It's comeback time for Bollywood's female stars

Many like Sonali Bendre and Neetu Singh have returned to acting after lengthy layoffs. Rajiv Vijayakar charts the history of famous comebacks in Hindi cinema

It’s nothing more than coincidence that almost all actresses on the comeback trail happen to be mommies in real life.

Sonali Bendre Behl, after an insignificant cameo in ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara’ (2013), returned in a punchy role in Zee5’s recent drama, ‘The Broken News’. Shilpa Shetty played hero Abhimanyu Dassani’s sister-in-law in ‘Nikamma’ and on June 24, Neetu Singh staged a solid comeback in ‘Jugjugg Jeeyo’.

Last year, Lara Dutta Bhupathi played a significant if brief role in ‘Bell Bottom’. Bhagyashree, the ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ girl—interestingly Abhimanyu’s real-life mom—played key roles in ‘Thalaivi’ and ‘Radhe Shyam’, both films released also in Hindi. Her last Hindi film had been ‘Red Alert: The War Within’ in 2009, though she continued to do regional films.

During the pandemic, we saw the underrated Sushmita Sen dazzle on the web in ‘Aarya’ (2020). Quite naturally, we had season 2 in 2021 and we will see another in 2022-2023.

And there are more to come: Karisma Kapoor has Abhinay Deo’s thriller ‘Brown’ after her misfired series ‘Mentalhood’ (2019). Mandakini, the ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ sensation, also returns after a huge gap of 26 years (‘Zordaar’). Another major return will be of Jaya Bachchan opposite her then-first co-star Dharmendra in ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’.

Jaya, interestingly, keeps making multiple “comebacks” — in 1981 (Silsila), 1998 (Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa) and 2007 (Laaga Chunari Mein Daag) and Madhuri Dixit-Nene’s trajectory is similar. After ‘Aaja Nachle’ in 2007 came ‘Dedh Ishqiya’ and ‘Gulaab Gang’ in 2014 with a jump to ‘Total Dhamaal’ in 2019 and then the series ‘Fame Game’ this year. Of course, all along, both Jaya and Madhuri did films in other languages.

So what then is a “comeback”? Trade analyst Vinod Mirani puts it succinctly: “Comebacks are a loose way of interpreting a long and probably atypical gap between two films of any artiste!”

Marriage is the commonest reason for heroines’ absences from the screen, the most prominent case being of Dimple Kapadia, along with Raakhee, Neetu Singh, Rati Agnihotri and many others. Dimple and Raakhee returned to the movies after trouble marriages, during which they had also become mothers.

Neetu stated while hubby Rishi Kapoor never forbade her to work, he would be so over-possessive that it would have disturbed him had she continued her career. Rati Agnihotri had stated in 2001 that with her kids now grown up, she decided to work, instead of sitting idle at home. The comeback film, ‘Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi’, came 11 years after her last outing, ‘Jaan-e-Wafaa’.

Personal issues like career discontentment or (in rare cases) health problems also forced actors to quit work while tempting offers (from great roles to great money) and the need to find a renewed purpose in life also motivated such return journeys.

While Dimple from the mid-1980s and Raakhee from the mid-1970s enjoyed the most rewarding career-phases after their comebacks, others were not so lucky. One of the best comebacks we know is of Sridevi, when Gauri Shinde offered her a terrific role in ‘English Vinglish’, 15 years after her last big-screen outing ‘Judaai’. Sridevi had then stopped working (she had been acting since the age of four) after marrying Boney Kapoor. Wisely balancing personal and professional life, Sridevi continued to opt for meaty roles (‘Puli’ in Tamil and ‘Mom’ in Hindi) before her premature demise.

Rani Mukerji, after marriage and motherhood, made it a ritual to be in the occasional production of her husband Aditya Chopra (‘Mardaani’, ‘Hichki’, ‘Mardaani 2’, ‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’) in meaty roles. For the first time now, she steps out of home zone in the forthcoming ‘Mrs. Chaterjee Vs Norway’.

Then there were those one-off bounce-backs for film-specific reasons: Saira Banu accepted a cameo opposite husband Dilip Kumar in ‘Duniya’, Leena Chandavarkar agreed to ‘Sarfarosh’ (1985) when Jeetendra approached her through husband Kishore Kumar, while Mumtaz gave a nod to producer Pehlaj Nihalani when he offered ‘Aandhiyan’ via mutual good friend Shatrughan Sinha. Rekha did a Super Nani (as the grandmother) in 2015 and has not been seen since, except in blink and miss cameos in ‘Ki & Ka’ and ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se’.