With her silver hair slicked back into a bun, a winsome smile and a merry glint in her eyes, millennials fondly remember Zohra Segal as Hindi cinema’s favourite Dadi. Her infectious energy and zest for life was palpable through her repertoire of work that extended to dance and theatre. Segal began her career as a dancer for years before she slowly progressed on to films, starting from Neecha Nagar (1946), to recent ones like Veer Zara and Cheeni Kum.
Segal, a recipient of the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, passed away in 2014 at the age of 102, leaving behind an enduring legacy. It was then that her daughter Kiran Segal along with her other artists began the ‘Zohra Segal Festival of Arts’ in 2015.
“We wanted to keep her memory alive by celebrating this festival every year in her name. We have been presenting various art forms apart from just classical music and dance. We’ve presented folk music, folk dances, sitar and cello duet and traditional puppet shows over the years. This time, we wanted to tap into something different,” says Kiran.
The festival this year, taking place on September 28 and 29 at India International Centre, takes inspiration from the culture of Goa and Maharashtra.(Last year it was Bengal). Initially, it was difficult but then we found this group of singers who sang ‘Fado,’ originating from Portugal. The other was ‘Lavanyavati,’ the Maharashtrian folk dance that will follow the journey from Lavani from the 1800s,” Kiran says.
The mother-daughter bond
Kiran points out how her mother, with her love for the arts, would have loved the festival and several good performances that have graced the stage each year. An Odissi dancer herself, Kiran reminisces about her time when she would tour with her mother when she would work at Mumbai’s Prithvi Theatre. “I used to tour when I didn’t have holidays at school. She was in Prithvi theatre with my father Kameshwarnath Segal. My dance training started with her there. The theatrical and dance part comes to me naturally because both my parents are dancers,” she says.
She fondly recalls Zohra as not only a brilliant artist but also a mother who was like a friend. “You could talk about anything to her. Nothing embarrassed her or me. I mean, one felt free, you didn’t feel shy or anything,” she says with a laugh. Kiran remembers moments from when she was younger and often fought with her mother.
“As she got older, she would sometimes do things which used to annoy me. And then I would scold her but I would do so out of worry. Then one day as I was scolding her, she shouted and said, ‘I’m your mother, you’re not my mother’.
Then after 10 minutes, when both of us were calmer, I would try to talk to her. I’d tell her: ‘Suppose you fell down or you fractured your leg or something? The whole household comes to a standstill and then you would be bedridden.’ Then she would keep quiet, think about it and concede,” the dancer says.
The festival, Kiran explains, is important for her as she wants Zohra and her contribution to the arts to be remembered.
“I want viewers to have a good and happy memory of the festival. And perhaps remember Zohra Segal for what she was. Initially, when we had a photographic exhibition, the curator had put together a beautiful exhibition on her life in the foyer.
So, people would come, read and look at it, see so many things they didn’t know about her. They would take back these little memories of hers, which was nice, but not enough. We wanted it to be more than that. With this festival, we hope people will see her in a different light,” she says.