The Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development is collaborating with Tongues on Fire’s UK Asian Festival to celebrate Shabana Azmi, one of Indian cinema’s most acclaimed and distinguished actresses.
Join us at Somerville College on 7th May at 18:30.
Celebrating 50 years of Shabana Azmi in film
Shabana Azmi in conversation with Dr J. Daniel Luther
followed by a reception and dinner
(This is a ticketed event and all proceeds will go towards the OICSD Scholarships)
Regular ticket (Event and reception) – £50
Regular ticket with a student discount – £25
Event, reception and dinner – £125
You can also watch a special screening of her film, Fire at Phoenix Picturehouse in Jericho before the event. The tickets are available here.
With a long and illustrious career that spans over 160 films and stretches across independent, parallel and mainstream Hindi cinema as well as international projects, Shabana Azmi’s distinctive body of work has continually shaped, defined and enriched cinema in a uniquely powerful and cogent way.
The daughter of two abundantly talented artists, renowned poet Kaifi Azmi and stage actress Shaukat Azmi, Shabana Azmi graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 1973 and made her debut with Shyam Benegal’s debut social drama Ankur in 1974, which won her the National Award for Best Actress. Praising her performance in Ankur, Satyajit Ray had once remarked, “Shabana Azmi does not immediately fit into her rustic surroundings; but her poise and her personality are never in doubt, and in two high-pitched scenes she pulls out all her stops and firmly establishes herself as one of our finest dramatic actresses.”
Between 1983 and 1985 for three consecutive years, Azmi won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Arth, Khandhar and Paar. In subsequent years, she continued to soar the heights of critical and commercial success, becoming one of the leading ladies of Indian parallel cinema, a new-wave movement of arthouse films recognized for their authentic and realistic storyline, treatment and sensibility.
Even when it came to mainstream films, Azmi dared to traverse beyond the glossy and stereotypical portrayals of women with impactful realistic performances in films like Masoom and Arth, pushing the boundaries further and inviting audiences to probe and re-imagine the off-screen societal norms that dictated the on-screen representations of a housewife, mother and woman in an evolving Indian society.
From Nishant (1975) to Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) to Junoon (1978) to Sparsh (1980) to Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai (1980) to Mandi (1983) to Madame Sousatzka (1988) to Dharavi (1992) to Godmother (1999) to Makadi (2002), Azmi’s dazzling and awe-inspiring filmography is both a reflection of and testament to her craftsmanship, versatility and an unconditional commitment to the art and craft of cinema. Over the decades, her artistic prowess has remained anchored in her unique ability to breathe life into a wide array of rich and complex characters with such ease, effortlessness and absolute mastery, garnering her critical and commercial acclaim worldwide. She is the winner of five National Film Awards and several international accolades, and was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1998, and the Padma Bhushan in 2012 by the Government of India for her outstanding contribution to cinema.
Unlike many of her peers who confined themselves to on-screen activism, throughout much of her life, Azmi has remained committed to fighting injustices, lending her powerful voice and on-screen persona to critical issues such as AIDS ostracism and child mortality amongst other causes that she continues to support and champion, relentlessly.
As we celebrate Shabana Azmi’s five glorious decades in cinema, we’re privileged to honour this extraordinarily gifted artist, wonderful human being and the Golden Girl of Indian cinema who remains a matter of great pride, joy and inspiration to lovers of cinema worldwide! She will be in conversation with Dr J. Daniel Luther.
Dr. J. Daniel Luther is an independent academic working in the fields of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Post-colonial, Critical Race, and Cultural Studies. They are a co-founder of ‘Queer’ Asia. They are currently the Associate Programme Director of the Rhodes Scholarship working on Leadership Development at the University of Oxford. They also lecture at higher education institutions in the UK, including LSE and SOAS, and elsewhere globally. They work in the field of DEI as an Associate Consultant at Delta and serve as a Trustee on the board of the UK Asian Film Festival.
For any queries, write to us on oicsd@some.ox.ac.uk.