|
|---|
 |
| Born |
Dimple Chunnibhai Kapadia
8 June 1957 (age 57) |
| Occupation |
Actress |
| Years active |
1973; 1984–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Rajesh Khanna (1973–2012) |
| Children |
Twinkle Khanna
Rinke Khanna |
| Relatives |
Akshay Kumar (Son-in-law) |
Dimple Chunnibhai Kapadia (born 8 June 1957)
is an Indian film actress. Kapadia made her acting debut at the age of 16, playing the title role in
Raj Kapoor's teen romance
Bobby (1973). In that same year she married Indian actor
Rajesh Khanna. She is the mother of
Twinkle Khanna and
Rinke Khanna,
both former actresses. Kapadia returned to the film industry in 1984
after her separation from Khanna. One of her films of that period was
the drama
Saagar (1985). Both
Bobby and
Saagar won her the
Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
She became one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema in the 1980s.
Career
Debut (1973)
Kapadia once said she had always had aspirations to become an actress when she was a child, calling herself "film-crazy".
She was discovered at age 13 by
Raj Kapoor, who later introduced her in his 1973 teen romance
Bobby. While the film was to be Kapoor's son
Rishi Kapoor's first leading role, Kapadia was given the title role of Bobby Braganza, a middle-class
Goan Christian girl.
The story follows how Bobby falls in love with Raj (Rishi), the son of a
wealthy businessman, and how the two face the disapproval of their
parents.
Bobby was a major mainstream and critical success, and Kapadia was lauded for her performance, which won her the
Filmfare Award for Best Actress (tied with
Jaya Bhaduri for
Abhimaan).
In later years Kapadia would credit Raj Kapoor for her development as
an actress: "the sum total of me today as an actress, whatever I am, is
Raj Kapoor."
Several of her lines in the film became popular, particularly, "Mujhse dosti karoge?" ("Will you be my friend?")
In 2008,
Rediff.com
ranked her performance in the film as the fourth-best female debut of
all-time in Hindi cinema: "An elfin little girl with big, lovely eyes,
nobody quite portrayed innocence as memorably as Dimple in her first
outing. She was candid, striking, and a true natural ... here was a girl
who would redefine glamour and grace, and make it look very, very easy
indeed."
Following the success of the film, Kapadia's modern wardrobe and hairstyle in
Bobby, consisting of "knotted polka-dotted blouse and earphone hairstyle", made her a youth fashion icon of the times in India
Consequently
polka-dotted dresses were often referred to as 'Bobby Print'.
Bhawana Somaaya of
The Hindu credits Kapadia as starting film memorabilia merchandising in India.
Mukesh Khosla of
The Tribune reported that
Bobby established her as a "cult figure" as she led the fashion trends.
By the time
Bobby released, Kapadia had married actor
Rajesh Khanna in March 1973 at the age of 16, and left the film industry to raise her children.
Comeback and work in the 1980s
After Kapadia's separation from Khanna in 1982, she was keen on
returning to acting, which she ultimately did in 1984. Along with
Rekha and
Sridevi, she would go on to become one of three leading commercial actresses in India in the 1980s.
Kapadia accredited the reason for her return was because of a personal need to prove to herself her own capabilities.
The first film she worked on was
Saagar, directed by
Ramesh Sippy, after a mutual friend had notified Sippy about her willingness to return to acting.
She first performed a screen test, which according to her was very
unsuccessful as she was extremely nervous and "literally shivering"
while making it. To her surprise, Sippy ultimately signed her on to play
the lead part opposite her
Bobby co-star Rishi Kapoor
Scripted with her in mind, the film was intended to be her comeback
vehicle, but its one-year delay meant that several of her proceeding
projects would be released before, the first of which was
Zakhmi Sher (1984).
Saagar
eventually premiered in August 1985 and was controversial for several
scenes featuring Kapadia, including one scene in which she was seen
topless for a split second.
The film was a critical success and was eventually chosen as
India's official entry to the Oscars that year.
