Some movies are known to be etched in the golden pages of Indian cinema, and ‘Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa’ is certainly one of them. The movie marked the comeback of Jaya Bachchan, who took a long hiatus after marriage to concentrate on her kids and family. Thus, it holds a special place in Jaya’s heart, and now that the movie has completed 27 years, the actress has shared some beautiful memories of the same.
Speaking of Govind Nihalani’s ‘Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa’ Jaya says, “I definitely count ‘Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa’ among my better works. I remember when I was offered this film by Govindji, I had not done a film in seventeen years. The last film I had done was ‘Silsila.’ In-between I had done a cameo in a Marathi film. That was it. Govindji didn’t have to persuade me much. It was a role any actor would die for.”
For Jaya, the decisive factor as an actor was not only the literary antecedent of the work. “Of course, the fact that it was based on Mahasweta Devi‘s Bengali novel ‘Hajar Churashir Maa’ made all the difference. But it was the mother-son theme that did it for me. Being a mother in real life, I could completely identify with my character Sujata’s turmoil and trauma.”
Jaya remembers living her character’s trauma for as long as the shooting lasted. “In terms of how much of a toll it took on me emotionally, ‘Hazaar Chaurasi’ is my toughest role to date.”
She also recalls her co-stars fondly. “Anupam Kher who played my husband, Joy Sengupta who played my son, Nandita Das who played his girlfriend, they were all very supportive. They knew it was the mother’s story. They allowed me to walk through my character’s pain of loss. Such roles for female actors are seldom written. I was lucky to get something like this so late in my career.”
Interestingly, even in her debut movie, the plot revolved around her character. Remembering about the same she says, “Ah, ‘Guddi!’ But we don’t have Hrishi Kaku(Mukherjee) anymore. For that matter, even Govind Nihalaniji is not making any films anymore.”
“I am happy doing the occasional film where I have something interesting to do,” she concludes.
