Arth (1983)
Smita was not afraid to take on grey-tinged roles. In Bazaar, she played a woman who is manipulated by her lover into arranging a nubile match for a rich old man.
In Arth, she played Kulbhushan Kharbanda's actress girlfriend, for whom he leaves his wife, Shabana Azmi.
In concert with her directors, Smita brought shading and depth to these roles. Her Kavita of Arth is a successful actress who is terrified of losing her married lover. Teetering between sanity and delusional insecurity, guilt and self assertion, she becomes an obsessive, tantrum-throwing wreck.
Shabana had the sympathetic, wronged-woman role, but Smita had several big dramatic sequences in which her mastery over her art was more than evident.
Watch her fascinating range of expressions in scenes like the one of her in front of a mirror where Shabana's voice haunts her. Or the scene in which she hits Kulbushan and then hits herself. The mix of emotions she brings to her final breakdown scene before Shabana is amazing: there's a need to expiate her guilt, there are remnants of arrogance and there is pure terror at losing her mind.
It's a startling, high-octane performance that compels admiration.
Arth is loved by many feminists who like the fact that the wishy-washy guy eventually gets the boot from both women; and that both the female protagonists finally arrive at some meaning in their lives.
Also read: Raw Stock, Rare Appeal
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