Farida Jalal: The timeless sister, mother and now a nawab's grandmother

Its quite rare for actors to grow up on screen but Farida Jalal is one such actor who has portrayed an array of characters in the space of the heros sister a mother and now a grandmotherWhile Hollywood has Leonardo DiCaprio who started his career at the age of 17 India has Rishi Kapoor Kamal Haasan Sridevi and Farida Jalal All of their careers are textbooks in cinematic longevityFarida started her journey at 17 with the film lsquoTaqdeerrsquo a role offered to her by Tarachand Barjatya grandfather of Sooraj Barjatya How she was offered her first role has a story of its own something that rarely happens to artistes She was a part of the United Film Producers Talent Hunt which she went on to win where her cofinalist happened to be the first superstar of Hindi cinema Rajesh KhannaTarachand was sitting in the audience while Kaka and Farida were being crowned the winners It was at that moment that Tarachand offered her the role of Geeta in his filmFarida went on to essay several characters in cinema both mainstream and parallel films but the first phase of her getting typecast started when she was offered the role of Dilip Kumars sister in lsquoGopirsquoThe actress had earlier said in an interview that she jumped at the chance of essaying Dilip Kumars sister in the film because she simply loved the actor What followed was a string of roles of the heros sister where she went on to work with the likes of Dharmendra Jeetendra Manoj Kumar Sanjeev Kumar and Amitabh BachchanThe actress changed gears and ventured into the space of playing motherly roles in the 1990s Who could forget her terrific stint as an empathetic mother to Kajol in the landmark film of Hindi cinema lsquoDilwale Dulhania Le Jayengersquo followed by lsquoKuch Kuch Hota Hairsquo lsquoBichhoorsquo the Indian ripoff of lsquoLeon The Professionalrsquo in which she played the role of Jeevas mother and several othersThe actress has kept a good mix of cinema and television in her illustrious career She has been a part of the iconic Indian sitcom lsquoDekh Bhai Dekhrsquo and the drama show lsquoBalika VadhursquoHer latest work Sanjay Leela Bhansalirsquos OTT debut lsquoHeeramandi The Diamond Bazaar sees her essaying the role of Qudsia Begum the grandmother to Taha Shah Badussharsquos character of Tajdar NawabIn the show she essays the grandmother with a similar flair brewing a heartwarming concoction of friendship and compassion with TajdarHer career spanning 57 years is a testament to her brilliance and her prowess to become one with the character Each of her performances is akin to salt the one that you would dearly miss if it werenrsquot there and would change the palette in its absenceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever