Ms. Jaya Bachchan, here is wishing you a happy birthday

I still remember when I was studying in Class-X in school I had become an ardent admirer of Jaya Bhaduri. Such was my admiration for her that I had written a letter to her. And to my pleasant surprise not only did she reply to it but had sent a photograph which I had preserved for a very long time. I felt very sad when she all of a sudden left movies for the sake of her family after Sholay when I was studying in college. Today is her 60th birthday. I wish her all the best in life.

Her impish charm has earned Jaya Bachchan scores of admirers, besides fetching her accolades from her fraternity too. Shabana Azmi, five time national award winner describes her as "the precursor to the simple and realistic heroine."

Gushes Azmi in a telly chat, "Jaya Bhaduri paved the way for the late Smita Patil and me. Until then, the mainstream cinema heroine had to be necessarily glamourous. It was Jaya Bhaduri who had roles of substance in commercial cinema too and with her simple looks and talent carved her own niche."

Jaya Bachchan with her simple, girl next door looks was a trend setter. Apart from Shabana Azmi and the late Smita Patil, Rameshwari, Vidya Sinha, Zarina Wahab and others, all followed in her cinematic footsteps.

Presently, actress Jaya Bachchan, the spouse of Amitabh Bachchan and mother of Abhishek Bachchan, has taken a backseat where acting is concerned. But during her heydays, which was the Seventies, the actress was one of the leading lights of the industry. When Jaya arrived on the scene, she was like a breath of fresh air with little use for make up and false eyelashes. She made it on the basis of her sheer talent alone.

Fresh out of FTTI, Pune, the actress began her career in Hindi films with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 'Guddi' (1971) and followed it up with gems like 'Jawani Diwani', 'Koshish', 'Anamika', 'Piya Ka Ghar', 'Parichay', 'Kora Kagaz' and 'Bawarchi'. But it could not match the magic that was created on screen when she matched histrionics with her illustrious husband in films such as 'Chupke Chupke', 'Zanjeer', 'Mili', 'Abhimaan' and 'Sholay'.

After touching the zenith in her career, Jaya decided to take a sabbatical from acting and decided to give time to her marriage and kids. Amitabh and Jaya got married on June 3rd 1973. The actress made a comeback to films with 'Silsila' in 1981, for what seemed a one off movie. But she returned again with 'Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa' in 1998. This time she followed it up with 'Fiza' in 2000, 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham' in 2001, 'Kal Ho Na Ho', 2003 and 'Laaga Chunri Mein Daag', 2008.

Born on April 9, 1948, at Jabalpur, in the Madhya Pradesh state of India, Jaya began her acting career as a 15 year old in the late Satyajit Ray's 'Mahanagar'. She did a couple of Bengali movies before heading to the FTII for a course in acting and emerged a gold medallist!

Jaya has many awards to her name, which includes three Filmfare Awards for 'Best Actress', three for 'Best Supporting Actress' and the 'Lifetime Achievement Award.

Currently, the actress is an active member of the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party. Jaya's forte lies in her sensitive and natural performances. Besides Amitabh, with who she did a number of films, Jaya also collaborated very successfully with the late actor Sanjeev Kumar. The duo performed ably in films like 'Koshish', 'Anamika', 'Naya Din, Nayi Raat', 'Parichay' and 'Nauker' together.

Her talent has fetched recognition on a global platform too. Recently, Jaya Bachchan was conferred with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' at 'Tongues On Fire', 12th Annual Asian Film Festival at London.

On her b'day, here's wishing Jaya Bachchan many more professional peaks in her career and heaps of personal joys to light up the years ahead…

She rings in her 6oth birthday today, in a quiet celebration with her husband, son and daughter-in-law in Miami. The senior Bachchans, Amitabh and Jaya, and Aishwariya are believed to have left for Miami to join son Abhishek. He is shooting in the US for Karan Johar's home production Dostana.

Following the death of Amitabh's mother, Teji Bachchan, there will be no celebrations for Jaya's 60th birthday, unlike the Big B's 60th birthday some years ago, which was celebrated with much pomp. Jaya Bachchan (Bhaduri),has straddled and played many roles in her real life. From being an actress par excellance to becoming the wife of superstar of the millennium, and now a parliamentarian, she has seen it all in her 60 years. One of the most promising graduates from FTII, she created a stir of sorts with her plain-girl looks and natural acting style in Guddi, her first Hindi movie. However, this was not her debut in films as she had already acted in a film by Satyajit Ray called Mahanagar, when she was only 15. Some of her most memorable performances have been opposite her husband in films like, Zanjeer, Abhimaan and Milli. The other actor with whom she did quite a few films was the late Sanjeev Kumar. They did films like Koshish, Parichay, Anamika, Naya Din Nayi Raat, Nauker together. The two prefctly complemented each other's acting style. After her marriage to Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya preferred to let her acting take a back seat and played the role of the dutiful wife and loving mother. In between, she did make a brief comeback as the wife in Yash Chopra's Silsila opposite her husband. Much later, she resumed her acting career, acting in a couple of Bengali and Hindi films. She has worked with the best of directors and actors and succeeded in carving a niche for herself, one that was filled by actresses like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Deepti Naval in later years.

http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news-detail/23188/Jaya-Bachchan-Celebrates-Quiet-6oth-Birthday.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaya_Bachchan