Deepti Naval back from Himalayas to rediscover herself

PTI / Nov 17, 2002, 10:28 IST

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KOLKATA: Film actress Deepti Naval has come back from the Himalayas to embrace her first love - films - shedding her past screen image of a 'middle class housewife' to emerge as a versatile actress in off-beat cinema.

Deepti Naval back from Himalayas to rediscover herself

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">KOLKATA: Film actress Deepti Naval has come back from the Himalayas to embrace her first love - films - shedding her past screen image of a ''middle class housewife'' to emerge as a versatile actress in off-beat cinema. Naval, who along with Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil had created a different genre of acting in the late 80s, suddenly abandoned Bollywood for want of good roles. She is now back from the wilderness with a splash, featuring in three back to back films this year â€” Shakti, Leela and Freaky Chakra. "Yes, I am back for good," says Naval, making a quiet appearance at the Kolkata Film Festival with V K Prakash, director of her latest English film Freaky Chakra. Having trekked most of the Himalayan range from Ladakh to Lahaul and Spiti and the foothills in Himachal Pradesh, she dabbled in photography during her long hibernation, but realised soon enough that acting was her primary passion. "I love the mountains and always want to go back to them.I also love photography and used my break from acting to click away in the glorious Ladakh range, which I later used for an exhibition in Mumbai," Naval says. "But I am primarily an actress. All the other interests come later." Naval laughs heartily while summarising the extreme contrasts in her comeback roles â€” a hapless middle class housewife in Shakti opposite Nana Patekar, a liberated NRI woman in the Dimple Kapadia starrer Leela and an eccentric 40-something woman who wants to look and feel 20 in Freaky Chakra. "Leela happened first and I was very excited about the role. Then came Shakti and I thought, my God, I was so good at doing this that I could do it in my sleep!" she says, eyes shining. But Shakti was released first and Naval says she was apprehensive of being typecast again in the second innings of her career. "But people liked the character and since the movie was a Karishma Kapoor starrer with a heroine-oriented plot, I don''t think people were too attentive on what I was doing," she says, heaving a sigh of relief. Apart from Shakti, both her other releases have been in English. Naval says she finds the choice of language very practical since in the urban milieu today no one speaks in pure Hindi or in a pure vernacular language. "Movies must portray society we live in. I am sure in our normal lives none of us goes about doing heavy duty Urdu or Hindi dialogue-bazi...that rings an untrue note. We break off to English and switch back to Hindi very naturally," the actress reasons. For her the new lingo is the perfect medium to make new-age films. "Such universal movies are understood by a lot many people apart from the Indian audience. These films are officially entering festivals and making their mark as English movies." Naval contends that commercial cinema has its niche audience and films with universal themes were not meant for this group. "We are aiming at the urban audience who cannot sit through a Bollywood commercial and looks westwards for creative stuff." The strong-willed actress says if she does not get satisfactory roles, she would rather take to writing her own scripts and making her own films. "In fact, I have already begun work on a script and would soon make the film. I have been asking Prakash (director of Freaky Chakra) to make more such films. Using English is OK, but there are a lot of experiments yet to be done with Indian cinema," she points out. Having cast her charm with honest and down-to-earth portryals in Ek Bar Phir, Katha, Chasm-e-baddoor, Saath Saath and Ab Ayega Maza, the actress now looks forth to do roles that portray the changing faces of womanhood. About her viewpoint on women''s liberation, Naval says, "That is a question people asked me 20 years back when I began acting! I believe in equality of men and women. I do not cater to the male-bashing school of feminism. For me each individual must be given his or her space and freedom." </div> </div>

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