Rita Bhaduri's laughter still rings in my ears...

Rita Bhaduri was a fun-loving person. When I heard of her demise, the first thought that came to my mind was the time 32 years ago, when the two of us went shopping in Rajasthan. We were on location for the shooting of Main Balwan at a palace in Jaipur, (converted to a hotel) and every evening, Dharmendra (he played her brother in the film), Mithun Chakraborty (he played her son) and the rest of the cast would bond over drinks and dinner.

During the day, post pack up, Rita would insist on taking us shopping. She bargained like a pro and was always happy to see the crowds that gathered because they recognised her. Together, we frequented Rajasthan’s famous footwear shops, quaint boutiques and sari shops, buying artefacts from all over the place. She also insisted on us gorging on lassi, pyaaz kachoris and mirchi vadas at Laxmi Misthaan Bhandaar.

A live wire on set, she had terrific stories to tell us from her FTII days and was so full of life, her laughter often rang loud, forcing others who sat quietly on set to look sharply in our direction!  Dharmendra would ask — what was the joke? And we would all grin sheepishly, not wanting to tell the senior actor much because, like I said — he was senior and couldn’t always be let in on our jokes.

When she did a stint in Gujarati cinema and became one of the leading lights there, one saw less and less of her in Mumbai.  And though I barely saw Rita in the last decade, her laughter still rings loud in my ears. While I pray for her soul to rest in peace, I for one, will always recall her for her masti.  She was often reduced to playing the behen and bhabhi in Bollywood but believe me, she had more spunk in her than many of those ’80s heroines, who were as stiff as the starch in their costumes.  Not Rita, she was rebel without a pause!