[Kapadia's performance as Mona D'Silva, a young woman from
Goa who is torn between her friend (
Kamal Haasan) and the man she loves (Kapoor), won her a second
Best Actress award at the
Filmfare Awards. A review by
Asiaweek labelled her "a delight".
Rediff.com noted, "Dimple, caught between a friend and lover, performed
solidly and memorably, grounding the two male leads and making the film
work."
A 1993 issue of
India Today
wrote, "Saagar was in many ways a paean to her incredible beauty. She
looked ravishing: auburn hair, classical face, deep eyes, an aura of
sensuality. It was clear she was back."
In 1984 she had a role opposite
Sunny Deol in
Manzil Manzil, a drama directed by
Nasir Hussain.
She later said making the film was "one big picnic", though she
expressed her lack of comfort performing the "routine song-and-dance"
nature of the part.
Kapadia's first film of 1985 was
Mukul Anand's
Aitbaar, a
Hitchcockian thriller for which she received positive reviews.
Speaking of her performance, she said that during shooting she was "a
bag of nerves", which eventually ended up working "to my advantage as it
lent my performance the right shade of tautness, without my realising
it."
Among other films released that year, Kapadia was paired up with Sunny Deol in
Arjun, an action film directed by Rahul Rawail and scripted by
Javed Akhtar.
Feroz Khan's
Janbaaz
(1986) told the story of a man fighting the drug menace. The film
became known for its steamy love scene involving Kapadia and male lead
Anil Kapoor, in which the two also shared a full on kiss, something Hindi movie-goers were not accustomed to in those days.
In that same year she acted opposite
Saagar co-star Kamal Haasan in her first regional film,
Vikram,
a Tamil-language sci-fi feature. She played the minor part of Inimaasi,
a young princess who falls for the title character, played by Haasan.
At that time, she also worked in numerous Hindi films made by producers from the
South, including
Pataal Bhairavi,
which she detested. She has confessed to accepting these roles for
financial gain rather than artistic merit during this period, noting, "I
shudder even now when I think of those films. As an artiste I got
totally corrupted."
"After three years of near-frustration in my career, I bagged Mahesh Bhatt's film Kaash.
This film changed my whole outlook. After all those professional
brickbats, when Mahesh asked me to do his film I think I got one of the
biggest highs of my career. Working for Mahesh has been the most
satisfying phase in my entire career as an actress. If I can imbibe even
25% of what he has taught me, I feel I will be made as an artiste."
—Kapadia in 1987 on the experience of making Kaash
In 1987, Kapadia starred in
Mahesh Bhatt's drama
Kaash. Kapadia and
Jackie Shroff
starred as an estranged couple who, during a relentless legal battle
over the custody of their only son, learn that the boy is suffering from
leukaemia,
which makes them reunite to spend together the last months of his life.
Before shooting began, she called it "the most serious artistic
challenge I have ever faced in my career."
Bhatt said he decided to cast her in the role because he was aware of
her own marital experience, and he noted that during the making of the
film she "came closer and closer to the naked truth," so much that
"after a certain point, mentally I couldn't differentiate between Dimple
and Pooja. She became the character."
Kapadia's performance as Pooja was highly praised by critics.
In an article discussing her career's best roles,
The Times of India
wrote, "As ... [a] long-suffering wife who tries making a living for
herself and her young son by working odd jobs, Dimple showed immense
strength as a performer. This has to be one of her best and most
unrecognised performances."
Sukanya Verma from Rediff.com noted, "She rendered her Pooja with stoic
determination and touching vulnerability making her character extremely
believable and sympathetic at once."
In 1988, she played the main protagonist in
Zakhmi Aurat,
that of a female police officer who gets gang-raped and, after the
judicial system fails to convict the criminals, abandons the legal
course and joins forces with other rape victims to get revenge by
castrating the rapists.
