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They remember Parveen Babi after her death
24th Jan 2005 21.05 IST
By N K Deoshi

The woman who stood on the verge of stardom in 1980s lived the last decade of her life in seclusion. And now that she has been laid to rest besides her mother’s grave, Parveen Babi is being remembered by the people she spent her youth with.

Parveen Babi lived an erratic life. She was among the few actresses of 1970s who changed the image of heroines in Hindi films from sati savitris to women to flaunt beauty and more. But the tragedies that marked Parveen’s life brought her gradual downfall.

When still young, Parveen had volatile live-in relations with actor Kabir Bedi and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt . Both these relations ended on a bitter note for Parveen, who suffered a nervous breakdown in those days. Life was never the same for her after that.

In Mahesh Bhatt’s words: “Parveen died twice. The first time was when she had a mental breakdown, which was a personality death. And the second time is her physical death.”

Kabir Bedi remembers Parveen as a “very beautiful and talented” woman. “She was very volatile and also quite possessive. She was a woman of extremes – very happy at one moment, very sad at another,” Kabir reminisced.

Parveen’s intimate relationship with Bedi ended after he went abroad for acting in international projects in early 70s. Then she had a two-year affair with Bhatt that ended after she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Parveen lived the last years of her life cut off from society. She made a rare television appearance and was later in news for her allegations about threat to her life from some Bollywood celebrities. She was shunned and she chose to live a reclusive life.

Mahesh Bhatt remembers the last time he saw Parveen: “We hadn’t met for last 15 years. Then one day in the year the Gulf war was going on, I saw her in a book shop. She looked graceful. We didn’t even say hello to each other.”

Parveen lay dead for two days in her Juhu flat before the police found her body after breaking in her apartment last Saturday. Now she finally rests in peace with her mother in Santa Cruz cemetery.