Shabana Azmi is in and out of cities these days. Shabana Azmi’s 50-year journey as an actor continues to be celebrated all over the world. Now it is at the Nantes Film Festival in France.
Sighs the formidable actress, “Nowadays I am living in suitcases. Itni travelling toh maine pehle kabhi nahin kee hai.”
Her work has consistently found favour in France where retrospectives of her films have featured at George Pompidou Centre, Cinematheque , and earlier at Nantes festival of three continents where Godmother was the opening night film in 1997. In 1989 At the Biennale of Human Rights in France she was chosen as one amongst sixteen women including Mother Teresa, Rigoberta Menchu , Albertina Sisulu , who were honoured by President Mitterand for her human rights work for slum dwellers and women’s rights activist and for using cinema as a medium of social change.
At the prestigious Nantes Film Festival, a major cultural event, Shabana will be honoured with a retrospective of her films that include Ankur, Mandi , Arth and Masoom celebrating her glorious 50-year career in Hindi Cinema.
Speaking to this writer just before she flew off to France, Shabana said, “I am become increasingly embarrassed by this torrent of praise. To hear people praise you so much is very flattering but also sobering. There is so much more I want to do,so many roles and so many other activities that remain unattended. At the same time I am very very grateful for all the attention. I feel I’ve just begun.”
So here is to another 50 years of Shabana .
