Review: Regrets, None by Dolly Thakore

No regrets, none at all. Or is it?

I first saw Dolly Thakore, in person, at NCPA in 2012 during TATA Lit Fest at NCPA, Mumbai. She was, it seemed like, in midst of a conversation with Anil Dharker, the main organizer of the festival or conversing with Girish Karnad (I can’t recall exactly, been almost 10 years you see!). She had her trademark red bindi on her forehead and a sturdy physique. I, in my 20s then, could not muster the courage to say ‘hello’. I just gawked at both of them in sort-of-an-awe from a safe distance for some time.

Dolly has been quite candid and honest about her life experiences of all kinds in this autobiography. She writes of her Christian, north Indian upbringing in a large, joint family, and the naughtiness of youthful, convent-schools. And the chance she got later to fly to UK many years later in the media industry, though back then it wasn’t as large an ‘industry’ as it is today. She writes lovingly about all the quirky characters she met, her first marriage, her settling down in Mumbai, then going through a divorce, and then getting into a relationship with a very well married Alyque Padamsee. She unabashedly writes of the trials and tribulations of being the ‘other’ woman, and how later another ‘other’ woman (Sharon Prabhakar) steals away Alyque Padamsee.

This book was decades in the making, as Dolly writes, and finally took lot of prodding and perseverance from her close friends to complete it. Dolly also makes clear her political views where she mentions how Advani’s views and that of BJP do not go down well with her.

A good read for someone who is interested in Dolly’s life and the countless interesting people she had in her life as either family, friends, or partners.

The title, however, “regrets, none” does have blemishes, because at times it does feel like Dolly is nostalgic or even has some regrets about the way she was treated in most of her relationships. You can see how Alyque, the doyen of Mumbai elite, was a brute when it came to treating women respectfully.

Review: Saeed – An Actor’s Journey

Saeed’s autobiography

Saeed’s energy was infectious. As an actor, he brought life to the scenes he enacted, full of verve and curiosity. Some of his roles which I remember unforgettably were in Shatranj ke Khiladi and My Beautiful Laundrette. There was a childish zeal in him which even the dullest of the scenes exciting.

The book starts from, well, the beginning, as he writes, “I suppose I should begin my memoirs right from the very beginning. I was born on a Sunday, on 8th January, in a Muslim feudal state in the north-west province of Punjab called Maler Kotla”. Surprisingly, he leaves out the year 1929. His father was a doctor, and his mother a homemaker. Quite a privileged life he did lead in his childhood due to the stature of his father’s profession. And, as he rightly mentions, he was a ‘brown sahib’ in India, sometimes more British than the British. His years in United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh) and attending various schools shaped his affinity towards English language. And his Muslim upbringing helped him in honing his skills in Urdu / Hindustani.

He later joined the All India Radio in Delhi and got the Fulbright scholarship to attend a drama school in America. The book is full of characters, names, places, and events. It doesn’t feel boring for a bit and engages the reader as if he is conversing with him/her. He writes about the various intimate affairs he had with countless women and establishes his reputation as a ladies’ man. His divorce with Madhur, “M” as he calls her, and separation with his children are few of the tragic chapters of his life.

Though as much as he was successful in India, UK, and America, he still did face lot of racist behaviour. His struggles to make ends meet with no regular income, and taking odd jobs like a bartender, or even a bureaucrat, highlight the unpredictability of the creative fields. He recounts his experiences of having met / worked with lot of giants like Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery, Sanjeev Kumar, Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor and many others.

An entertaining book to say the least. Saeed Jaffrey passed away in 2015 of old age.