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File photo of veteran actor Tabassum, who died on November 19, 2022. | Photo: PTI
Tabassum, who played a major role in documenting the life and times of Hindi film stars when they preferred to keep their real-world enigma, died in Mumbai on Friday night after a brief illness. The 78-year-old began her career as a child artist and continues to host the iconic talk show Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan on Doordarshan for two decades.
Born to freedom fighters and journalists Ayodhyanath Sachdev and Asgari Begum in 1944, she was named Kiranbala by her mother. Tabassum was her screen name given to her by her father when she started her film career in 1947 with Famous Studios’ Nargis. She lives up to her name and spreads smiles and happiness wherever she goes. She soon became a favored child artist and was popularly called Baby Nargis and Baby Meena Kumari for playing the child roles of the lead actors in popular films like Didar and Baiju Bawra. Contemporaries of Asha Parekh, the two worked as child artists in Bimal Roy’s Baap Beti.
One of the highest paid female entertainers of the time, Tabassum’s flawless Urdu diction and ability to make people smile was noticed from a very early age. The song ‘Bachpan Ke Din Bhula Na Dena’ picturized on it in the Dilip Kumar-Nargis starrer Didar became a huge hit. She never allowed the audience to forget the song and kept the childlike effervescence to the very end.
Encouraged by famous radio personality Amin Sayani, Tabassum started a joke show on Radio Ceylon, but her real claim to fame was Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan, which started in 1972 when Doordarshan started producing shows in Mumbai as well. She is still remembered for Tabassum’s sunny smile and easy-going charm that made the most tangled stars open up. She never mocked them or let them decide the course of the interviews. As a well-intentioned, well-dressed neighborhood old lady, she would become a real representative of a curious audience willing to break the celluloid barrier for a few minutes.
File photo of veteran actor Tabassum with Amitabh Bachchan | Photo: PTI
From Durga Khote to Deepti Naval, from Kamal Amrohi to Amitabh Bachchan, she could make difficult actors open up about subjects they would otherwise refrain from talking about in public. Years before Simmi Grewal and Karan Johar meddled in the private lives of film personalities, Tabassum asked the wary Amrohi how Meena Kumari was as the dimpled wife.
No wonder Tabassum was the inspiration when Karan Johar wanted to start a talk show. Like Karan, Tabassum was also an industry insider, but she did not limit her interviews to celebrities and was among the first to introduce the people who work behind the scenes. Her interview with Reshma Pathan, who was Hema Malini and Rekha’s double, brought attention to female stunt performers.
Like many child stars of her generation, Tabassum failed to land leading roles when she returned to the turnstiles after a hiatus in the mid-1960s. Against struggling actors like Subhash Ghai and Salim Khan, who went on to make their names as a director and screenwriter respectively, she was reduced to film trivia. She would often be asked to play the male lead’s sister or the leading lady’s friend.
Married to Vijay Govil, Arun Govil’s elder brother, she introduced Arun to the film world. She continued to produce and direct Thum Par Hum Qurban where she released her son Hoshang, but it went unnoticed.
Tabassum returned to her first love, wrote many joke books and edited the popular Hindi women’s magazine Grihalaxmi for more than 15 years. Her show Tabassum Tokita on YouTube continues to be a window into the golden era of Hindi cinema.
Her death is a reminder that television programs can be simple, informative and entertaining at the same time.
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