From boredom To stardom
Nobody is offering me the role of a mature woman. Even the mother’s character can be portrayed in so many different ways. But there are very few writers who write good roles

Surekha Sikri moved to Mumbai in pursuit of a bigger goal and better career options because she wanted to break away from the monotony of theatre and explore a new medium. Television gave her the opportunity to showcase her talent and brought her into the limelight.

She received her basic training from the doyen of theatre Ebrahim Alkazi and worked in the NSD’s repertory for more than a decade. But a time came when she got sick of the theatre scene in Delhi and decided to move to Mumbai.

Initially she wasn’t sure about what exactly she wanted to do here. “But what I was sure about is that I wanted to try out a new scene and work in a professional way and environment,” recalls Surekha who did a two-episode story with Mrinal Sen for Doordarshan and later did Govind Nihalani’s Tamas, Saeed Mirza’s Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro and Prakash Jha’s Pariniti.

Probably she hadn’t expected to come into the limelight on television all of a sudden as it happened with her role in Banegi Apni Baat in which Surekha played a widow and a mother of three daughters. This got her a lot of popularity.

“It wasn’t a role of a conventional mother and therefore it had a different dimension and shades,” she elaborates. “That’s probably the reason why the character became so popular though the serial’s focus was on youngsters. It was a start to finish role and Sutapa (Sikdar) wrote it so well that I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Creatively it was highly satisfying.”

What also was highly satisfying according to the veteran actress, were her appearances in stand-off episodes of Aahat and Star Bestsellers. “Those small roles gave me a major high,” gushes Surekha for whom her role in Sparsh was a big disappointment.

But disappointed she is definitely not with her current assignments, Samay (Zee) and Saher (Star Plus) which are sensitive family dramas which have Surekha in pivotal roles. Samay is a story of an old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease whose world is of the past, present and future all rolled into one kaleidoscopic puzzle who has no axe to grind, but ironically very often becomes an instrument for others in the politics of relationship. “It’s a very interesting role to portray because it has many dimensions. That’s why I am still in the process of thinking about how to play the role. It’s being written so well that for an actor it’s a challenging role and I hope I rise to the challenge,” she says with utmost modesty which is surely her virtue.

On the other hand, Saher is a story of a woman at four stages of life represented by four characters in which Surekha plays a mother of two grown up daughters who was abandoned by her husband and as the story progresses, in some ways her daughters also go through the same experience.

“Basically it’s a story of relationship and my role has different shades which makes it multi-dimensional,” she says. Surekha is also excited about her forthcoming serial Patang which is a story of three families and their interactions.

Ask her whether she is happy playing the mother time and again and her answer is that because of her age she has no choice but to play the mother. “Nobody is offering me the role of a mature woman,” she regrets. “Even the mother’s character can be portrayed in so many different ways. But there are very few writers who write good roles. Sutapa wrote my role very well in Banegi Apni Baat and now Ishan (Trivedi) is doing a very good job in Samay. I also have high hopes on Saher.”

Surekha is game for good rules in commercial films but she regrets that there are no offers. But offers from off-beat filmmakers keep coming her way once in a while. In recent past she has been seen in Mam-mo and very soon she will be seen in Zubeida, Hari Bhari and Dahen. Meanwhile television keeps he going as an actress.

A.L. Chougule