Legendary Beauty Sophia Loren Makes A Comeback After 9 Years

It is  amazing what  children can make even the most obdurate parents do .The mythical beauty Sophia Loren  had decided  she  would never return to  acting  after the  ill-fated  Nine , the  2009 musical which was  a  boxofficedisaster.

 But then her  son  Edoardo  Ponti made the  gorgeous Ms Loren an offer that she  couldn’t resist. At age 86, she gets to play  Madame Rosa in The  Life Ahead, the story of  an  aging rich  Italian holocaust  survivor who  takes in  a young refugee.  It is a devastatingly emotional story told with a flair and finesse befitting Ms Loren’s  stature and  aura.

The performance is already being hailed as Oscar-worthy. If  Ms Loren wins she would be, at  84, the  oldest winner of  the  Oscar  for  best actress.

The  director who happens to be Ms  Loren’s mother had earlier directed  the iconic actress  in  Between Strangers  in 2002. Ms Loren has admitted that  if it weren’t for  her son she  would not have been tempted to  return to the screen at a juncture  in her life when she has achieved all there is  the achieve, and then some more.

It’s  only in  the West where actresses beyond a  certain age  get a chance to take centrestage in  cinema. And let’s face it: Sophia Loren is ageless.  I remember  revelling in her incandescent  presence in  Sunflower  in  1970 .It was  directed by her husband of   50 years Carlo Ponti . Now 50 years later she is just as incandescent  under her son’s direction in  The Life Ahead.

Would  our cinema honour the female  legends  WaheedaRehman,  Mala Sinha, Sharmila Tagore, Vyjanthimala  , Asha Parekh and Shabana Azmi  with the same impassioned dedication?