By: Farhana

Her dusky, smoldering, earthy looks, coupled with her histrionic voltage, made her one of the stars of the New Cinema that was blitzing the screen and consciousness of a newer and more perceptive audience. She formed the most potent quartet representing the parallel cinema. Smita is an actress of great intuitive talent and artistic worth.

Her mesmerizing dusky beauty captured many hearts and directors exploited Smita's intensity of emotion. She was vulnerable yet dignified, strong yet compassionate. With her fiery looks, sensuous body and blazing talent, Patil is not a classic beauty but the lady glows. Her extraordinary presence, beauty and intelligence made her a symbol of independence, courage and integrity to millions.

Smita Patil entered the film industry after a brief stint as a television announcer. Her career started with a theatre group.

It was Shyam Benegal who took notice of Smita while she was working at the Bombay Doordarshan as a newsreader. Benegal cast Smita in a children's film Charandas Chor. Her first major role as the woman who leads a Harijan revolt in Shyam Benegal's Manthan (The Churning) won her critical acclaim. Exceptional performances such as the outspoken tribal in Ketan Mehta's Bhavni Bhavai, and as the struggling actress, Hansa Wadkar, in Benegal's Bhumika (The Role) established her reputation as a versatile actress both in India and abroad.

Smita's roles in Bazaar, Mandi and Manthan went on to prove that she was an actress of amazing caliber.

A blend of poise, elegance and charm Smita Patil managed to do well in both commercial and parallel cinema. Shyam Benegal says, 'She was a director's actress. She never held back or resisted direction. The quality of her performance often depended on the quality of the director.'

Very few actors have been able to straddle with such uncommon ease in both commercial and parallel cinema as did Smita. She had 12 films releases in 1986, an year before her death, most of which were commercial ones. Her Baazar, Dard Ka Rishta, Shakti, Waris, Akhir Kyon, Kaanch Ki Deewar, Ghulami and Namak Halal brought her sheer spontaneity to the fore.

 Smita Patil, who was also an activist and a member of the Women's Centre in Bombay, was deeply committed to the advancement of women's issues, and gave her endorsement to films which sought to explore the role of women in traditional Indian society, their sexuality, and the changes facing the middle-class woman in an urban milieu. Smita embodied the plight of Indian woman, both rural and urban. She infused extraordinary maturity into all her performances that made her acting look extremely effortless.

The first Asian cine-star who had the unique honour of Retrospectives in Paris and La Rochelle, (at the promptings of no less a film luminary than Director Costa Gavras), a two-time Best Actress award winner at the National Film Festival (Bhumika and Chakra) and a Padmashree. Her career was tragically cut short by her death in 1986 during childbirth, as if in ominous reminder of the precariousness of the lives of women in India. Her sudden death in childbirth left a void in cinema that though many have tried to achieve that perfection none have managed to fill. Unfortunately, the flame that burns twice as bright, lasts half as long. Smita died of brain fever during childbirth on December 13, 1986. She was just 31. And the loss remains irrevocably ours. But for her fans her memory lives on.

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