The Times of India
labelled the film a "B-grade movie", but further noted that "Dimple
nonetheless did a very convincing job of portraying her anguish and
bitterness at being denied justice."
M.L. Dhawan from
The Tribune,
while documenting the famous Hindi films of 1988, praised Kapadia for
"proving her mettle as an actress of intensity and passion."
Subhash K. Jha, however, in an article discussing Indian actresses who
have played policewomen, wrote that the film "turned into quite an
embarrassment for its leading lady."
The three final years of the decade saw the release of several other
films featuring Kapadia, but few did well. In 1987, she appeared in two
action movies:
Rajkumar Kohli's
Insaniyat Ke Dushman and Mukul Anand's
Insaaf,
in which she played a dual role of a dancer and a physician. She worked
with Kohli in two more movies in 1988, the horror film
Bees Saal Baad and the action drama
Saazish. In that same year Mahesh Bhatt cast her again in his action thriller
Kabzaa, a critical failure.
Ram Lakhan (1989), directed by
Subhash Ghai, was a success with both critics and audiences,
but Kapadia's role was considered small with one critic saying it did
not do "justice to her talent" and another reporting that she "pales
into insignificance in the film."
Other films of this period include
Babbar Subhash's
Pyar Ke Naam Qurbaan, opposite
Mithun Chakraborty, and
J.P. Dutta's action picture
Batwara, opposite
Dharmendra and
Vinod Khanna.
1990s
In the 1990s, Kapadia started venturing more into
arthouse films, later citing an "inner yearning to exhibit my best potential."
Those films include
Drishti (1990),
Lekin... (1990),
Rudaali (1993) and
Antareen (1995).
Drishti, a marital drama directed by
Govind Nihalani, starred Kapadia and
Shekhar Kapur
as a married urban couple from an intellectual milieu in Mumbai and
followed their trials and tribulations, extramarital affairs, divorce,
and ultimate reconciliation after years of separation. Kapadia's part
was that of career-woman Sandhya, and for her portrayal she was named
the Best Actress (Hindi) of the year by the
Bengal Film Journalists' Association.
The film was acknowledged as the
Best Hindi Film of that year at the annual
National Film Awards. In 1993.
Frontline suggested that Kapadia's performance in the film should have earned her the Best Actress award at the same function.
In
Gulzar's
Lekin...,
she played a restless sprite named Reva, a role she has often cited as a
personal favourite and wished would have had more screen time in the
film.
Referring to it once as "the most fantastic" part of her career, she
recalled the working relationship with Gulzar as "a wonderful
experience".
To make her character more truthful, Gulzar did not let Kapadia blink
even once during filming, trying to capture an "endless, fixed gaze"
which would give her "a feeling of being surreal."
Lekin... was popular with critics
and Kapadia's performance earned her a third Filmfare nomination.
In 1991, she appeared in
Prahaar: The Final Attack, the first directorial venture of actor
Nana Patekar, with whom she would collaborate in several other films. The film, co-starring Patekar and
Madhuri Dixit,
received a welcome reception from critics. Kapadia was noted for her
"deglamourised role", but most of the praise went to the performance of
Patekar himself.
Kapadia starred alongside
Amitabh Bachchan in
Shashi Kapoor's fantasy
Ajooba, an Indo-Russian co-production based on
Arabian mythology
and set in the Afghan kingdom of Baharistan. She played Rukhsana, a
young woman who comes from India to rescue her father, court magician
Ameer Baba, from prison. The critical response to
Ajooba was mostly lukewarm.
She played the protagonist in
Haque
(1991), a political drama directed by Harish Bhosle and scripted by
Mahesh Bhatt. Her role was that of Varsha B. Singh, a pregnant Orthodox
woman married to an influential politician. Ram Awatar Agnihotri said of
her performance, "Dimple Khapadia, playing Varsha, very bravely, tries
to make her role look convincing, and she succeeds to a great extent. It
is a tribute to her as an actress".
