It has been almost a trend with the Hindi Film industry to go with a complete face change every two decades. It looks like an Ektaa Kapoor serial suddenly jumping to the next generation.
Early 1910s we saw the first Hindi movie being made
Early 1930s we saw the sound revolution with talkies coming in
Early 1950s, suddenly the melodramatic acting and artificial sets gave way to more natural way of film making with people like Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Dev Anand etc changing the face of Hindi Films
Early 1990s saw the era of action films suddenly giving way to musicals and soft romantic films.
In between there was another period, early 1970s, that brought shocking changes to the Hindi films. It was like a big wave, that came suddenly and transformed the face of film making.
It changed everything (well? almost everything? other than Lata Mangeshkar of course). Mohd. Rafi’s dominance was replaced by Kishore Kumar, Lakshmikant Pyarelal ended the era of Shankar Jaikishen and Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan showed the door to Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar.
It was an era when the glamour queens of yester years like Asha Parekh, Waheeda Rehman, Sadhana, Mala Sinha and Nanda were seeing their fag end of career and to dominate were even more glamorous Mumtaz, Zeenat Aman and Rekha.
But in this crowd, there was a small figure emerging with a girl next door look. A girl, nobody can hate, a girl, no glamour queen will consider as a competition, still a girl, who left her unmistakable mark on our hearts.
Neither did she have the sex appeal of Mumtaz nor did she have the mass appeal of Hema Malini?. What she had was a sweet and cute look, a great personality and phenomenal talents..
That is our sweet lovable Guddi urf Jaya Bhaduri.
Her Life and Early Career
Born in 1948, she got her early break at the tender age of 15 in a Bengali movie called ?Mahanagar?. This gem was discovered by non other than the biggest name in Indian Films? Satyajit Ray. Then she moved to Bollywood and as they say? rest is history.
In 1973, she got married to Amitabh Bachchan, whom she had first met during her stint at the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune and had worked with him in his break-through movie: Zanjeer.
Post marriage, she slowly started restricting her career and made a comeback with Silsila before getting into domestic life entirely.
Her Career as a Heroine
9 Years of her first movie, she made the real debut with Guddi, the role, which fitted her like a perfect fit. Guddi was an instant success and so was she. There was no looking back after that. She followed it up with Uphaar, Shor, Samadhi, Zanjeer, Mili, Chupke Chupke, Sholay, Kamoshi and so on.
In 1979 she stopped doing new films after Nauker to concentrate on her domestic life. However, after the insistence of Yash Chopra, she made a small comeback with Silsila. This was her last movie in a traditional heroine?s role.
Her Comeback
Her comeback to the mainstream cinema happened after 17 years!! She knew where her priorities were at every point in her life.
Her comeback was nothing less than sensational. Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa made waves in critics? circle and Jaya was highly appreciated for that.
She backed it up with memorable performances in Fiza and Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham. She proved once again, that all good things come in small packages!!
Jaya Bhaduri/ Bachchan ? The actress par excellence?.
It is unbelievable that she has done a total of 39 films in these 40 years and at least 30 of them have been either big hits or highly acclaimed. She hardly had any movie which could pass without being observed.
She starred against not so well known names in several movies, but came out in flying colors? it is Jaya Bhaduri that made the films worth watching.
In fact, when she did movies like Mili, Zanjeer and Abhimaan, it was she, who was a star, not Amitabh. These movies did wonders for the Big B?s career, but these still left the unmistakable stamp of Jaya.
Post marriage, Sanjeev Kumar was the only actor with whom she did substantial number of movies and each one was a landmark.
She was a versatile actress. Let it be the childish girl next door of Guddi or the girl on death bed in Mili, she was equally effective. She was the slum girl in Zanjeer and she was the big town girl of Jawani Diwani. She has shown the two spectrums of blabbering girl to a totally silent lady in many movies. Can anyone forget the way she spoke through silence in movies like Koshish, Abhimaan or Sholay?
She was an actress par excellence. Nobody can dispute this. Her versatility was something which belongs to the same category as Nargis or Waheeda Rehman.
For me, she is the face of 1970s.
My Favourite Five:
5. Kora Kagaz
It was a story of a woman held at the storm of the family life without directions where to go.. A movie which had a ?not so well known as actor? ? Vijay Anand in the lead role, fetched her first Filmfare Award in 1974.
4. Mili
Can we call it as the story of a female Anand? I don?t have the answer, but it was a story of a young and fun loving girl, who suddenly discovers that she is going to die. She was definitely no Anand to wash away the feelings with laughter? It was the story of her struggle. A performance which leaves you spellbound.
3. Abhimaan
A movie which came at the time when the Big B was in the making. It was a story of tussle of ego and success between a successful husband and wife. She stood tall to her husband in the movie and making it one of the best emotional performances ever.
2. Koshish
The story of a deaf and dumb couple. Probably it did not have the technical excellence that we see in Black today, but the performance of two of the most versatile performers ever in Hind Films will be remembered for ever.
1. Sholay
Can you believe it? If you take out the flash back, she had just one scene where she had dialogues in the movie? But yet, she spoke a lot. She expressed everything. She spoke of her solitude when cuddling a small goat, she spoke of her love when she lighted the lamps when Amitabh played the tune, she spoke of her anxiety when she came running out seeing the injured Amitabh and finally she spoke of the end of all her hopes, ambitions and dreams when she closes the window in the fag end of the movies.
She is Jaya Bachchan?. The Guddi who became Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa?.