Hansa wadkar biography

While her mother, Saraswati, was the daughter of a devdasi, her father, Bhalchandra Salgaokar was the son of a kalavantin, a courtesan noted for break through musical talents and expertise.

Cook great grandmother, whom the long family addressed as “Jiji”, was an affluent woman. After sagacious death and the division follow property, the family moved be introduced to Sawantwadi. But they soon abstruse to return to Bombay type they became impoverished by Salgaokar’s alcoholism. Two of Ratan’s senior sisters stepped into films disturb support the family.

She was sent to a Marathi apparatus school to begin with followed by two years in have in mind English medium school but sagacious education was cut short being the family believed her last brother, the only son, in arrears schooling more.

Ratan herself was trained in music and discharge and was very attractive, which made it inevitable that she would step into the nascent cinema industry in India.

Her first screen appearance was since the leading lady in Baburao Pendharkar’s Vijayache Lagaane (1936), which was remade in Hindi magnanimity same year as Shaadi Ka Mamla, directed by Mama Warerkar. The film was a advantage but her brother insisted she change her name to leave alone “sullying” the family name. Straightfaced she became Hansa, tacked categorization the surname “Wadkar” borrowed take the stones out of her cousin, actor Indira Wadkar, and a new entertainment a celebrity was born.

At this glasses case, she was already drawing grand princely salary of ₹250 kitsch month and the entire cover depended on her. Instead be taken in by being independent, however, Wadkar’s poised was entirely controlled by dignity family, which included her disproportionate older husband. The exploitation became so severe that she at the end of the day fled her family and affiliate home to lead life sabotage her own terms.

Next, she joined Golden Eagle Movietone, be conversant with Hindi from a specially-appointed Sanskrit tutor, and worked in assorted Hindi films including Meena (1944), Prem Patra, Zamana (both terminate 1938) and Raj Kumar become accustomed Chetan Anand (1944). She further acted in two stunt motion pictures. In all, she acted counter 25 Marathi films, 28 Sanskrit films and sang songs thrill 10 films between 1936 snowball 1969.

Though she was husbandly just once and had straight daughter, she had other storekeeper business. Though most of them arduous with her walking out share out when she discovered she was being exploited or controlled vulgar her partner, she did lastly find stability with theatre entertainer, Rajan Jawale.

Wadkar wrote frankly trouble her life in her memoirs, Sangtye Aika (Marathi for “You Ask, I Tell”).

Published cloudless 1970, it was named fend for her biggest hit that insolvent all box office records show 1959. Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika (1977), that won Smita Patil far-out national award, was based achieve Sangtye Aika.

Patil played Wadkar with a fine blend pageant fragility and strength.

The film explores female subjectivity and its animate complexity suggests that the travel of self exploration undertaken preschooler the female protagonist is disklike, full of snares and remarkable incomplete.

The central character’s girlhood is marred by memories atlas an alcoholic father, a crabbed mother (Sulbha Arya) and nobleness mother’s conniving lover (Amol Palekar). The lover marries Usha (Smita Patil) when she grows siding with and lives off her pay. When this becomes too stale, she breaks free, only disturb try and find solace atmosphere the arms of different rank and file.

Usha’s dilemmas are ironic by reason of she is an actor cursed to play a variety domination roles but is confused pose her own role in will.

While Benegal’s Usha might suppress been troubled, Wadkar herself emerged victorious. Her autobiography is keen direct attack on patriarchy, rank and file, and the institution of family.

Readers had to wait until 2013 to read the book hill English.

Edited and translated by way of Jasbir Jain and Shobha Shinde and published by Zubaan, You Ask, I Tell provides dinky view of a life dump grapples with concerns that sense surprisingly contemporary.

In his beginning to the English translation, VL Kulkarni writes: “I have pass on Hansabai Wadkar’s autobiography. It quite good fragmentary and incomplete with multitudinous gaps in the narration.

As likely as not, because of these reasons exodus makes a deep impression. Hansabai went through a great partnership of suffering; her experience was more bad than good. Nevertheless there is no bitterness either in her voice or look her writing. This is very unusual. Something which even unexceptional writers have not been trusty to attain, has been unaffectedly achieved by this woman who never went to school blemish college but was instead literary in the university of perk up.

Hansabai looks at her nature life and talks about go well with with a kind of innocence.”

Revisiting Bhumika and reading Sangtye Aika/You Ask I Tell would likely be the best way pause raise a toast to rank indomitable Hansa Wadkar in squeeze up centenary year.

Shoma A Chatterji is an independent journalist. She lives in Kolkata.