1992 saw the release of
Maarg, her third appearance under
Mahesh Bhatt's direction. The film was delayed for several years. She
played the role of a prostitute, working by choice. Bhatt called her
performance "stunning" and reported that when shooting ended, she was
"on the point of a breakdown" as she was "exhausted battling with the
nitty-gritty of a whore's character".
She next played Barkha, a single woman who abandons her premarital daughter upon birth, in
Hema Malini's directorial debut
Dil Aashna Hai. In
Shashilal K. Nair's
Angaar,
a crime drama based on the life of an underworld don, she played Mili, a
homeless orphan collected by an unemployed man, played by Jackie
Shroff.
Angaar received positive reviews from critics, as did Kapadia's performance, but it was financially unsuccessful, which Meena Iyer of
The Times of India—who called it "one of the most engaging mafia films to have come out of Bollywood"—attributed to its dark proceedings.
In 1993, she won the
National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in
Rudaali, a drama directed by
Kalpana Lajmi.
Kapadia played the central character of Shanichari, a lonely and
hardened Assamese village woman who, throughout a lifetime of
misfortune, has never cried and is now challenged with a new job as a
professional mourner. The citation for the award described her
performance as a "compelling interpretation of the tribulations of a
lonely woman ravaged by a cruel society".
Chandra Bhushan said of her character, "Shanichari is dry like a desert
but even she has a flavour, affection and audacity and courage to
reject the enticement of Zamindar (the landlord)."
Aside from her third Filmfare Award for Best Actress for the role, she won the
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress, and was acknowledged with Best Actress honours at the
Asia Pacific Film Festival and the
Damascus International Film Festival In 2010
Filmfare magazine included her work in the film in their list of "80 Iconic Performances".
Another Filmfare nomination for Kapadia came that year for her supporting role as Shanti, a street prostitute, in the
Priyadarshan-directed drama
Gardish. An adaptation of the 1989 Malayalam film
Kireedam, the film starred, among others, Jackie Shroff and
Amrish Puri.
In 1994, Kapadia appeared in
Mehul Kumar's
Krantiveer, alongside
Nana Patekar.
She played journalist Meghna Dixit, a past rape victim who now tries to
persuade an alcoholic and unemployed village man to be a champion of
justice for those around him. Kapadia later called the film "out and out
a Nana Patekar vessel," but asserted, "I had my share too," crediting
the part with allowing her "the freedom to perform".
The film became an economic success, emerging as India's third-highest grossing picture of the year.
For her performance, Kapadia received her fourth Filmfare Award, this time in the
Best Supporting Actress category.
Mrinal Sen's 1995 Bengali drama
Antareen was the first non-Hindi project Kapadia took part in since
Vikram
(1986). She played a woman caught in a loveless marriage. Insisting on
playing her part spontaneously, Kapadia refused to enrol in a
crash-course in Bengali as she wrongly felt that she would be able to
speak it convincingly.
Her voice was eventually dubbed by actor Anushua Chatterjee, something Kapadia was unhappy with.
Following
Antareen, Kapadia, who was reportedly expected to
work in more independent films, took a three-year hiatus from acting,
later explaining that she was "emotionally exhausted"
She returned to commercial cinema in 1996, but the few films she did
until the end of the decade met with neither mainstream nor critical
success. Her first release in 1997 was the action film
Agnichakra, which went unnoticed. She played
Amitabh Bachchan's wife in that same year's
Mrityudaata, once again under Mehul Kumar's direction. The film was a critical and commercial failure, with
India Today panning its "comic book-level storytelling".
Trade journal
Film Information wrote Kapadia had "no role worth her", and she herself shared similar sentiments.
She appeared in
Laawaris
(1999) because she liked the subject and considered her role
"substantial", which Rediff.com, in turn, described as another preachy
"woman of substance", while criticising the film for its lack of
originality: "working a worked-to-death formula, [the film] falls flat
on its face.
