Like the conflicted characters she plays on screen, Tabu comes across as an enigma. Sitting in a dark corner of a five-star facing a black wall, we are told that she is not well and will meet only a select few. I think it would take some effort to break the ice but the actress is suitably chirpy. “I get sick of interviews. After a point I find them boring. So I pick and choose,” she yawns. Like her films. “Yes, people remember my ability to say no.” Does she? “No it is for others to remember. I follow my instincts. Apni marzi ke khilaaf kuchh nahin karti .”
In Delhi to promote “Drishyam”, Tabu says she doesn’t look for challenges in characters. “I look for things that excite me. It is a character that I haven’t done in the recent past. As an Inspector General of Police, she is very clear, single-minded and then she is a mother, whose love for her son can colour her vision.” Tabu thrives in the dichotomies that life has to offer and here there is one more opportunity. She watched the original in Malayalam and when director Nishikant Kamat called her, she already knew what she wanted to play. “We have stayed true to the original story for in this you can’t tamper with even a single layer.”
Be it “Chandni Bar” or “Haider”, the characters she plays are so emotionally draining that they must have an impact on her psyche. “I don’t know in which way they do if they do but I am sure kuch na kuch hota hoga . Manoj (Bajpayee) says that every time he plays a character it leaves a scar. I have not analysed it.” Is it that simple? Is there no art to it? “ Woh mera technique hai use main aapko kaise bataoon ,” she winks. “Who will take me seriously when I talk like this and do such intense roles,” and breaks into that heady laughter that makes heart go aquiver. “Seriously,” she pauses for a moment, “I am very serious about my work but I don’t take myself seriously. I can’t be dishonest to my work,” she underlines.
She doesn’t need dialogues to express emotions. “Acting is a process that I can’t explain. I am not from an acting school. I don’t know technical terms but yes, I understand characters. If you ask me how much oil I put and how much wax I employ then I won’t be able to explain. Believe me,” she sounds a little apologetic. “I can’t decode that quality. Sachchi!” she insists as if I am not believing her. But she comes from an actors’ family, I try to prick. Shabana and Tanvi Azmi are her aunts. “Of course. They talk a lot about the technique of acting. They can give lectures. I am different,” she counters but soon realises she is letting out too much.
One reminds of her to and fro journey between serious and commercial cinema. Who will like to shoot simultaneously for “Hawa” and “Maqbool”? “It was not about entry or exit. At that time so many films were being offered. At that moment one had to choose from what has been offered to you. If I look back I can give a lot of things different colour and form. What if…but the point is everybody lives in the moment. It is another matter we keep on reminding it to ourselves. After ‘Hu Tu Tu’, David (Dhawan) came to me. It was a special performance and his heroine had left. He requested me to do the cameo. And I said chalo kar lete hain . It turned out to be truly special and I am still remembered for ‘Biwi No.1’. So at times it is a coincidence.”
At times it is destiny too. For she says, Dev Anand made her pet name her screen name. “As I grew older, I wanted to return to Tabassum but by then Tabu picked up so much that there was no point. I still feel about it.” Such candour is rare.
She maintains that she never tried to establish or demolish an image. “After ‘Vijaypath’ when Gulzar sahib approached me for ‘Maachis’ and Priyadarshan offered me ‘Kaalapani’, I felt it is going to provide me a different experience. I did it for experience. I followed my instincts and kept on signing irrespective of the genre.”
Analysts say times have changed for the Hindi film heroine. She is no longer an eye candy. “The hero was also eye candy at that time,” Tabu refutes. “The commercial cinema was like that. So to say our filmmakers were unfair towards female actors is a sweeping statement. Those were different times.”
So do I know Tabu? Not quite. At times she feels that I have come to interrogate her and when I leave she asks to spend time with her, observe and then write. “You can’t make an opinion about me in such a short time.” Well, when dichotomy is so discerning one doesn’t want to.
