SUSHMA SHIROMANI EK KALAKAAR , EK NETA ,EK BAHADUR AURAT

My mother (when will I stop holding on to my mother's apron strings?) fanned the first few fires in my life, fires which showed me that a woman was not what the world had made them seem to be, the woman who took pleasure and even tried in tying and untying the straps of the sandals of her lord and master, she had shown me very early in my life that a woman could be on par with a man and sometimes even be more powerful than a man - BY ALI PETER JOHN

She could take on any challenge and any kind of threat thrown at her by the bravest men and beat them to the ground and even bite the dust.

She died very young, but I still keep looking for women who can give me some satisfaction by showing me some signs of being as brave and courageous as her.

In these days when women are only making a show of being equal to men by wearing trousers with several slits in them and blowing rings in the air with the smoke coming out of the their cigarettes and even hookahs and speaking the kind of language men would think twice or more times before using and spending their evening in bars, finding places near men and blowing smoke in their faces to show how they are equal to men and are in a mood to take on the men and even try to rule because they feel that men have made a mess of it.

It is in these times that I miss my mother very much. And it is also at this time that I look for some woman who could be as bold, courageous and with the will to win in a man's world, genuinely.

It seemed like my prayer answered when I started this day with a woman who is inhuman and who battered and broke the man in me to pieces and I met Ms Sushama Shiromanee whose name I had known and whose work as an actress, producer, director and an all-rounder in the making of Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati films.

I have rarely made women listen to my needs, but I had to ask Ms Shiromanee to meet me in my new house cum working place at ‘Multea', a cafe specialising in multiple kinds of tea and rightly named Cafe ‘Multea' on Yari Road Versova.

I got my first idea of what the woman would be when she reached thirty minutes before I had asked her to and called me to assure me that she had reached, which is something that has gone out of vogue with the stars and filmmakers of today.

She had lost her way for a while, but my gut feeling told me that she would find the way to find me and within minutes she had reached me and in another few minutes, she was sipping cold coffee and I had finished my favourite poison, tea in just one gulp and we instantly struck a chord when I reeled out all the names of the films she had acted in, produced and directed and was a part of every step of making a film.

I also told her about how all her Marathi films had run for more than seventy five weeks which was quite a record.

Among the films in Marathi, Sushma had made were “Bhingari",“Fatakadi",“Mosambi Narangi",“Bhannat Bhanu",“Bijlee",“Gulchhadi" the Hindi films she made were “Pyar Ka Karz" and “Kanoon" in which she gave Ajay Devgn and Urmila Matondkar their first major breaks.

“Phool Aur Kaante" starring Ajay Devgn was the first to be released, but “Kanoon" was the first film he had signed.

It has been quite some time since Ms Shiromanee made her last film, but her passion for filmmaking is still very much alive.

She has worked with some of the leading actors of both Marathi and Hindi films and out goes to her credit to know that she has worked with a wide range of actors like Ashish Kumar, Sahu Modak, Dr Shriram Laago, Neelu Phule, Abhi Bhattacharya and Sulochana among many others and stood her ground, in spite of the tough competition from her seniors. She also worked with Hindi film stars like Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Meenakshi Seshadri, Rati Agnihotri and Rishi Kapoor.

She had a knack of selecting the most unconventional subjects in which she played the kind of heroines who were in many ways more powerful than the heroic male characters. She was perhaps the first actress to take part in a gruelling bullock cart race.

She was the first actress to perform the ‘Govinda Item' without using a double and it was all her action scenes which she did herself that made her an unconventional heroine who was so very different from the heroines who played docile doormats and sati savitris and was not the kind of heroine who was just happy running around trees and singing inane and meaningless songs.

She believed that a woman was certainly as strong as a man, especially when challenged by circumstances and when facing a do or die situation.

She had grown into a cult figure all over Maharashtra and her roles had inspired many other actresses, but no one could do what she did in her films.

There were directors in all languages who tried to make films like her, they only tried, but could never success the way she did....

