Mumbai: Famous for playing antagonistic roles, yesteryear actress Bindu carved her own unique identity in Hindi cinema in the 1970s.
Born 17 April, 1941 in Gujarat, Bindu was particularly popular as ‘Mona Darling’ in Hindi films. The actress started her film career with the 1962 film Anpadh. After this, she did a fantastic job in Ittefaq and both the films proved to be box office hits.
Bindu’s father died when she was 13, and due to her being the eldest daughter, the burden of earning money fell on her shoulders. Bindu fell in love with Champaklal Zaveri her neighborhood and childhood friend, after which they got married. She reportedly had a child with him, who is now deceased.
In an interview, Bindu said: “When I started, it was a period of villains. I wanted to be a heroine, but someone said that I am too thin and cannot speak Hindi properly. But some people liked my liked my shortcomings so with the film Do Raaste, I began to portray negative roles.”
She became an item girl overnight for her sizzling cabaret dance in the film Kati Patang’s song Mera Naam Hai Shabnam.
NThe negative roles affected Bindu’s personal life. “I have played a number of bad mother roles. Whenever my sister’s children went to see the film with me, they used to look at the screen, then look at me and say, Bindu aunty, you don’t do such things with us, then why do you do this in films?”
Not only that, people used to see Bindu as ‘bad luck’ in public places. Bindu used to say that because of her character, she was abused a lot of times.
Her acting ability was seen in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films Arjun Pandit and Abhimaan, where she won raves for playing a very sympathetic character. She proved to be just as convincing as the crippled woman in Chaitali and as the deglamorised role of wife to Ashok Kumar, in Arjun Pandit.