Sharmila Tagore on missing out on Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani with Dharmendra, “I fell ill and couldn’t do the film”

“We shared the same birthday. He was my co-star in seven films. I knew he was not keeping good health. But the news of his passing is still very saddening,” said Sharmila Tagore, who worked in films as far-ranging as Satyakam and Chupke Chupke with Dharmendra. She reflected on their screen togetherness. “We first worked together in Devar and then during the same year in Anupama. Two very serious subjects, followed by an out-and-out commercial film Mere Humdum Mere Dost. Shooting with him was a breeze. He was as effortless on screen as he was off it. He was never ‘The Star’ on the sets, always his natural self. There was nothing put-on about him.” Sharmila Tagore recalled her first meeting with Dharmendra. “Before we worked together, we met when I was shooting with Yash Chopra’s Waqt. I don’t know in what context he was there. But I remember he was dressed… how shall I put it… not like a star at all. When s...

Alma’s Rainbow review – rereleased gem of black female empowerment

Pioneering director Ayoka Chenzira gives voice to the inner lives of women at a time when they were mostly ignored, making this coming-of-age story a rare gift to treasure

Ayoka Chenzira is a pioneering black director whose films have been finding a new audience with younger generations as she enters her 70s. Her 1994 feature debut Alma’s Rainbow has now been restored and rereleased; it is a coming-of-age movie that is funny and warm, if a little scrappy. It’s set in a Brooklyn townhouse owned by prim and proper Alma (Kim Weston-Moran), who runs a beauty parlour on the ground floor. In this all-women space, Chenzira luxuriates in her female characters. The fact that historically so few films have been made about the inner lives of black women gives Alma’s Rainbow a precious quality, and the feeling that it’s a gem to treasure.

Alma lives in the house with her teenage daughter Rainbow (played with charisma and spark by Victoria Gabrielle Platt). Rainbow has been skipping school to perform with a hip-hop street dance crew. In the neighbourhood, she’s known as a tomboy, but Rainbow is starting to think about boys. Her mum, Alma, is not impressed; she’s worked to the bone to make a success of the beauty parlour, to be an independent woman and build a better life for Rainbow. It makes her strict: “Keep your pants up and your dress down,” she instructs her daughter.

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