Versatile Indian actress Tabu aka Tabassum Hashmi was born on November 4, 1971, in Kolkata. The award-winning actress, who stars in Bollywood as well as south Indian films, turns 45 today. She is the niece of Shabana Azmi, one of the most acclaimed actresses and social activists of Bollywood, and the sister of actress Farah. Tabu, early in career was in Hyderabad and very close friend of Actor Nagarjuna.
Tabu started out in commercial cinema and made an impression, but the leggy beauty went on to prove her mettle in offbeat roles in a number of films, winning the National Film Award twice.
Tabu’s roles that we absolutely loved are from Haider,Virasat, Cheeni Kum, Maachis and Maqbool. Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2014 film Haider, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, showed Tabu channeling Hamlet’s mom Gertrude as Ghazala, mother to Haider.
Tabu was the soul of the movie and stole the show from the lead Shahid Kapoor who played the title role. I think the two actors portrayed Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus-Electra complex concept perfectly!
Madhur Bhandarkar’s showcase of Mumtaz, the poor girl who ends up as a bar dancer owing to circumstances and how life for her and her child shapes up after that saw Tabu effortlessly play the character. Hat’s off to her, for Chandni Bar actually got more recognition for the director because of the way Tabu played out her role.
In Cheeni Kum, Amitabh Bachchan charmed us in his role as 64-year-old arrogant chef Buddhadev Gupta. But the woman 30 years younger than him (in the movie and in real life) who charmed him with her confidence and calm also won us over in this R Balki-directed film. It was Tabu, of course, so anybody would be charmed!
Tabu was Gehna, the village belle who Anil Kapoor’s foreign-returned character marries to save her. Tabu shone as the simple, innocent villager who stands by her man in the devastation the village sees.
This was a short role for Tabu in the Oscar Award-winning Ang Lee film, as the mother of Piscine ‘Pi’ Patel’s mother. But she was impressive in it.
There are many more roles of Tabu in Bollywood and south Indian cinema that are worth mentioning, which we have not included in our quick list. That shows what a great actress she is. Here’s wishing the multi-talented Tabu a very happy birthday!
