Shabana Too Shocked To React To Girish Karnad’s Death(But Here’s Her Reaction)

Some of  Girish Karnad’s best works  was with Shabana Azmi. And vice versa. In fact they almost  started  together  in Shyam Benegal’s Nishant  in 1973 , one of the pair’s earliest  works where  they  played husband and wife.Shabana  then went on to play  Girish’s wife in another masterpiece of  the  1970s. In Basu Chatterjee’s  Swami she was  the reluctant wife the  stately Saudamini  who  gradually comes  to respect and  love her repressed husband.

 They came together again  in  Basu Chatterjee’s  Apne Paraye and  Shyam Benegal’s  Antarnaad, though not as  husband and wife.

Karnad’s going away has left Shabana shattered.She  at first  refused to comment on the tragedy.This is something I had  never seen her do.So I  urged her to  talk about her friend.

Shabana  finally said, “It was a friendship of 43 years,  Subhash. I havent been able to speak to the family yet. I need the privacy to grieve his loss.I  have been at a public function and going into another now so my mind has blocked the  enormity  of  the  loss.  We’ve lost Farouque Shaikh   Shashiji (Kapoor), Om Puri  and now Girish. I’m too numb to say anything.”