Kalpana Lajmi is a female film director in India. As a famous director she has quite a few good movies to her credit. The movie Rudaali directed by Kalpana Lajmi was the official Oscar nomination from India.
Interestingly Kalpana Lajmi was born into the famous Guru Dutt family. Guru Dutt was one of the most illustrious actors and directors in India who has gifted the world with some really good movies. Kalpana is the daughter of Guru Dutt's younger sister Lalita Lajmi, a painter by profession. She started her career as an assistant to director Shyam Benegal. After a brief stint under him she ventured out on her own.
Lazmi's first directorial venture was a documentary film D.G. Movie Pioneer that was made in 1978. She later went on to direct more documentaries like "A Work Study in Tea Plucking" in 1979 and "Along the Brahmaputra" in 1981. She debuted as a film director in 1986 with Ek Pal starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. Apart from directing she also produced the film and even wrote the screenplay for the film along with Gulz, another famous director and script writer of Bollywood. As a trend setter the movie brought instant recognition to her.
Later, Kalpana took a break from directing movies. Instead she directed her first television serial Lohit Kinare (1988) starring Tanvi Azmi. She made her comeback to cinema in 1993 with Rudaali. This was a critically acclaimed film. It starred Dimple Kapadia who won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance. Lazmi also won many accolades for directing the film.
In 2001, she made her next film Daman. The story of this film was based on marital violence. Distributed by the Indian Government, the film was highly acclaimed by critics. Raveena Tandon, who starred in this movie, won the National Film Award for Best Actress. This movie brought greater glory to her film career.
Her next film was Darmiyan. The movie starred Kirron Kher and Tabu, the 2 famous actors of Bollywood. Her next film was Kyon that was released in 2003. Her last release Chingaari in 2006 starring Sushmita Sen got lots of recognition to her.
Kaplana Lajmi's movies had a few things in common. Most of her movies championed the cause of women. Her movies also have a background score by Bhupen Hazarikha whom she had assisted in few movies that he had directed.
Thus, among the Bollywood film makers, the name of Kalpana Lajmi will always be remembered as one of the finest film directors and story teller of Indian cinema.
Detailed online information about Kalpana Lajmi is provided in sitagita.com
