She had a great sense of timing when she wanted to be funny. While languorously having a frugal meal one night, she impromptu, lapsed into a perfect imitation of Chaplin eating in The Tramp that had me in splits. Once Selvam was ordered to cook an artichoke for me and serve it with mustard sauce.
When the dish was produced, Leelu sat like an alchemist watching me closely while I tackled the boiled vegetable for the first time ever. The only flavour, I remember, came from the sauce. Another time, I was gently woken up by her, bending over me like an angel in the dark, asking how I wanted my eggs done for breakfast. Groaning, I turned to the bedside clock and saw the time. It was 4. We would spend time chatting about the state of the world and many other matters.
Her political beliefs were left-of-centre and quite out of joint. She was against the invasion of Iraq and railed against George Bush. As for religion, she practised none, but liked to call herself a Sufi. She knew precious little about the subject, except that she was a Sufi. She would wince at my put-downs and sarcasm, but the truth is I was just as scared of her mood swings and temper that could send the crows scattering from the windows and leave her gasping for breath.
Sometimes I would hear her screeching from the pavement below, and walk on. I do not know if her flares had anything to do with the drinking, but it was very unpleasant when she was like that. On a regular day she got through a whole bottle of rum, and little more than one square meal.
The other lived in a halfway home in Delhi, and died two years before Leelu. While they believed she had abandoned them in the Oberoi fold for the sake of her film career, and led lives of wanton debauchery and sloth. So there was not much rapport there. Sometimes she would talk of Moraes, the pain of the loss still evident in her voice, but never of Oberoi. And much as I tried, obliquely, I could never get her to tell me if there had been any romance or liaison in her life.
Occasionally she had visitors, and would receive them graciously, conversing over tea or lemonade in the drawing room, but was never invited in turn. Essay Bad liver and a broken heart A friend remembers Leela Naidu.
Memoir by Sunil Murthy Jul 07, I miss that voice terribly. An open display cabinet held some museum-quality Indian. Indian Express. She teamed up with Sunil Dutt in the movie. After a guest appearance in "The Guru" in , she bid adieu to films to marry, and later divorce, businessman Tikki Oberoi. She later tied the knot with poet Dom Moraes, her childhood sweetheart.
In , she made a comeback on silver screen as a Goan matriarch in Shyam Benegal's "Trikaal" and later featured in director Pradip Krishen's movie "Electric Moon". Karnataka's heritage: High on WiFi, low on toilets. Create a list ». Indian Film actress. Top 20 best looking actresses of bollywood. See all related lists ». Do you have a demo reel?
Add it to your IMDb page. Find out more at IMDbPro ». How Much Have You Seen? How much of Leela Naidu's work have you seen? Known For. The Householder Indu.
It was the first collaboration between the producer, Ismail Merchant and the director, Ivory. Portraying the role of a lower-middle-class girl called Indu only proved Naidu's versatility. India's internationally acclaimed master director Satyajit Ray, who had made some creative input in the making of The Householder, was reportedly so impressed by Naidu's performance that he planned an English film with herself alongside Marlon Brando and Shashi Kapoor, but the project never materialised.
As an actress Naidu's classic performance came in Shyam Benegal's Trikal Past, Present and Future, where she played the central character of a distraught widow, Maria Soares, who refuses to believe that her husband is dead. She always sits silently in her ornate rocking chair listening absently to a song on an old, hand-wound gramophone.
When the song ends, she gestures with her hand to her young maid to put it on again. Naidu gave a studied and remarkably controlled performance. In David Lean complimented her for being a method actress who never curtailed her spontaneity. But in spite of her talent, dedication and commitment, Naidu only ended up acting in a handful of films.
This was because in a film industry ridden with stereotypes, the strengths of her personality and innate style turned into disadvantages or drawbacks. Moreover, unlike modern day Indian actresses, many of whom are adept in dancing, she lost the coveted role of Rosie in Vijay Anand's Guide to Waheeda Rahman because she was not a trained dancer.
Naidu's personal life was far from happy.
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