Obituary: Lalita Pawar

LALITA PAWAR played the squint-eyed, scheming and vitriolic mother- in-law to perfection in scores of Indian films in an acting career that spanned nearly 60 years in Bollywood, India's film capital city of Bombay.

The more pronounced her squint the worse matters became for the heroine whose hateful mother-in-law she played in most of the 600 films in which she featured; this after years as a heroine who personally performed daredevil stunts in numerous silent films.

Pawar played the beloved mother and domineering dowager with equal aplomb, earning kudos and awards, from the late 1940s until six years ago, when failing health and sight forced her to retire to the western Indian city of Pune, 120 miles from her beloved Bombay.

Pawar's initiation into films at the age of seven was accidental. A silent movie was being shot in Pune and the young Ambika Sagun, as she was born, climbed the wall of the garden where it was being filmed. She attracted the attention of the director, who offered her a role. Seven years later, she became the heroine in Mahila ("Woman", 1928); she went on to become the leading lady of Bollywood at a time when it was considered improper for women from decent homes to go into films.

A resounding slap on the cheek, delivered by the hero during shooting, cut short Pawar's career as a heroine. The blow burst a nerve near her eye leading to partial facial paralysis and a permanent squint.

It took her three years to recover, but instead of wallowing in self- pity she used the accident to advantage, to become a character actress who breathed life into whatever role she was cast.

Born into a middle-class family in the central Indian city of Indore in 1914, she moved with her parents to Pune. Having made a name for herself as a heroine who could perform her own stunts she changed her name to Lalita and in the 1930s acted in a series of successful daredevil silent films like Himmat-e-Mard ("A Brave Man"), Chevorlet and Captain Kishore.

In the mid-1930s she married Ganpatrao Pawar, a film-maker from Bombay and acted in his movies, but the union ended in divorce as he took a fancy to her younger sister. She later married Raj Kumar Gupta, another Bombay film-maker.

After her accident, she switched to character roles and in the Sixties was awarded the prestigious Filmfare Award for her role as Mrs D'sa, the benevolent Christian lady in Anari ("The Novice"). Her other memorable roles included a doting mother in Daag ("Spot"), a charming dowager in Professor and Jungli ("Savage") and the prototype nasty mother-in-law in Sau din saas ke ("Hundred Days of the Mother-in-law"). Her last film was Bhai ("Brother") in 1990.

Ambika Sagun (Lalita Pawar), actress: born Indore, India 1914; married Ganpatrao Pawar (marriage dissolved), secondly Raj Kumar Gupta; died Pune, India 24 February 1998.