The English version of Shaukat Azmi's Urdu book Kaifi & I was recently launched by the author's grand-niece, Tabu. Translated by Nasreen Rehman, the book is a beautiful take on Shaukat's journey with late poet husband Kaifi Azmi, and includes the lives of their children Shabana Azmi and Baba Azmi.
We present excerpts from the book.
When Muzaffar Ali started work on Umrao Jaan (1981) he offered me Khanam's role. I was more interested in playing Umrao's mother, but Subhashini who was Muzaffar's wife at the time, impressed upon me that Umrao's mother is a lackluster and helpless woman whereas Khanam who is a strong, autonomous and impressive woman is a far more interesting character to portray.
I am glad I took Subhashini's advice because to this day I get praise for my performance as Khanam, a worldly woman who runs the premiere salon of courtesans in Lucknow. In fact, after watching the film Kaifi told Subhashini, 'Shaukat is so convincing as Khanam that had I seen the film before I married her I would have investigated her family tree!'
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