New Delhi | Jagra Entertainment Desk: Lalita Pawar, originally-named Amba Laxman Rao Sagun, the actress who immortalised the character of Manthara in the Hindu Epic Ramayana lived a career spanning close to seven decades, with appearances in over 700 films in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi cinema.
Starting from 1929 to 1988, Pawar’s career saw a convergence of different cinematic eras altogether. On Nashik-born actress’ 104th birth anniversary, we bring together the transition of cinematic eras Lalita Pawar became a part of during her career:
1928-1948
The transition of the era of silent films to the forthcoming decades of walky-talky movies changed the way we perceive the cinema. At age nine, with YD Sarpotdar’s silent-film Raja Harishchandra (1928), to ‘Jung-e-Azadi’ in 1942 – Lalita became an indispensable part of this exact transition.
1949-1969
The post-independence decades led to the dawn of superstar dominance in the film industry. From Rajendra Kumar to Raj Kapoor and from Manoj Kumar to Sunil Dutt – the stories were started being written for specific actors. With Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420 (1955) and Anari (1959), Pawar became part of and ended up seeing the complete metamorphosis of the superstar decads of the 50s and 60s.
1970-1980
The themes of patriarchy, evil mother-in-law ruining the acts for the female lead of the story were prevalent in this yet-again Superstar decade of the Indian Cinema. Notably, in ‘Sau Din Saas Ke’ (1980), Pawar’s act was critically acclaimed. In ‘Parwana’ (1970), Maama-Bhaanja (1977), these themes saw a new lease of life through Lalita Pawar’s acting mettle.
1981-1988
The movies based on the themes of religion – Hindu Epics – started becoming the part of mainstream cinema, albeit not dominantly. It was during these times that Ramanand Sagar auditioned Lalita Pawar for the role of Manthara for Ramayana TV series. Lalita appeared in five episodes of Ramayana and nailed the character over the top of the negative realms required to establish the character in the popular Indian psyche.
Posted By: Aalok Sensharma
