Filmomania: Sulakshana Pundit’s cruel tryst with destiny

Bollywood reminiscences

 By Amit Srivastava

The magical world of the film industry is well known for the unpredictability and quirkiness with which it conspires with destiny to make or mar the fortunes of an unsuspecting individual. It may pick up a fresh struggler and take the person to dizzying heights of fame fortune and success. It will shower upon him the riches of the world and the unending adulation of the masses.

One may be lulled into believing that shower of blessings will last forever. Nothing can be farther from truth. Once the sheen is taken away, the descent into the vortex of neglect and deprivation is fast. There are countless stories of once popular film stars forced to live in penury and an eventual ignominious death once the wheels of time stops being benevolent.

Also read: Filmomania: She was the first to quit at her peak to settle down with a commoner in a foreign land

The story of the actress Vimmy, the lead actress of the popular movie Humraaz(1957), is cited very often as a reminder to the cold cruel fate meted out by the film industry. Her plunge into anonymity and poverty is well known. She was one of the main leads in the film along with Sunil Dutt and Rajkumar in the film Humraaz made under B. R. Chopra banner. Her desire to be in films, resulted in separation from her husband. She died in extreme poverty and there was no one to do even the death rites for her. Industry folklore has it that her body was taken away for cremation in a hand drawn cart .

Endless such stories abound in the film industry. During olden days the film stars were not investment savvy. The females especially were more prone to vagaries of fate due to lack of experience with handling of finances. Actresses like Nargis, Meena Kumari, Madhubala – all had a huge family that depended on them for survival.

All these names immediately came to my mind when I had a chance small meeting, almost 20 years ago, with Sulakshana Pundit – the female star of the seventies. Her transition from a life of fame and success to one of dispossession and loneliness , was too stark. 

Sulakshana Pundit was a very successful actress in the seventies who had several mainstream hits to her credit. During her heydays she was in huge demand and had worked with some of the top actors in the industry like Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna.

Not only that she was a hugely successful star, but she also belonged to those rare breed of singer-actors like Suraiya and Kishore Kumar. She was a singer par excellence. If my memory serves me right she was the first major female singing actor after Suraiya . She came from a family of well- known classical singers of Mewati Gharana – a musical apprenticeship tribe of Hindustani classical music.

The classical singer Pundit Jasraj was her uncle. She got the chance to sing with all the lead singers of her generation like Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and was the favourite of all the major music directors Like Shankar Jaikishan, Kalyanji Anand ji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Khayyam. She even won the filmfare best playback singer award in 1975 for her song Tu Hi Kinara…

THE DECLINE IN FORTUNES

She made a good pair with Sanjeev Kumar onscreen and they were also considered close in personal life. Sanjeev Kumar’s death in 1985 had shattered her. I remember an interview where she had started to cry when the well known TV host Tabassum kept asking her pin-pointedly about Sanjeev Kumar. She was an emotional person and his death left a deep mark on her. She was very disturbed and could not shrug off this tragedy and it affected her work. With passage of time, gradually the film and singing offers also ceased. It is said that she spent the major portion of her earnings on supporting her family and providing for her siblings, six of them including Vijayeta Pundit, and Jatin Lalit.

MY MEETING WITH SULAKSHANA PUNDIT IN 2001

It was the November of 2001.  This was the time when her mental condition and financial situation was at its nadir. I was in the process of relocating back from USA to India. I landed up in Mumbai on way to our home town. We were happy to avail the offer of staying at my uncle’s house located at Juhu beach. It was our first visit to Mumbai and we were excited.

Like many other folks who hail from smaller towns and cities of India I was also keen to find out if any movie stars lived nearby. Juhu area was studded with the houses of former and current movie stars. It was a favourite place to settle down for the movie stars of the 70’s. In fact , Vijay Arora and Sulakshana Pandit lived at the same sprawling Kings apartment where we stayed. Vijay Arora was a well known film actor of 70’s and was remembered for his role in the film Yaadon ki Baraat and later on the TV show Ramayan. We could meet Vijay Arora next day but our hosts dissuaded us from meeting Sulakshana Pandit for some inexplicable reason. “She is in bad condition…It is not a good idea to meet her.” These made little sense to a star struck youngster. She was a big star in her heydays and earned the respect of all due to her singing talent.