This was followed by the final feature she appeared in during the decade,
Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain,
in which she played the part of Devyani, the strict mother of a wealthy
family. Subhash K. Jha called the film an "embarrassment",
critic Suparn Verma, in a scathing review, criticised Kapadia's
performance, noting that she "wears a permanent scowl" throughout the
film, and Bella Jaisinghani of
The Indian Express,
calling the film "inconsequential", concluded her review writing that
she wonders "what made Dimple Kapadia do this to herself".
2000s
She co-starred in
Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut
Dil Chahta Hai
(2001). Depicting the contemporary routine life of Indian affluent
youth, it is set in modern-day urban Mumbai and focuses on a major
period of transition in the lives of three young friends (
Aamir Khan,
Saif Ali Khan and
Akshaye Khanna)
Kapadia played the role of Tara Jaiswal, a middle-aged alcoholic woman,
an interior designer by profession, and a divorcee who is not allowed
to meet with her daughter. The film presents her story through the
character of Siddharth (Khanna), a much younger man whom she befriends
and who ultimately falls deeply in love with her. She said making the
picture was an "enriching" experience and called her part "a role to die
for".
Critics lauded
Dil Chahta Hai
as a groundbreaking film for its realistic portrayal of Indian youth.
The film performed well in the big cities but failed in the rural areas,
which was attributed by critics to the urban-oriented lifestyle
depicted in the movie.
Saibal Chatterjee, in a review for
Hindustan Times, noted, "Dimple Kapadia, in a brief, somewhat underdeveloped role, presents a poignant study of loneliness."
In 2002, Kapadia portrayed the title role of Leela in
Leela, an American production directed by Somnath Sen and co-starring
Deepti Naval,
Vinod Khanna and Amol Mhatre. Kapadia's part—written specially for her—is that of a forty year-old married woman and a
Mumbai University
professor, who, after the death of her mother, loses her sense of
happiness and takes a job as a visiting professor of South Asian studies
in California.
The story follows Leela's acclimation to her new surroundings and
particularly her relationship with one of her students there, Kris
(Mhatre), a young Indian-American man. Kapadia noted about working in
the film, "While in production, I'm all tensed up, and that is what
makes me take my acting to the next level."
Maitland McDonagh from
TV Guide wrote, "Dimple Kapadia shines in this family melodrama ... [her] intelligent, nuanced performance is the film's highlight."
Ziya Us Salam from
The Hindu
called her "a charmer all the way. Exhilarating is the air she
breathes, bewitching is the glance she casts and enticingly vulnerable
is her condition."
In 2004, she played the lead role of army wife Sandra Williams in
Hum Kaun Hai?,
a supernatural thriller. The film opened to a mixed critical reception,
but Kapadia's performance received positive comments. Subhash K. Jha
noted that she "carries the film beyond where it would have been
otherwise"; Rama Sharma of
The Tribune
wrote of her performance, "Dimple lends all her charisma to help the
script sail through dead ends. Whether she is scared or scolding
children, she has a powerful presence."
2005 saw Kapadia and
Rishi Kapoor reunite as a lead couple for the third time after
Bobby (1973) and
Saagar (1985) in
Pyaar Mein Twist.
They starred as two middle-aged single parents who fall in love and
later have to deal with the reaction of their children. The film
generated mostly negative reviews, with several critics concurring that
the chemistry between the lead pair is what makes the film watchable.
In a two-star review,
Khalid Mohamed
called Kapadia "a dream actress", but ultimately concluded, "See this
twisteroo if you must, only for the undiminished Kapoor-Kapadia
chemistry."
Few people went to see the film; within two weeks it was declared a flop.
Kapadia's part of former superstar Neena Walia in
Luck by Chance, which was referred to in the film as "a crocodile in a chiffon saree", won her critical praise and a Filmfare nomination.
In 2006, she co-starred with
Saif Ali Khan and
Naseeruddin Shah in the psychological drama
Being Cyrus (2006), an English-language arthouse feature directed by
Homi Adajania.
