Shabana Azmi on NPR ... what a pleasant surprise!

A couple of mornings ago, I was driving to work and listening to NPR when it was a segment on Shabana Azmi.  Yes, that same Azmi from Indian movies.  It was cool. 

Today, I was thinking about that as I was driving back home, and I realized that I couldn't recall any particular song from her movies.  I mean, Azmi was not one who was that stereotypical song/dance Bollywood actor.  There was a lot of arty and intellectual aspect in her acting and the characters she played--even in the commercial films. 

My earliest memory of Azmi is from a wonderfully classic Shatranj ke Khilari (The Chess Players.)  I simply loved that movie, which I recall watching at home on television.  We had only one channel--Dhoordharshan--which would telecast the art movies that rarely ever screened in movie halls because these were not the formulaic ones.  I had my fill watching quite a few non-Bollywood movies that way, and enjoyed them all.  But, I digress ...

Much later in life, here in the US, I did watch the controversial Fire.  While the actors, with Azmi in the lead role, did a great job, I didn't care much for the movie because it raced to the sexual angle and played it up more than the love itself.  It would have been an awesome movie if only Deepa Mehta had taken the time to tell the story of love between the two women in those very oppressive contexts.

Anyway, thanks to YouTube, I am able to enjoy this song here--though, as one who watched very few movies when I was a kid and teenager, I admit that I have always liked this song even though I have no clue about the movie itself.