Leading ladies on comeback trail

NEW DELHI: It's comeback season for heroines in Bollywood. Four well-known leading ladies of the past -- Sridevi, Karisma Kapoor, Rehana Sultan and Anita Raj -- are returning to the big screen after a gap this year.
Sridevi, a 48-year-old mother of two, is currently shooting for the comedy, English Vinglish. The film is written and directed by Gauri Shinde and produced by Shinde's husband R Balki of Cheeni Kum (2007) and Paa (2009) fame."The movie centres around the insecurities of a middle-class woman who does not know English," says Balki. The film is shot entirely in Manhattan and slated for a mid-2012 release. Srivdevi's last Bollywood film was Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahin (2004).
Karisma, 37, will be seen in Vikram Bhatt's 3D venture, Dangerous Ishq. "The film is a woman-centric, supernatural thriller where Karisma plays the central character," says Bhatt. Mere Jeevan Sathi (2006) was her last film.
National-award winning actress Rehana Sultan, who created a sensation with her bold roles in Chetna and Dastak back in the early 1970s, makes a return in Sudhir Mishra's Inkaar. She will be seen after a gap of almost 27 years; Hum Rahen Na Rahen (1984) being her most recent work.
That apart, Anita Raj, 49, too is trying to make a second comeback after a gap of four years with Samir Karnik's Chaar Din Ki Chandni. The heroines of film like Prem Geet and Naukar Biwi Ka was last seen in Saahil Chhadda's Thoda Life Thoda Magic (2007). Raj was apprehensive shooting for 40 days outside Mumbai. "But once on location, about 100 km from Jodhpur, all my nervousness went away. I realised that it was just like old times. Except for the technological advance in filmmaking, everything remains the same," says Raj
The glamour of Bollywood has lured several heroines to stage a return in the recent past. Madhuri Dixit, Raveena Tandon, Zeenat Aman and Rati Agnihotri made comebacks with indifferent results. Dixit, now 44, made an unsuccessful attempt with Aaja Nachle (2007) post marriage and two boys. The film was not a commercial success but her performance was widely appreciated.
Sociologist Shiv Viswanathan says that in Bollywood any 30 plus actress was a non-citizen for decades. "But times are changing. People have grown to acknowledge that with time the body ages and that this is a lifestyle process. With age these heroines carry a different set of characteristics. Obviously they can't be playing 20-year-olds, but it's laudable that they have the courage to slug it out again and have taken the effort to look a million bucks," says Viswanathan.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh maintains that it is important to note that both Sridevi and Karisma are portraying roles conducive to their age and genre. "As for Madhuri's comeback debacle, one should not blame the actor as she was brilliant in the film. All these actresses have proved their mettle at the box office. It's for the story and the director to back them up with content befitting their talent and star power," says Adarsh.