What greater proof of Madhur Jaffery’s histrionics talent than the fact that she won the coveted Best Actress Award in 1965 at the prestigious Berlin International Festival for her portrayal of a femme fatale in Merchant-Ivory production Shakespeare Wallah.

She was last month in Pakistan to take part in the Lahore Literature Festival, where she had two sessions, one where the culinary side to her career was discussed and the other where she narrated how Shakespeare Wallah appeared on the celluloid. She also answered a number of questions about her career on stage, radio, TV and movies.

At the LLF someone called the 82-year-old performer ‘Shakespeare wali’, since her entire career has been punctuated with playing characters created by the Bard. It all started with her enacting Titania in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, while she was still in school. Later while in an all girls’ college, Madhur Jaffrey, who was Madhur Bahaduri then, played the title role in William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet.

Earlier when she was still a child, she was often called by the producers of the Delhi station of the All India Radio, when they needed kids for plays or for taking part in children’s programmes. Her career with the audio medium was quite long and it was later at the radio that she met Saeed Jaffrey, who she was destined to marry.

Madhur Jaffrey, who is known to the present generation for her culinary skills and her rich treasure trove of recipes, is first and foremost an accomplished actor

On graduating with honours in English literature, she took to acting on stage on a regular basis. It was there that she made acquaintance with writer Ruth Praver Jhabwala, a German married to a Parsi, based in New Delhi.

The British Council chief in India once saw her performing a pivotal character in Tennesse Williams’ Auto-da-Fe and was so impressed with her portrayal that he got her a scholarship to attend RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts). Her training at the prestigious drama school served her in good stead all through her acting career.

While in the UK she became instrumental in introducing a struggling American director James Ivory to film-maker Ismail Merchant, who had gone to the US to do his Masters in Business Administration. Merchant was dreaming of making films in India and in Ivory he found a suitable partner. Madhur Jaffrey also introduced them to writer Ruth Prawar Jhabvala, whose novel was adapted by the writer herself to make Merchant-Ivory Productions’ first film Householder. It starred Shashi Kapoor and Leela Naidu.

Jaffrey has played roles in a few mainstream American films also. She told her audience at the LLF how she enjoyed sharing stellar honours with such accomplished actors as Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.

Kapoor’s in-laws were running a touring theatre, Shakespearana, which presented the great dramatist’s plays all over India. Coincidentally, Madhur and Saeed were toying with the idea of doing a similar job in the country of their origin. They discussed the project with Merchant and Ivory who thought of making a movie based on the real life situation. They then asked Jhabvala to write a screenplay of Shakespeare Wallah as also to create a central character for Madhur Jaffrey. Her co-star was Shashi Kapoor, who played a philanderer. Saeed was dropped because by that time he had separated from his wife. Thus Shakespeare Wallah, a critically acclaimed film, was born.

Madhur Jaffrey, who had by then moved to the UK, went on to do four more films for the same banner. Her only brush with Bollywood came much later when she played Rishi Kapoor’s grandmother in Sagar, where Dimple Kapadia in her second spell (when she had parted with Rajesh Khanna), played the female lead.

Jaffrey has played roles in a few mainstream American films also. She told her audience at the LLF how she enjoyed sharing stellar honours with such accomplished actors as Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.

Her appearances on television are mainly remembered for her keenly watched cooking shows. With about twenty cookery books, featuring subcontinental delicacies, she has been credited for popularising Indo-Pak cuisine in the UK and the US.

At the LLF she was besieged by a large number of ladies who were keen to have their copies of her recipe books autographed by her.

“Is this the first time you crossed the Wagha-Atari border?” she was asked. “Yes, and it has been an unforgettable experience for me. A few years ago while doing a feature on Pakistani food, published in the food magazine Saveur, I came to the border for a photo shoot but I remained on the Indian side.”

This time she was accompanied with her husband Sanford Allen, a classical violinist, who too, like her three daughters from Saeed Jaffrey is into cooking. Only one daughter, Sakina Jaffrey has inherited her acting talent.

“Won’t you write the sequel to your memoirs (The Mango Tree), which closed with the end of the British Raj?” was the last question she fielded.

“No, because there is the fear that I might annoy some people,” was her succinct answer.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 6th, 2016