{"id":1151,"date":"2016-04-18T00:51:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T19:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2016-04-18T17:06:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T11:36:18","slug":"lalita-pawar-dominating-matriarch-scheming-manthara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/lalita-pawar-dominating-matriarch-scheming-manthara\/","title":{"rendered":"Lalita Pawar: The Dominating Matriarch And Scheming Manthara"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1153\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1153\" class=\"wp-image-1153 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/04\/Lalita-pawar.jpg\" alt=\"Lalita Pawar\" width=\"300\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/04\/Lalita-pawar.jpg 300w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/04\/Lalita-pawar-125x150.jpg 125w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/04\/Lalita-pawar-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/04\/Lalita-pawar-150x180.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1153\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lalita Pawar playing a lead role in early 1940s (Before 1942, as she lost her left eye in a 1942 accident)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lalita Pawar, the quintessential female villain of Hindi films, the\u00a0archetypal scheming mother in law was also the golden-hearted Mrs D&#8217;sa. April 18, 2016, marks her 100th birth anniversary. A tribute to this prolific Indian actress with some interesting anecdotes on her life and times.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Early Years<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lalita, born Amba Laxman Rao Sagun on 18 April 1916, was the daughter of a wealthy silk merchant. While visiting a film studio, young Lalita requested to be photographed so she could see herself on film. The director was so impressed with her screen presence that he signed her for a role in his next movie.<\/p>\n<p>In 1942, while filming a scene which required her character to be slapped, Lalita was struck way too hard by the new actor Bhagwan Dada across the face. The accident resulted in burst in her left eye vein damaging the eye and leaving her with a noticeable permanent squint. She was in her early 20&#8217;s. The accident forced her to abandon lead roles and switch to character roles which won her immense fame and popularity later in life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Career Spanning 6 Decades<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1155\" style=\"width: 651px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1155\" class=\"wp-image-1155 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/anari.jpg\" alt=\"The unforgettable Mrs D'Sa in Anari (1959)\" width=\"641\" height=\"478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/anari.jpg 641w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/anari-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/anari-400x298.jpg 400w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/anari-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 641px) 100vw, 641px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1155\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The unforgettable Mrs D&#8217;Sa in Anari (1959)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lalita Pawar\u2019s acting career that started as a nine-year-old in the era of silent movies with <em>Raja Harishchandra<\/em>\u00a0(1928) matured to build up a repertoire of more than 700 Hindi and Marathi films. She received the Filmfare award for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in <em>Anari<\/em>, which gave her big breaks and many more offers on her roads to achievements. She was honored by the Government of India as the first lady of Indian cinema, in 1961.<\/p>\n<p>Pawar&#8217;s first marriage was with Ganpatrao Pawar who had directed many of her silent films and early sound films. The marriage developed cracks when he took a fancy to her younger sister.<\/p>\n<p>Her second marriage with Rajkumar Gupta of Ambika studios, Mumbai, provided her with some much needed companionship.<\/p>\n<h2><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><strong>Memorable roles of Lalita Pawar<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Mrs. L D\u2019Sa:<\/strong> After switching to character roles Lalita Pawar became synonymous with roles of the dominating matriarch or mother-in-law. <a title=\"Hrishikesh Mukherjee: In a Genre of His Own\" href=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/hrishikesh-mukherjee\/\">Hrishikesh Mukherjee<\/a> broke the stereotype by casting her as the strict but golden-hearted Mrs. L. D\u2019Sa in the Raj Kapoor-Nutan starrer <em>Anari<\/em> (1959), a character which the maestro filmmaker repeated in <em>Anand<\/em>, as the firm but kind matron.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1157\" style=\"width: 635px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1157\" class=\"wp-image-1157\" src=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/Sujata-1024x762.png\" alt=\"Bimal Roy\u2019s Sujata cast her in the role of the orthodox Buaji who is unable to accept Sujata as one of the family.\" width=\"625\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/Sujata-1024x762.png 1024w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/Sujata-1024x762-150x112.png 150w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/Sujata-1024x762-400x298.png 400w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/Sujata-1024x762-768x572.png 768w, https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/02\/Sujata-1024x762-300x223.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1157\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bimal Roy\u2019s Sujata cast her in the role of the orthodox Buaji who is unable to accept Sujata as one of the family.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Giribala, Buaji\/aunt<\/strong> \u2013 Bimal Roy\u2019s acclaimed\u00a0film Sujata that explores the\u00a0practice of untouchability in India\u00a0cast her in the role of the orthodox Buaji who is unable to accept Sujata, the adopted girl as one of the family as she is an &#8220;untouchable&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seeta Devi, Anita&#8217;s Aunt<\/strong>: In Guru Dutt\u2019s <em>Mr &amp; Mrs 55<\/em>, Lalita Pawar plays the dominating, authoritative aunt who is championing the cause of women\u2019s emancipation by forcing her niece to go in for a divorce under the newly enacted Divorce Law.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Major\u2019s mother<\/strong> \u2013 Dev Anand\u2019s <em>Hum Dono<\/em> cast Lalita Pawar in the role of the Major\u2019s mother who clings on to her son\u2019s lookalike in the belief that he is her war-hero son.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Manthara<\/strong> \u2013 The role of the scheming Manthara suited her screen image perfectly in Ramanand Sagar\u2019s magnum opus on TV <em>Ramayan<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Lonely End<\/strong> Her career was thrown out of gear in 1990 when she developed cancer in the jaw. She was forced to undergo treatment of intensive radiation leading to weight loss, drain of energy and memory lapses. It was then that she decided to shift to Pune for treatment.<\/p>\n<p>It was on 24th February 1998 when veteran film actress died lonely at her residence in Aundh, Pune at the age of 82. Her death went unnoticed. Her husband was in Mumbai then recovering from throat operation in a private hospital.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/hrishikesh-mukherjee-interview\/\">Hrishikesh Mukherjee: Giving Cinema a New Definition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/bimal-roy\/\">Bimal Roy: The Eastern Mystic Who Made Films<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/dev-anand\/\">Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya \u2013 Evergreen Dev Anand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tribute to Lalita Pawar, the prolific Indian actress with some interesting anecdotes on her life and times.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":1153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,4],"tags":[568,569,570,571],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-cinema-retrospectives","category-retrospective","tag-lalita-pawar","tag-lalita-pawar-actress","tag-lalita-pawar-hindi-films","tag-tribute-to-lalita-pawar"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}