'It still feels good when people call me Zeenie Baby!' Yesteryear glam doll Zeenat Aman is back. This time, on stage

Dr Rajiv Vijayakar

The stunning Zeenat Aman is back with the serio-comic play Chupkay Chupkay, by Sanjay Goradia. Her film career too, which she had put on hold to become a full-time mom to sons Azhaan and Zahaan, will now take off with a new Boom! as she works again -- after 20 years -- with co-star of many hits Amitabh Bachchan.

Zeenat first shattered the myth that models cannot make it to giddy celluloid heights. She paved the way for beauty queens to sashay into movies without all those holier-than-thou remarks about Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, and changed the very complexion of Hindi film heroines.

Thanks to her, the demure sari- or salwar-kameez-clad earthy heroine gave way to the smart, sophisticated, svelte lass who wore Western outfits and still wasn't a vamp or moll.

Cast in a minuscule role in O P Ralhan's Hulchul, Zeenat stormed Hindi cinema with her third release, Dev Anand's Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1972), as the Dum maro dum girl who came from a broken home and was an incurable junkie.

After many more hits like Dhund (as the suffering widow of a human monster), Yaadon Ki Baraat (as the swinging rich girl), Manoranjan (as the sassy streetwalker), Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (as the mercenary who jilts her lover), Chori Mera Kaam (as the ooh-la-la petty criminal), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (as the village girl with a scarred face and an ethereal voice), and Insaaf Ka Tarazu (as a rape victim), apart from Dharam-Veer, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Don, Qurbani, Dostana, Alibaba Aur Chalis Chor and Laawaris.

Zeenat's career slowed down as younger faces breezed in and she suffered a severe injury in her right eye. But she continued to do a few films, among them Gawaahi (a video film), Baat Ban Jaye, Bandhan Kachchey Dhaagon Ka, and Namumkin (her last release) where she had good roles, though the films did not work at the box office.

In the late 1990s she did a small role in Bhopal Express, a kind of 'trying out the lay of the land' before her full-fledged return.

"People are still not aware that I am open to offers, but they should be good offers," smiles Zeenat, who still makes heads turn at 50.

We move to the topic of her stage debut. Her play has opened to a rave response in Gujarat and will soon move on to Kolkata, the USA, and Mumbai.

How was it facing a live audience and getting applause at the opening of her first play? "Oh, it was fantastic!" she says. "It made me realise that the stage is an actor's medium, unlike films, wherein you are just a tool in the hands of the writer and director."

She adds, "To perform on stage, you have to run through your paces till you are perfect. Despite the script and director, the actor makes or breaks the play. After weeks of rehearsals, we also get an immediate response! I would even say that I am sorry I did not take to the stage before."

How did the play happen? "Well, I never have said that I had quit completely," she says. "My sons are now 16 and 13, and do not need me around all the time, unlike earlier, when they deserved quality time from me. I have always enjoyed my work and have chosen only what I thought was interesting by way of a role."

Reveals the actress, "I had been invited by Sonu [Shatrughna Sinha] to introduce his play Pati Patni Aur Main, when it was performed especially for our prime minister and other VIPs some months ago. There, producer Sanjay Goradia asked me whether I would like to do a play too. I told him that I could try it out if the subject and role were interesting. The script he sent me was definitely that.

"My character," she continues, "too was very complex, like an onion, where peeling away one layer reveals another. I play a woman from the shanties of Goa, who is the mistress of a man for 25 years. The play is not all light and not all serious either."

Zeenat says she accepted the role as a challenge. She spent endless hours memorising the reams of dialogue at one go. "I said to myself, 'If I can do this, I can do anything!' I had a problem with my Ka's and Ke's and Ki's. My Hindi isn't that good, but I worked on that too," she smiles.

Zeenat is also mighty pleased with what she terms "a very interesting role opposite Amitji" in Boom! in which she plays a tough woman named Alice who manages all the business affairs of the Big B, who plays an underworld don called Bade Miyan. "I have never ever played a completely bad guy before, so it was great fun because Alice is hard-boiled, unlike me!"

Zeenat stresses that she wants to do all kinds of roles in every genre of cinema, but they should not be superficial. She feels things are slowly changing from the time when no good pivotal role was written for senior actresses. "This was so ironic because everyone evolves with age, and an actor is no different. In terms of experience, I am a much more evolved person than I was at my peak as a star. I can bring greater depth in my roles and emotions now, compared to the time when I would sometimes deliver the proper lines without the depth to match."

Was Zeenat's glam, Westernised, sex symbol image as a top star an asset or a cross that she was forced to bear? Candidly, Zeenat replies, "I think it was a little of both. It is true that because of the tag of a sex symbol, there were whole areas in me that were not tapped as an actress. But even now, it feels good when people call me Zeenie Baby!"