Watching DAMINI on a TV channel recently, I once again felt the pain and agony experienced by its lead character, flawlessly played by Meenakshi Shehshadri and fondly remembered how her performance won every single heart both in the masses as well as the classes in 1993 (the year of its release), unanimously.
A prominent name in Hindi films, unfortunately the talented actress graced the Industry for just a few years more than a decade from 1983 to the mid 90s. And perhaps DAMINI was the reason why she left the world of films suddenly, after such a milestone performance in this path breaking film made on a burning social issue.
Recalling those exciting times of early 90s when cable TV had just entered in our country, DAMINI instantly became the talk of the town all over due to two main reasons. First being the perfect performance of Meenakshi along with the superb direction of Raj Kumar Santoshi and second for the powerful trendsetting act by the tough Sunny Deol with his ‘Dhai Kilo Ka Haath’ shown to the cunning lawyer Amrish Puri. In fact both his ‘Dhai Kilo Ka Haath’ and ‘Tareekh Par Tareekh’ dialogue is still used as a spoof in films, serials and plays, even after two decades.
However, it was really sad that where director Rajkumar Santoshi and Sunny Deol did get their due awards respectively, there Meenakshi Sheshadri didn’t get even a single award for her fabulous performance in the film quite strangely.
On a personal note, I was aware that FILMFARE awards had earlier also played biased even with films such as MUGHAL-E-AZAM and PAKEEZAH. But I actually lost all my faith in these award ceremonies (never to be regained back) and truly experienced the pain personally when Meenakshi didn’t get what she truly deserved in that year for her immensely touching DAMINI act. And it is said that actually it was this ‘Gross Ignorance’ to her performance by the industry as well as by the National Awards only, which eventually led to her sudden exit from Hindi films forever (in all possibilities).
Anyway whatever be the truth, the fact remains that the lady must have been left completely heartbroken undoubtedly after such unexplainable denials, more so because a true artist does feel the pain a lot more than the other fellow beings, certainly.
(Still for friends who wish to know who actually got the award in that year for their best performances. Juhi Chawla got the FILMFARE for HUM HAIN RAHI PYAR KE & Dimple Kapadia was awarded the National Award for RUDAALI.)
Bobby Sing
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When Meenakshi Sheshadri got no award for her remarkable performance in DAMINI (1993), Did You Know, Unknown Facts about Bollywood Films by Bobby Sing, Bollywood Trivia at bobbytalkscinema.com
