I first knew Uttara Baokar as one of those actors from the National School of Drama (NSD), Delhi, who defined what came to be recognised as a certain stylistic of delivering text and executing action, one that set the actor trained from NSD apart from others. She had that carefully measured cadence in speech—where not a syllable was extra—and that economy of gesture, where not a flick of a finger was out of place. When we came to be colleagues at NSD, we conversed a great deal about what we were teaching—acting, speech, literature, and subtext.
In 1993, we decided to work together on a retake of Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa’s iconic novel Umrao Jan Ada, which was adapted for the stage by writer Geetanjali Shree and was directed by me. Uttara was surprised that I asked her to play the character of Umrao. She laughed, arched her eyebrow, and said, “Am I not too old for Umrao’s role?” She was wondering how, when Umrao had been so overly defined by the romance of her youthful sensuality, could she—a 50-year-old actor—be Umrao? But when Geetanjali and I explained that the Umrao that Geetanjali had crafted stressed a different set of life choices for the character, she agreed to attempt the role. Geetanjali’s Umrao was a confident woman who looked at ageing as freedom—to learn English, to travel, do patang-baazi [kite-flying].
Uttara produced a crystal-like performance, with every aspect of that crystal sparkling—the tilt of her head, the bright smile, the arch of the eyebrow… A woman of intelligence, confident with friends and lovers, someone who defines herself anew as she grows older.
And in that very last scene, Uttara, as an ageing Umrao, surrounded by gold-painted panels, reclining on a takht [throne] dressed in a gold costume, turns over to deliver lines that became popular then, and which seem strangely apt today to me, both as goodbye and as remembrance. As the stage lights fade, Uttara says: “Ab to ham karvat badalte hain”.
Goodbye dear friend, your crystalline performances will glitter in our hearts.
Bidding adieu to an iconic thespian
National-award winning actor and theatre artist Uttara Baokar passed away in Pune after battling prolonged illness, on Tuesday. She was 79. Baokar—she graduated from NSD in 1968 during Ebrahim Alkazi’s tenure—is known for her varied performances in plays such as Mukhyamantri, Mena Gurjari, and Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq. Her performances on screen include Shyam Benegal’s TV series Yatra (1986) and Govind Nihalani’s Tamas (1988), Mrinal Sen’s Ek Din Achanak (1989).