On the last day of our stay, I took my wife and my two year old son and quietly went to the third floor of the building where she stayed. My uncle was not at home and it was a golden opportunity to meet the 70’s star. There was no door in place and place looked dilapidated and somewhat deserted. We looked at each other. It was a big shock to see her house in such a bad shape but little did I know that bigger shocks awaited us. But an elderly lady came and ushered us in. The entire apartment was soaked in darkness except one earthen lamp at puja that offered a semblance of dim light. The entire living room was bare except for one sofa where we were seated. The lamp at the image of God on the wall seemed to offer the light of hope against the pallor of gloom that enveloped the place.

When Sulakshan came we immediately got up to offer her seat but she preferred to sit on the ground. The room was dark. She asked for the earthen lamp to be brought near the place where we were . She wanted to see our faces. She herself was clothed old night gown. Gloom and poverty was written all over the place. I was speechless to see a celebrity and a much loved film star in this state of ignominy and neglect. But she was happy to see us. The very fact of being sought after and paid respect by fans rekindled her dormant self-pride. The pall of gloom seemed to melt away in this temporary moment of self-importance. She started asking questions about us and what we did in USA. I had a high regard for her as a singer. Many of her songs were big hits and the very fact that she was able to gain a foothold in the industry when Lata Mangeshkar was still going strong in the seventies, spoke volumes about her singing prowess.. This was no mean achievement. I told this on her face.

And before I could ask her to sing a song, she as if reading our mind announced that she would sing a song for us. We were in luck. But contrary to my expectation, she didn’t sing one of her own songs.

She started singing the famous Lata song ‘Aji rooth kar ab kahan jaaiyega’ from the film Aarzoo. This popular number was picturized on Sadhana. The importance of that moment struck me. It was an unusual setting. We were five persons in the room huddled around a small, flickering earthen lamp, our faces dimly lit. her sweet voice softly glided out as if on the dim waves of light and into the darkness beyond our circle. The simplicity of heart was evident. She was sitting on the ground and crooning away like a little child. My mind tended to drift away at the irony of fate that befell this simple hearted soul. There must have been a time when she was surrounded by glitz and glamour and besotted by many in the country. Here she was sitting among strange people and singing in this dark dilapidated place. I knew this moment will last forever with me.

When the song ended I summoned courage to offer her some money that I had in my pocket, barely a few thousand. I was apprehensive of being admonished by her at the offer but surprisingly she accepted and expressed gratitude. After that we took leave with a promise to see her again. We had an early morning flight back home the very next day. We came back to our apartment downstairs with our hearts heavy after being a witness to this sad twist of life.

A few years later, I had moved to Mumbai and became a part of the film industry myself. Once I saw a news item that the actor Jeetendra’s family had helped her in selling the house and helped her relocate. I was really happy for her. She always came off as an emotional person and a clean hearted. It is said that while she was at the peak of her career she took care of her big family consisting of seven siblings. Her brothers Jatin- Lalit became famous music directors later on. Whether any help came from them or not, is not a subject matter of this article. She had said in an interview that she expected her younger brothers to give her a chance for relaunch of her career in singing but that never came.

My purpose of writing this piece is to bring an honest recount of this meeting with Sulakshana Pundit when she was at a very difficult juncture of her life. During this period a rumour was spread that she had become mentally unstable. While this may not be true, one thing is sure that she had gone through a very cruel phase of life where she saw all edifices of emotional, social and financial support around her crumbling away.

Currently she is staying with her younger sister Vijayeta Pundit who became a strong pillar of support later in her life. All talks of her mental instability was dispelled when she resurfaced in 2017 with a detailed interview on radio FM Gold. She talked in detail about her life, her songs and the people she worked with. Her only lament was that she never got a chance to sing for her famous music director brothers Jatin Lalit. She is seventy years now. Through this article I take this opportunity to pay our love and respects to her.

*The writer is a Consulting Editor of globalbihari.com. He has also worked as an actor in USA and in India. His areas of interest includes film, Yoga and and literature.