Kalpana was my niece and I noticed in her an interest in the arts from her early years. I suppose her interest was natural \u2014 she was Guru Dutt\u2019s niece and her mother, Lalita Lajmi, was an eminent artist. Kalpana was about 17 and in college when she started to apprentice with me. She was deeply involved in my children\u2019s film, Charandas Chor. After that, she decided to take up filmmaking and assisted Mahesh Bhatt, who also later produced her films. Her films had a strong feminist content. She didn\u2019t carry that flag but her protagonists were chiefly strong women fighting social norms. I would say they were rooted in her liberal and intellectual background.<\/p>\n
She fell in love with the legendary Bhupen Hazarika at the young age of 17. They made an unusual couple as he was much older but it was a successful partnership that lasted till Hazarika passed away. In those years, she devoted her life to him, choosing to take care of him and his work. She was, understandably, heartbroken after his death. She wrote a book on him, Bhupen Hazarika \u2013 As I Knew Him, which was released a few weeks ago. She couldn\u2019t attend the launch as she was terminally ill then. It was tragic as she lost her kidneys to cancer. Her death is a loss of a massive talent.<\/p>\n
Santosh Sivan
\nI first worked with Kalpana on Rudaali and later, Darmiyaan. What drew me to that film was that it had been penned by Gulzar. As I started to interact with Kalpana, I realised how invested she was in the subjects she chose and the space she set them in. Her lineage, perhaps, naturally lent her mind an artistic bent but she also chose to stick to a space that wasn\u2019t too commercial. As one of the handful of filmmakers at that time, she stuck her neck out for what she believed in and did so without compromise.
\nkalpana lajmi, kalpana lajmi movies, kalpana lajmi funeral, kalpana lajmi died, kalpana lajmi health, mahesh bhatt, rudali movie, guru dutt, raveena tondon, Bhupen Hazarika, santosh sivan A scene from Rudaali.<\/p>\n
Raveena Tandon
\nI worked with Kalpana Lajmi on Daman. As a woman, she had a lot more understanding of women\u2019s issues and worked towards women empowerment way ahead of her time, when it was really difficult for people to accept films made on those issues. The fact that she was a strong woman came out in her stories. Most mainstream actors would have been apprehensive to work with her. But the very fact that she believed in me, in fact every artiste she worked with, was a huge draw. She gave us a sense of individuality and freedom in our work. She believed in my craft, trusting me to pull off the character. She never restricted her work but always gave us the freedom to react the way we wanted to. As an actor, it\u2019s very important to give that kind of space and bring our individuality into existence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kalpana was my niece and I noticed in her an interest in the arts from her early years. I suppose her interest was natural \u2014 she was Guru Dutt\u2019s niece and her mother, Lalita Lajmi, was an eminent artist. Kalpana was about 17 and in college when she started to apprentice with me. She was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42898,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42896\/revisions\/42898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}