Kapadia enacted the part of Katy, Shah's neurotic and unfaithful wife
who runs an affair with Cyrus, a young man who enters their house as an
assistant. Her work received varied comments. According to
BBC's Poonam Joshi, "The descent into despair of Dimple Kapadia's Katy is enthralling."
Derek Elley from
Variety,
however, panned her for "wildly overact[ing]", with similar sentiments
being shared by several critics, including Shradha Sukumaran from
Mid Day, who labelled her performance "over-the-top and jerky".
In
V. K. Prakash's
Phir Kabhi Kapadia and
Mithun Chakraborty played ageing people who meet at a school reunion and rekindle their high-school romance. At the request of her son-in-law
Akshay Kumar, she voiced the character of Devi, the mother of the title character of an elephant (voiced by Kumar) in the animated movie
Jumbo (2008).
Kapadia was cast in
Zoya Akhtar's first directorial venture,
Luck By Chance
(2009), a satirical take on the Hindi film industry. She essayed the
part of Neena Walia, an erstwhile superstar—referred to in the film as
"a crocodile in a chiffon saree"—who struggles to launch her young
daughter in the movie business.
Luck By Chance opened to a warm critical response, though its financial income was modest.
Critics were appreciative of Kapadia's performance, which earned her a
Best Supporting Actress nomination at Filmfare. Deepa Karmalkar from
Screen characterised her as "gloriously bitchy",
while Sukanya Verma from Rediff hailed her as "stunning, striking, storming".
2010s
Kapadia played the small part of
Salman Khan's asthmatic mother in
Dabangg (2010). With revenues of
2.13 billion worldwide, the film was a huge commercial success, emerging as the popular film
of the year in India as well as the
second-highest grossing Hindi film of all-time up to that point
Reviews for Kapadia were mixed, with Shubhra Gupta writing that she is "laughably wrong".
Tum Milo Toh Sahi, released the same year, was a mature love story, in which she starred as Delshad Nanji, a
Parsi woman in charge of an
Irani café, who falls in love with a man played by
Nana Patekar.
Kapadia employed a Parsi accent for the role and, while preparing for
it, visited several Irani cafés in Mumbai to understand their cultural
basics and get into the mood of the character.
The film opened to average reviews, but her performance received
generally positive feedback, with several critics noting her chemistry
with Patekar.
Anupama Chopra,
in a negative review, criticised her character, claiming it "veers into
caricature", but wrote of Kapadia that she "plays her with affection
and energy and at least has some fun doing it."
Kapadia's only film of 2011 was
Nikhil Advani's
Patiala House,
a sports film revolving around cricket in which she was cast as Rishi
Kapoor's wife and her son in-law, Akshay Kumar's mother. The role was
small, with
Times of India's
Nikhat Kazmi commenting that she "does end up a bit underutilised".
As of December 2011, Kapadia is set to appear in her third non-Hindi and first Malayalam-language film,
Bombay Mittayi, for which she started learning the language. She plays the wife of a celebrated
Ghazal singer, played by
Amar Singh, on whose behest she was offered the part.
Her new film What The Fish will be released on 13 December 2013.
Personal life
Kapadia is the eldest daughter of
Gujarati entrepreneur Chunnibhai Kapadia and Betty, her younger siblings being late actress
Simple Kapadia, a sister named Reem and a brother, Munna.
The family resided on Ghodbunder Road in
Santa Cruz, Mumbai, and she studied at
St. Joseph's Convent High School.
Due to her father's wealth and business, she has described her upbringing as "different".
Kapadia in 1999
Kapadia married actor
Rajesh Khanna six months before the release of her first film,
Bobby, in 1973.
She then retired from acting for twelve years to raise her two daughters,
Twinkle (b. 1974) and
Rinke (b. 1977).
Reportedly, it was Khanna who "put a ban on her acting career promptly
after the marriage," though Kapadia has once noted that "career has
always been secondary" to her.
Kapadia separated from Khanna in April 1982, leaving the house with her two daughters back to her parents
She returned to acting two years later.
