Tabu in Maqbool

Tabu's Nimmi in Maqbool is an amalgam of acute sensitivity tempered by strong self-preservation. Life has not been fair to her (she is the mistress of Pankaj Kapur, an ageing, balding gangster with a roving eye). Consequently, she is not fair to those around her. If revealing the secrets of the innocent, amiable daughter of her patron will further her purpose, Nimmi will do just that.

Like Bipasha Basu in Jism, the high-strung Nimmi uses a man to get what she wants. But she not only falls in love with Kapur's lieutenant, Irrfan, she also cold-bloodedly incites him into murdering his master.

But Nimmi is truly complex -- she is undone by her sensitivity, which remains untouched by her acrid exterior. Like Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's play, she is haunted by blood. Nimmi's fragile mental makeup cannot come to terms with her own role in the crime and she suffers an extravagant breakdown.

Tabu, aided by director Vishal Bharadwaj, handles Nimmi's disintegration with psychological perspicacity. What emerges is one of the best examinations of feminine guilt in cinema.

In the picture: Irrfan Khan and Tabu in Maqbool

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