone wanting to see his face should have a good look now.

Then it was time to go out to the three cars that were standing at the ready. When the neighbours asked what the long decorative strings of light bulbs signified, we explained that Amitabh would be shooting a film here the next night. Nobody had an inkling that a wedding was under way, and the three cars driving off were assumed to be part of the film rehearsals.

The barat was welcomed without fanfare in front of the Skylark building; a few people gathered to watch, but there were no crowds. We went up in the lift, Jaya was in her bridal adornment, and for the first time, I saw a bashful shyness on her face and realised what a particular aspect of beauty it is. She was enough of an actress to be able to simulate shyness, but what I saw now was very natural and real.

A Bengali pandit conducted the marriage, whose ceremonial went on late into the night. The five baratis had dinner and set off home, leaving just the family members to eat alone later when the proceedings were completed. Then we too took our leave.

Before we left, I embraced the father of my new daughter-in-law and congratulated him on getting a son-in-law like Amit, expecting him to say the same in respect of Jaya.

But he said, 'My family is utterly ruined.'

Excerpted from In the Afternoon Of Time