Filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi no more: Pedigree behind her, but she made a mark from debut

The film came out in the dreaded 80s, the decade in which mainstream Hindi movies were drowning in a sea of sex-and-violence. Perhaps because of the decay, independent filmmakers had a better chance of coming to the fore, and Lajmi was an early feminist voice. Soon after, in 1988, Aruna Raje made Rihayee, another crackling tale which foreground female sexuality, starring Hema Malini, Naseeruddin Shah and Vinod Khanna, and there’s no doubt that Ek Pal paved the way for it.

Lajmi, who began collaborating with Bhupen Hazarika soon after, and became his partner, continued to choose unconventional subjects for her films.

Rudaali (1993), based on Mahashweta Devi’s short story about women hired as professional mourners, who come and weep long and hard in a house of death, toplined Rakhee and Dimple Kapadia, who was on a quest for ‘performance-oriented’ films. Rudaali gave Lajmi a bonafide star, Kapadia that film, and a national award for best actress. And us a song that still echoes — Dil Hoom Hoom Kare.

Her 1997 Darmiyaan is a touching story about the ‘third sex’, with Arif Zakaria essaying the role of a lifetime: it was a film far ahead of its time, and would perhaps have had a better run today, in post 377 India.