Parveen Babi Passed Away

Parveen Babi died on January 22, 2005, in her Juhu apartment. The door of her apartment was locked from inside and the police broke it open after three days of her death.

Parveen was a glamorous actress who brought charm and unique attraction to the Bollywood film screen. The first time I saw her was in Kranti. I was in Nigeria then and we had plenty of time at our hands to spend in entertainment. The biggest source of entertainment was watching Indian movies on the VCR.

My children, not yet in ‘teens, were fond of Parveen. They liked Amjad Khan also whom they had watched in Qurbani. They would imitate his dialogues (Abhay ha’ath haiy keh hathora) and actions playfully. I hadn’t heard of Amitabh Bachan then and the first time a friend mentioned his name, I thought he was “she”. I knew of an Indian actress whose name was Ameeta; I mixed her up with Amitabh. Then in a few years, I had watched so many Indian movies that I knew a lot about the Indian actors and actresses. Parveen among all of them was so joyful, beautiful and vibrant.

Life is so unpredictable. I never could imagine that she would come to such a sad end. It is reported that she died of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is the cancer of mind (barri namurad beemari haiy). Although I do not know for sure, another very talented actress, Meena Kumari, also died a tragic death. Parveen was a different kind of actress. She had a blend of western glamour and the eastern substratum in her make up. She was probably the only Indian actress who had the distinction of appearing on the cover of the Time magazine.

She was born on April 4, 1955 in Junagadh. Her father, Vali Mohammed Babi (follower of Ali Muhammed Bab?) was an administrator with the Nawab of Junagadh. Babi was the only child who was born after 14 years of marriage of her parents. She received her early schooling in Aurangabad and completed her college education at St. Xavier/s college, Ahmedabad. She became a very popular actress in 1970s and left the industry in early 1980s. She moved to New York in 1983 and moved back to Bombay in 2002.

(I had a brief break here from writing to watch snippets of a program ‘Remembering Parveen Babi’ on Z TV)

She was teamed with the greatest actors of the Indian film industry. Dilip Kumar was a Kranti leader in Kranti in which Babi also played. She played several roles against Amitabh who said she was great fun and bohemian kind of leading lady. She starred against him in several blockbusters such as Deewar (1975), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Shaan (1980), and Namak Halal (1982), among several others.

Jeetendra, another veteran actor of Bollywood, said, “She was so young… I am shocked… She minded her own work and never got involved in any petty politics.” Life of an actress is seldom free of scandals; Parveen had her own affairs and flings and she was quite open about them. According to http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/000968.html, “She was the first actress to openly take drugs and talk about it. Like many in her generation, Babi openly advocated free love.”

Film actors and actresses provide entertainment to millions and millions of people while with the end of their careers, many of them die heartbroken in isolation and misery. Parveen’s life story was sad in this respect.

May she find peace in her death.