Book review

Leela Naidu: an ethereal beauty

By

Randeep Wadehra

Leela: A Patchwork Life by Leela Naidu with Jerry Pinto
Penguin Viking. Pages: 180. Price: Rs. 450

Born to a renowned Indian nuclear physicist father, Dr. Pattipati Ramiah Naidu and a Swiss-French mother, Marthe, Leela Naidu was brought up in an atmosphere of comparative luxury and sophistication. As a child, while studying in Geneva, she was introduced to racism in all its ugliness when some local kids beat her up mercilessly, mocking the colour of her skin. In fact she encountered racism even in the hallowed portals of her school, forcing her to seek education elsewhere. But such experiences only prepared her for sectarian violence back home when she was attacked by a Muslim mob. Then there were other forms of discrimination in India – be it the forcible occupation of Dalits’ land by upper caste farmers or treatment meted out to “extras” and animals in Bollywood’s studios – that revealed the tendency among the powerful to resort to exploitation and cruelty while dealing with the poor and the vulnerable.

Written in a light-hearted, but not frivolous, tone Leela reveals the obverse sides of various celebrities who have been painted in glowing hues by the media. These personalities include Balraj Sahni, Arundhati Roy, Raj Kapoor and quite a few others. But it is her attitude towards money that makes one wonder as to how she managed to survive in the world where mercenary tendencies rule supreme. Yet, she shows no rancor towards those who had hurt her – especially her two husbands, Tilak Raj Oberoi and Dom Moraes. In fact, she manages to avoid saying anything harsh about them and, occasionally, is able to look at the positive/funny side of her life with them. Her love for children comes out in several passages of this book.

That she was inherently brave is revealed when she instinctively took up cudgels on behalf of some Dalit farmers whose land was forcibly occupied by certain upper-caste farmers. Unarmed, she faced up to the armed thugs in the darkness of night when her male companion, the Tehsildar, fled from the scene. Another episode that stands out is her making a documentary on the mineworkers of an Asansol coal mine even as the threat from local mafia was palpable. Her refusal to continue shooting until she got proof of genuine medical attention to a spot-boy, who had fallen from a studio’s roof and broken his legs; and elsewhere, when she discovered that the extras and elephants featuring in the Electric Moon were not even being fed during the shooting, and similar other episodes show her gracious side – something that the more hyped stars would not deign to do except for publicity. But it was not just in India. Leela Naidu stood up for a coloured taxi driver in England when a white man deliberately scraped his taxi and threatened to get his driving license cancelled. In an African country she saw how a Belgian pilot kicked the local workers on the mere assumption that they would add water into the airplane’s fuel tanks!

Actor, magazine editor, translator, documentary maker and “amateur” social rights activist, Leela Naidu was more than a sum total of these ‘labels’. She was a natural beauty, “with no bad angles” and had won the Miss India crown in 1954. Moreover, the Vogue magazine had included her among the ten most beautiful women in the world. But the “no bad angles” description was apt for not only to her physical features but also her mind that never really became suspicious of human nature, and certainly could not see evil in others. It is no surprise that she was taken for a ride by several people she trusted or worked/lived with. Yet, she never stopped loving people as her encounter with her “former student” in a hospital shows. And this is what lends an ethereal quality to her beauty.

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