In a 1985 interview with
India Today,
she remarked, "The life and happiness in our house came to an end the
day I and Rajesh got married." She shared her unhappy marital experience
and called their marriage "a farce", noting that it just took her "a
hell of a long time to realise that."
In 2010, reporter Dinesh Raheja stated that "the bitterness between
Rajesh and Dimple washed away", noting that they are seen together at
parties and that Dimple campaigned for Khanna's election and also worked
in his film
Jai Shiv Shankar.
Asked in
Filmfare
whether she would want to marry again, Kapadia replied, "I'm very happy
and content. Why do I need to get married again? Once was more than
enough."
Her daughters also became actresses and retired after settling down. Her elder daughter, Twinkle Khanna, is married to actor
Akshay Kumar.
Image and artistry
When Kapadia made her comeback to movies, she faced constant comparison to her
Bobby days. According to Jyotika Virdi, author of the book
The Cinematic Imagination,
Kapadia trajectory is "different from that of any female Hindi film
star", and she "turned every disadvantage to her advantage."
Virdi mentioned Kapadia's forthright manner as having a major
contribution to her career: "Speaking candidly to the press, she and the
reporters plotted her life's narrative from the innocent teenager
snared into an impossible marriage to the emergence of a mature 'woman
with experience.'" Virdi also noted Kapadia for "fighting her way to the
top, preferring to perform roles she described as serious and exacting
rather than flippant and unchallenging," calling her parts in
Aitbaar (1985),
Kaash (1987) and
Drishti (1990) as roles "where she drew from the well of her own experience."
Kapadia is known for her assertive and moody nature; during the making of
Janbaaz (1986), director
Feroz Khan remarked, "No other girl has so much of pent-up aggression."
Journalist Bhawana Somaaya, who conducted a series of interviews with
her during the 1980s, stated, "She's a strange bundle of contradictions.
Her moods change in a jiffy."
According to some critics, this approach has sometimes been at the cost
of professional opportunities as "her unpredictable nature and moods
have distanced many well wishers". In reply to this, she said, "I am
moody by nature. But I have never consciously hurt anyone."
According to
Shobha Dé, Kapadia "hates being 'surveyed' and she finds herself in that unenviable situation all the time."
[93]
Mahesh Bhatt, with whom she first worked in
Kaash
(1987), remarked that Kapadia "has gone through so much in her life
that she need not read up the text books of method acting to play a real
woman."
Speaking of her venture into art cinema years later, Bhatt commended
her for not turning into "a victim of her own success" by refusing to
become "a part of the money-making machine".
Mrinal Sen, who directed her in
Antareen (1994), compared her to
Sophia Loren and described her face as "a landscape of desolation". According to
Drishti (1990) director
Govind Nihalani, Kapadia is "genuinely interested in doing serious work, something that challenges her talent."
Following her success with
Rudaali, a 1993 edition of
Asiaweek reported that by this time Kapadia had long been "a critic's darling".
[94]
Dinesh Raheja from
Rediff
stated that Kapadia's involvement in art films happened at a time when
she "exhausted her appetite for playing the pretty prop in hero-oriented
films", arguing that they "honed Dimple's talent for lending fine
striations to complex emotions." According to Raheja, Kapadia's casting
in
Dil Chahta Hai and
Leela,
in which she played "an older woman who is the object of a younger
man's affection" served as "a kind of tribute to her eternal beauty."
M.L. Dhawan from
The Tribune commented, "All those who have been following Dimple Kapadia's career from
Bobby,
Lekin and
Rudaali will assert that she is more talented than glamorous."
[Ranjan Das Gupta calls her "an instinctive actress, spontaneous and
intelligent" but he notes that her beauty is "her asset as well as
limitation".
Kapadia describes herself as "a competent actress yet to deliver her best".
Awards
- National Film Awards
- Filmfare Awards
-
- Nominations
- Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards
- Other awards
Filmography
