KUCH "BEHNEN" JO BACH GAYI , KUCH "BALI " CHAD GAYE .... ( RAKHSHA BANDHAN KE AVSAR PAR KUCH VICHAR )

The film industry is a strange world ruled by some strange people and according to some strange rules , some written and most unwritten - Ali Peter John

And one of the many unwritten rules is the one that says that if you get typed as an actor or actress , you will have to live and die with the same type.

And in no other case if this cruel rule more applicable than when it comes to some actresses who have either been forced by circumstances or by some temptations , it is some actresses who have been slotted as sisters .

Some lucky ones have got out of this kind of slot , but there are others who have not been so lucky....

The veteran actress Nanda had to do just one film called "Chhoti Behen" with Balraj Sahni as her elder brother and that one film and her role in it as a suffering and sad sister was enough to brand her as a sister .

She was however lucky to break out of this trap when she did films like "Juari" and "Jab Jab Phool Khile" , both with Shashi Kapoor and she had saved herself from being damned and doomed as the typical Hindi film behen .

But a very talented actress like Reeta Bhaduri was not so lucky . She was an actress who had won a gold medal at the FTII , but the first big role she was lucky to find was that a sister in the very successful film "Julie" .

She played the sister of the hero , Vikram and even had a new year song , " Ye Raatein Nayi Puraani " picturised on her .

She was flooded with offers to play the sister again and again and when she couldn't break the image , she shifted to doing leading roles in Gujarati films and other regional films .

She was however not accepted as a heroine in Hindi films and found her way in television and that is how her career ended in frustration and she took to drinking heavily and died just two years ago .

Jaya Bhaduri and Rita Bhaduri came to Hindi films at the same time , but Jaya became a leading icon and Rita had no other choice but to accepting any role that came to her because she had to make a living for herself and her family

In the 60s , a pretty young face with the name Nazima came to Hindi films and the very first film she did was as a sister and she kept working as the sister in all kind of films which didnt do her any good .

But like Reeta , existence was essential and she continued playing what someone called " the residential sister" till she got disgusted and quit films in 1975 .

Farida Jalaal was an absolutely talented actress and was known for her talent . But , she had to play the sister of Amitabh Bachchan in a film called "Majboor " .

She was much better than some of the so called better actresse , but what she received in return for her talent was a series of similar roles till she came out as a winner as Rajesh Khanna's beloved in Shakti Samanta's "Araadhana" .

But neither her good work , nor the grand success of "Araadhana" could save her and she had to accept the roles of the mother which she played till she had a mild stroke and had to take a long break from films .

She was at her best as a mother in films like "Zubeida" and "DDLJ" . She is a clear case of talent being neglected because of her being typed .

Yash Chopra introduced a beautiful girl from Chandigarh called Poonam Dhillon in his multi- starrer "Trishul" .

She was perhaps the first sister ( she was playing the younger sister of Shashi Kapoor) who wore a two piece swimming costume and sang , "Jaapuchi ghum ghum ".

Poonam too could have got typed as a glamorous sister , but her well wishers like Yash Chopra and Ramesh Talwar who had fallen head over heels in love with her cast her as the leading lady of "Noorie" and Poonam was saved from playing the sister , which could have ruined her career.

The girl from Chandigarh who could have suffered as the sister , ended up being one of the leading glamorous actresses of Hindi cinema .

Her best friend , Padmini Kolapore started as a fascinating child artiste in films made by Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Aruna Raje and she slipped into playing sister's roles and if Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor would not have seen the talent in her and cast her in films like "Swami Dada" and "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" , Padmini would have had a very different and perhaps sad story .

A very fine actress like Supriya Pathak who had set new standards of excellence in acting in a film like "Bazaar" could have given a major complex to her contemporaries like Shabana Azmi and Deepti Naval , but she was not as lucky as them to find the right directors and right roles and had to gradually accept the roles of the sisters and mother and that led to her being an also ran . She lost the game before she was allowed to play .

She is now sometimes seen in a rare good film and has to be contented with whatever roles come her way and be known as the wife of Pankaj Kapur .

There have been many other actresses who have played sisters and cut short their careers which could have been known as careers which could change the face of lndian cinema.

This "crime" of killing talened actresses by getting them tight is also committed in the south specially and wherever films are made in lndia

A career which begins at 30 and Hollywood ends at 30 or 35 for actresses in India , isn't it a matter to worry and think of doing something about ?

HUM NARI SHAKTI KE BAREMEIN ABHI BHI BOLTE JAA RAHE HAI . HUM NAARI SHAKTI KAA MATLAB KAB SAMJHENGE ? KAB TAK NARI NEECHE DIKHAAYI JAAYEGI . KOYI MERI AWAAZ SUNEGAA ?