10 Unconventional Roles Tabu Performed With Poise
Tabu is one of the most talented actresses working in the Bollywood industry. Her full name is Tabassum Fatima Hashmi which is shortened to Tabu. Even though the actress started her career with mainstream commercial Bollywood films, she has performed many iconic characters in the movies.
She has been in the industry for the last 3 decades and she has been part of many good Bollywood films. Here, we have created a list to celebrate the fine talent of the Industry by remembering some of the finest portrayals by Tabu in Bollywood movies.
1. Maachis (1996)
Gulzar’s Maachis was a revolutionary movie and to be exact this is the movie that gives Tabu some recognition in the Bollywood. The movie explored the story of young boys of Kashmir who became terrorists.
In the movie, Tabu played the character of Virender Kaur who joins terrorist gangs only to be with her lover Kripal Singh Pali. The movie made her won her first national award for the best actress category.
2. Astitva (2000)
Astitva is the movie about a housewife who indulges in adultery. Without getting vulgar, the movie shows the women’s mindset and her desire which she locked in herself. It shows Aditi Pandit as a decent housewife who came close with her music teacher.
The movie is written and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. The movie won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi in 2000. The character performed by Tabu was highly acclaimed winning her many awards and is considered one of her best movies.
3. Chandni Bar (2001)
The stories about bar dancers are always intriguing, and this might be the reason that Tabu took the bold movie by signing the Madhur Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar. She played the role of Mumtaz who became a bar dancer because of poverty and riots.
Later in the movie, she finds true love with gangster Potiya which leads her to a happy life but destiny pulled her back into the Chandni Bar. Tabu showed all the emotion of the characters as if she was living the character’s life. Tabu got her Second National Award for Best Actress for her role in Chandni Bar.
4. Maqbool (2004)
Tabu got the chance to play Lady Macbeth in the wonderful adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool. Tabu played Nimmi who is the mistress of don Jahangir Khan. Her character is a well-layered character and Tabu performed the character brilliantly. The movie shows the greed for power that sets its character on the path of self-destruction.
5. The Namesake (2007)
While we have showcased all her dark performances of Tabu, here’s some lovable and simple performance that shows how versatile she was with the selection of scripts. She did the Mira Nair’s movie ‘The Namesake’ in which she played the character of traditional housewife.
The movie was focused on the relationship of a father and son, still, Tabu made her appearance noticeable. She portrayed the typical shy Bengali girl and stole the show.
6. Cheeni Kum (2007)
Bollywood is still a long way to go to show unconventional love stories. However, we have a few to cherish and appreciate Indian cinema. Presenting Cheeni Kum starring Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu as a romantic pair.
In the movie, Amitabh played Buddhadev Gupta who is arrogant 64 years old bachelor and Tabu played Nina Verma who is a 34 years old Independent woman. While Tabu was always seen playing the restrained character, Nina Verma is confident and bold with her opinion.
7. Haider (2014)
After the release of Cheeni Kum, she became very choosy for movie roles and appeared in a few selective films. After a big break, she was seen in the movie Haider directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. Haider is also an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Tabu played the character of Ghazala Meer who is the counterpart of Shakespeare’s Gertrude. Even though the victim of the violent and corrupt system, Ghazala is grey in her own way.
8. Drishyam (2015)
Tabu became the lady cop and shared screen space with Ajay Devgn after so long. The movie premise is more like a cat and mouse chase and Tabu was undoubtedly the wldest cat in the movie. From her screen appearances to her vulnerabilities on screen, she nailed the role of a firey cop and did justice to the written material.
9. Andhadhun (2018)
Little you know that Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun is a rough adaptation of Olivier Treiner’s short film L’Accordeur which was released in 2010. Tabu was more like essaying the extended version of Nimmi in the movie. Tabu is a true villain in the movie. Her character Simi is over the top with her awkward dark humor. Simi is more like a femme fatale which made it different from the Nimmi from Maqbool.
10. A Suitable Boy (2020)
The BBC drama ‘A Suitable Boy’ is a layered web series that featured Tabu in the character of a prostitute. She follwed the character journey and added her intense performance to it as well. It was so much so that, you will be convinced with her performance in the movie.
We wish to see Tabu featuring in many movies and entertain us with her acting skills. What do you think about this article? Which are the other movies that should be included in this list?
