Praveen Babi

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 Biography of Parveen Babi is worth a read. She had been a hit glamorous heroine in Indian Hindi Feature Films from 70s to 90s . She was born in a wealthy Orthodox Muslim Family in Junagadh in Gujrat. Her father died when she was quite young. She was studying in college in Ahmedabad when she started taking part in plays. She’s itr of rebelled against the family and went off to Mumbai of start acting in the movies. Her first few movies proved to be flop but soon she caught the attention of big name directors and producers. 

She’s had live in relationship with Danny Denzongpa, Kabir Bedi and later with Mahesh Bhatt. She had severe problem schizophrenia  that aggravated in later part of her life. She developed imaginary fears of getting killed by her co-actors including Amitabh Bachchan and even by CIA. She had a kild of soul healer cum Guru in U G Krishnamurti who took care of her in sickness but later he, too gave up on her. She never took her treatment seriously and refused to believe that she had the problem. The author has very well captured her moment of love and bouts of sickness and treatment thereafter. 

Danny continued to be with her in thick & thin for long.  But she died a loner. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan never ever cared for her in bad days. One can see flashes of her life in Films, Arth, Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi and Woh Lamhe. In her prime she appeared on the cover of The Time magazine. She had no inhibitions of drinking and smoking in public. 

Author Karishma Upadhyay had done full justice to Parveen Babi in capturing her life in this book. 

Very good read.