After Haider, Tabu to play mom again

After playing mother to 33-year-old Shahid Kapoor's mother in Haider, Tabu, 42, will take on more maternal duties.

In Nishikant Kamat’s remake of the Malayalam hit Drishyam, Tabu will be cast in a powerful female antagonist’s role of a senior police office, who goes all out to save her son from the law after he films a girl in a compromising position. After he son gets killed, she tries to nab his killers.

Does this mean Tabu has been written off the conventional leading lady’s part after Haidar?

A source close to the Drishyam remake defends Tabu’s choice: "You can’t look at her role in Drishyam as that of a mother. Yes, she plays an adult's mother but her role is as powerful as (leading man) Ajay Devgn’s. Throughout the film, her character indulges in a sparring battle with Ajay."

Interestingly, Tabu was initially aghast when director Vishal Bhardwaj had offered her a mother's role in Haidar.

"It wasn’t easy to convince Tabu," a source says. "When Vishal offered her the mother’s role, Tabu refused outright. Vishal argued that it was no ordinary mother’s role. It was Shakespeare’s Hamlet and she was playing Gertrude, the second-most important character in the story. Still, she was against it since it was a mother's role. Vishal had to spend a lot of time convincing her.”

Was Tabu being bold in playing mother to a leading man only nine years her junior?

“No!” says a filmmaker, who has worked with Tabu in the past. “It is not right. Our audience is extremely conservative at heart. Many years ago, in Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Phagun, Waheeda Rehman played Jaya Bhaduri’s mother. Waheedaji was only 10 years senior to Jayaji. The film ended her career as a leading lady.”

Reminiscing about her premature switch over to mother’s roles Waheedaji says, “I got the role of a lifetime in Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Phagun in 1973, where I played Jaya Bhaduri’s mother. That did it for me. I was suddenly flooded with mother’s roles. I found myself playing Rajesh Khanna’s mother just nine years after I played his leading lady in Khamoshi.”

Waheedaji blames the male-dominated film industry for the premature matriarchal status accorded to leading ladies. "Heroines are getting younger and younger, so the heroines, who started their career with these established heroes, are quickly promoted to senior roles.”

Isn't this unfair? "It’s the norm in cinema everywhere," she answers. "Look at Meryl Streep. She contemplates quitting every year when Hollywood quickly offers her another role. Sadly, in our industry there’s no such remedial procedure. Once a heroine is past a particular age, she has to graduate to mother’s roles or quit."

Photograph: Abhijit Mhamunkar