ACTRESS Urmila Matondkar turns a year older and celebrates her 48th birthday on February 4.
The popular leading lady began her film journey as a child star and has delivered many memorable moments.
Eastern Eye decided to celebrate that cinematic journey by delivering an all you need to know A to Z about the strikingly beautiful star.
A is for AR Rahman: The ace music director got global fame after the success of his 1995 Rangeela (see R) soundtrack and a large part of that was due to the way Urmila performed the musical numbers on-screen with her smouldering sex appeal. Another great who found fame thanks to the hot presence of the actress in the movie was fashion designer Manish Malhotra (see F).
B is for Birthday: The actress has revealed she has never really celebrated birthdays in a conventional manner. She was taught early on to give prayers of thanks and donate money to social causes instead, which she still does every year. She does get excited for other people’s birthdays and enjoys throwing parties for them.
Masoom
C is for Child artist: Urmila began her incredible acting journey as a child star in 1977 film Karm. She would subsequently appear in other high-profile films as a child actress that included award-winning classics Kalyug (1981) and Masoom (1983).
D is for Debut: After a successful career as a child star, Urmila made her lead debut as an adult with 1989 Malayalam language film Chanakyan, which was a critical and commercial success. She made her Bollywood lead debut with action drama Narsimha (1991) and Telugu language debut with Antham (1992).
E is for Election: The actress joined politics with the Indian National Congress party and ran for election for the Mumbai North constituency in 2019 but lost. She later joined the Shiv Sena party.
Urmila with Manish Malhotra
F is for Fashion: The Bollywood style icon has shared a close bond with ace fashion designer Manish Malhotra ever since he designed the outfits for her star-making film Rangeela. She walked the ramp for his first fashion show and gave rise to the trend of showstoppers. She has modelled for him around the world and he, of course, designed her bridal outfit.
G is for Gaayam: The actress won her first major award for Telugu language political thriller Gaayam (1993), with a Nandi award for Best Supporting Actress.
Bhoot
H is for Horror: Urmila headlined one of Bollywood’s all-time greatest horror films Bhoot (2003) and won herself multiple Best Actress honours, including a Filmfare Critics award. The successful film was dubbed in Telugu and remade in Tamil (Shock).
I is for Indian: Urmila made her Tamil language debut with multi-award winning film Indian, which broke box office records. It was India's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1996 but was not nominated.
J is for Judge: The actress has appeared as a judge on multiple television shows, including Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 2 and hosted Waar Parriwar.
K is for Katha Sagar: While working as a child artist, the actress made her television debut in 1986 with anthology drama Katha Sagar. Other TV drama she acted in during those early days were Zindagi (1987) and Indradhanush (1989).
L is for Languages: The versatile star has acted in multiple languages, including Marathi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.
M is for Musical numbers: The actress has performed many memorable musical numbers across the years, including Chamma Chamma from China Gate (1998), Sabki Baaratein Aayi from Jaanam Samjha Karo (1999) and Aa Hi Jaiye from Lajja (2001). This led to her performing at stage shows around the world.
N is for No: The actress had famously rejected the award-winning role eventually played by Karisma Kapoor in blockbuster hit Dil To Pagal Hai (1997). Around the same time Karisma had rejected Judaai (1997), which Urmila stepped into and won acclaim for.
O is for Online: Although she joined relatively late, Urmila is active on social media. You can find her on Twitter & Facebook: @urmilamatondkar and on Instagram: @urmilamatondkarofficial.
Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya
P is for Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya: The actress plays a villainous role of an obsessed lover in Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, which was inspired by Hollywood film Fatal Attraction (1987). She received multiple nominations for best performance in a negative role.
Q is for Queens: Urmila became one of the highest paid leading ladies of the 1990s. The actress has said she admired cinema queens Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Madhubala and Nutan.
Rangeela
R is for Rangeela: The movie that turned Urmila into a global star and a pin-up was multi-award-winning musical romance Rangeela (1995). She received her first Filmfare Best Actress award for a movie that became iconic and turned her into an instant icon.
S is for Sriram Raghavan: The acclaimed filmmaker made his film debut as a writer-director with Ek Hasina Thi (2004), which featured one of Urmila’s best on-screen performances. It would gain her critical acclaim and multiple Best Actress nominations.
T is for Troubles: The actress revealed that she had to struggle a lot during the
early days of her career because of Bollywood nepotism, despite being praised for her all-round talent. She lost out on big projects to leading ladies with famous relatives.
U is for Underworld: The actress played a lead role in game-changing gangster drama Satya (1998). Apart from redefining a genre, the massively influential movie helped relaunch action into Bollywood and a grittier, more realistic style of filmmaking.
V is for Voice: The actress performed with Asha Bhonsle on the duet Mehbooba Dilruba for her album Asha and Friends Vol 1. Urmila also lent her voice to animated film Delhi Safari as Begum, the mother leopard.
W is for Women’s rights: Urmila has always been a staunch supporter of women’s rights and backed various charities connected to the cause, including Angeli Foundation, which works to empower the girl child in India.
X is for X-Rated: The actress received mass public support when Kangana Ranaut unfairly and undignifiedly called her a soft-porn actress. Urmila won even more support with the classy way she handled the unprovoked attack.
Y is for Younger: She married Kashmir-based model turned businessman Mohsin Akhtar Mir on March 3, 2016, who is reportedly 10 years younger than her.
Z is for Zodiac: Urmila is an Aquarius and positive traits of the star sign include
being assertive, analytical, original, humanitarian, independent, and easygoing. Other qualities include being smart, friendly, open, and direct.
The actor’s evolving style from youth to maturity getty images
Aamir Khan embracing vintage looks with classic charmgetty images
Bold and dramatic changes defining Aamir Khan’s careergetty images
From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
Aamir Khan’s blend of classic and contemporary fashiongetty images
Aamir Khan’s dedication to authentic character portrayals getty images
Cinematic milestones reflected in Aamir Khan’s on-screen imagegetty images
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5