However, life was not as easy as many believed it could be for a successful actress like her, it had its own share of thorns with the roses in her life.

She had started life in a lower middle class Maharashtrian family from Thane and went to a convent school for the first two years and then when her family shifted to proper Bombay, she studied in another convent school, but did not study for long as she felt a strange calling to join the world of films.

She started as a child artist in V. Shantaram's “Sehra" in which she was a part of a crowd during the picturisation of a song.

Shantaram was known for asking artists who had finished their scenes to leave the sets, but the little Sushma was determined to stay on to observe how work was done on the sets.

There were attempts made to force her out, but she was adamant till Shantaram himself once fired her, but she still didn't budge and an angry and at the same time amused Shantaram gave her the name, ‘Waaghin' which meant a tigress. Little did the titan know that she was going to be a tigress in the next few years.

It was after her films succeeded consistently that she was welcomed in all circles and if there was one other field in which she felt comfortable, it was the politics in Maharashtra.

She was a part of the family of the one-time powerful Chief Minister, Mr Vasantdada Patil and among her powerful friends in politics were Sushilkumar Shinde, Arun Divekar and other well-known political leaders from different parties.

She could have taken advantage of their power, but she had already decided that she would win her own battles in her own ways and win.

Her friends in films and other fields knew what the woman an iron will and a sensitive heart could do and make things possible and even go all out to make the impossible possible.

She soon found the world around her changing, the kind is films being made changing, the kind of people in the business of making films changing and the values in society changing and for a change she decided to take a break from films.

But, she was not the kind of woman who would rest on her laurels and bask in the light of her achievement.

She took to social work and led delegations to people in power and in high places to fight for causes of the industry and even the causes of society.

She was away from films, but she was still standing tall in the limelight for all the new achievements for herself and for the good of all...

And during the last few years Ms Shiromanee has been an important leader of the industry and among the associations and institutions she has been closely associated with are, her being the Vice President, Indian Motion Picture Producers Association(IMPPA),her being the first woman to be elected on the board of directors of Indian Motion Picture Distributors Association(IMPDA),her being the director of the Maharashtra Film Stage And Cultural Development Corp.Ltd(Film City),once again being the first woman to get elected as Chairperson, her being the Vice-President of the Chamber of Motion Pictures(CHAMPP),again being the first woman to get elected on the board of directors, her being the Vice-President of the Film Federation of India(FFI), again being the first woman to be elected on the board of directors, being a member of the Central Board of Film Certification, Government of India, Vice President of the Chamber of Motion Picture Producers, being the first woman to get elected as the General Secretary of the FFI, Member, Western India Film Producers Association and Member of the Cine & TV-Artists Association(CINTAA) and the list goes on.

And I find it extremely difficult to believe that this is the woman who was once a school dropout from the Holy Cross High School in Parel.

She was one of those responsible in getting the Copyright Act passed with her hardwork and also to get a new Act against piracy.

And to make a list of the many awards she has won from different parts of the country and various associations is to put to in that famous line spoken by Amitabh Bachchan in the film “Don", ‘mumkin hi nahi, naamumkin hai'.

And if I thought or anyone thinks she has given up making films for good, I must tell you that Ms Shushma Shiromanee is not the kind of woman who will withdraw from the battlefield.

She will fight back and as an ardent admirer of women with the will and courage to fight and win on their own terms,I not only hope,but I know she will not rest till she fights her best battle to conquer...

And as I shook her very soft and delicate hand, I could also feel the power of a woman which all men must know about because in knowing the truth about the power of a woman is the key to that bright future which we are only dreaming and writing poems about can come true only if men and women together work towards that.

SUBAH JO KABHI TOH AAYEGI AUR AGAR AURAT NE MARDON KE SAATH CHALNE KI HIMMAT KI, TOH AUR BHI JALDI AA SAKTI HAI WOH SUBAH JISKA HUM KAHI HAZAAR SAALON SE BEKARARI SE INTEZAAR KAR RAHE HAI.