Shabana Azmi On Doing Horror For The First Time

To see Shabana Azmi take over the screen once again , and never mind its size, in  Terrie Samundra’s otherwise-disappointing Kali Kuhi  is to  be made aware  all over again that she  is by far the greatest living Indian actress.

Shabana laughs  off these compliments, “I don’t take  myself seriously  at all.And when one is married to Javed Akhtar then  one can’t even   think of taking oneself seriously. He will make sure  that no such thing  happened.  Do   you know when I  played a  witch  in Vishal Bhardwaj’s  Makdee  my  wonderful darling  husband said, ‘Makeup  ki kya zaroorat hai?’  So much for   a loving  supporting spouse.”

 Jokes apart  Kali Khuhi  was  a challenge for  the multiple  National award winning actress  who  had never done the   horror genre before.  “But I  feel  more than the  horror of the  eerie kind this film is important  because it addresses female foeticide  the  murder of  the girl child.  It is hard  to  believe that  this  evil practice exists even today in certain parts  of  India.”

To Shabana  who  grew up as an equal child to her parents  the  sheer horror of  female foeticide is unacceptable. “We deny a  girl the right to be born simply because of her gender? And we call  ourselves  a  civil society. The director Terrie Samundra  is US based. She had made significant short films. When she told me  the  plot for  Kali Khuhi I readily agreed to be  part of it. It’s important  for actors with a  voice to use it for the  correct cause.”