A record of her craft

To mark theatre and cinema legend Dina Pathak’s 100th birth anniversary, her actress daughter Ratna Pathak Shah dips into a personal photo album

This writer remembers Dina Pathak as the strict disciplinarian matriarch from the endearing 1980 Rekha-starrer Khoobsurat. For the ‘80s kid in India, veteran actress Dina Pathak was the quintessential Hindi film ma; much the same way that Reema Lagoo was for the ’90s kid. This month, she would have turned 100.

From her most famous and super-hit Gujarati play from 1946—Mena Gurjari—about a young girl who marries a tribal leader. Pathak is on the extreme right

Although her career formally took off with the Gujarati movie Kariyawar in 1948, she had been acting way before that. After graduating from Mumbai university, she joined the Indian National Theatre, and took to the Gujarati stage right away. One of her most popular plays was Mena Gurjari, where she played the lead role of simpleton Mena who is married to the chieftain of a shepherd tribe. It was an example of Bhavai, an open-air folk theatre form from Gujarat, whose primary aim was to spread awareness on social issues while providing entertainment. She even formed her own group in Ahmedabad called Nat Mandal, which produced plays by writers ranging from Bhavai (Mena Gurjari) to Ibsen (Dhingli Ghar). She continued to act on stage until her 40s when she returned to Indian cinema with landmark films like Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika (1977) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Golmaal (1979). She also made it to the credits of the cream of art house cinema, including Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala (1985), and Govind Nihalani’s Tamas (1986).  You might have last seen her in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas.

In an Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) production in Mumbai. Pathak’s association with IPTA dates back to the 1940s

Dina’s actress daughter Ratna Pathak Shah says, “Ma’s advice to us about acting was about the inner life of the character—how one can search for and communicate that. She also took her work very seriously even when it was silly (as it was a lot of the time), and that made a deep impression on me.” When we ask her about the veteran’s contribution to theatre and movies, her answer is candid and bittersweet. “What does she have to show for herself after 100 years? Memories of some path breaking work, but unfortunately, no record of those; a body of some fairly good but largely mediocre films, which are unfortunately on record; a rapidly dwindling group of people who can testify to her contribution to theatre; no theatre group to carry on the work (a loss she felt deeply); people who think of her with affection and admiration, and Supriya [daughter] and I. I wish she was around now, when female actors are getting interesting work. She would have loved to get her teeth into the roles that are being written now.”

Saratchandra Chatterjee’s Vijaya produced by Dina Pathak’s theatre group Nat Mandal in the 1940s. Here she is seen with Tarla Mehta, her younger sister. Pics Courtesy/Ratna Pathak Shah

A still from the Gujarati film Malela Jeev which released in 1956, directed by popular Gujarati director Manhar Raskapur. It’s based on the romance novel written by Pannalal Patel. Pathak played Jivi, a woman born in a barber’s family, who falls in love with Kanji, an upper caste man

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