On the 20th anniversary of Urdu poet and literary exponent, Kaifi Azmi’s death, his daughter-in-law and actress Tanvi Azmi remembers her profound affection for him, which occasionally made his daughter Shabana Azmi uncomfortable.
Kaifi Azmi, the legendary poet, was a firm believer in equality both outside and inside his family, so much so that his affection for daughter-in-law Tanvi Azmi left daughter Shabana Azmi “insecure.” Tanvi, who is married to Kaifi Azmi’s son and cinematographer Baba Azmi, claimed that her father-in-law was her greatest supporter throughout their inter-caste marriage.
“He addressed me with the endearment ‘Dulhan Pasha’ (honorable bride). “It’s like placing the bahu on a pedestal,” Tanvi told Pinkvilla on the 20th anniversary of Kaifi Azmi’s death on Tuesday.
Kaifi was an Urdu exponent, literary laureate, and cinema lyricist who was married to Shaukat Azmi, a theatrical and film actor. Tanvi said that her ‘Abba’ did what he wrote, recalling how Kaifi treated the ladies in the home and around him in great esteem. According to his own beliefs, women should be treated with respect. Regardless of whether he was his wife, daughter, or daughter-in-law, he treated us all with the same level of respect. Tanvi said, “Abba lavished me with so much love and attention that it often made Shabana uneasy.”
This would make Shabana Azmi, a Bollywood icon in her own right, feel uneasy. Tanvi claims that her father-in-law had his own method of appeasing his daughter, whom he fondly referred to as ‘chirimoya’ and ‘Gulab ka Phool.’ He said, “Bete, tum mere Gulab-ka-Phool hai,” and “hell broke out” when Shabana heard him say it. ‘Abba, how can you know what Tanvi wants?’ she questioned him. ‘Nahi beta, main toh gobi ka Phool (cauliflower) Keh Raha the,’ he said quickly. “Then he looked at me and whispered, ‘don’t give me away,'” Tanvi added in the interview, smiling.
Even his last days in the ICU couldn’t dampen his enthusiasm for life. Tanvi said that every time she inquired about his health, he would respond, ‘First-class!’ When it became impossible for him to talk, he would raise his thumb to indicate ‘first-class.’
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