Revisiting Seema Biswas' Most Critically Acclaimed Films On Her Birthday

Seema Biswas, an Indian actor who works in Hindi films and the theatre, celebrates her 57th birthday today, January 14, 2022. She rose to fame after playing Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur's 1994 film Bandit Queen, for which she received the National Film Award for Best Actress. For Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), she received a Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Jagdish Biswas and Meera Biswas raised Biswas in Nalbari, Assam. Her mother was a history teacher and a pioneering figure for female theatrical artists in Assam. She met artists like Bhupen Hazarika, Phani Sarma, and Bishnuprasad Rabha when she was young.

Biswas graduated with honours in political science from Nalbari College in Assam after finishing her primary school. She went to the National School of Drama in New Delhi to study dramatic arts afterwards. She joined the NSD Repertory Company after graduating from NSD in 1984. Biswas is a writer and director who has worked on a variety of projects in addition to films.

Seema Biswas Birthday Calls For A Revisit To Her Most Critically Acclaimed Films:

Bandit Queen

A Hindi-language Indian biographical film released in 1994 is based on the life of Phoolan Devi as narrated in Mala Sen's book India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi. The film, which starred Seema Biswas, was written, produced, and directed by Shekhar Kapur. The tune was written by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, as well as the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Direction in that same year. The film made its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight section in 1994, and it was also shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The film won the award for best foreign language film submission from India.

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Water

Deepa Mehta wrote and directed Water in 2005, and Anurag Kashyap wrote the screenplay. It is set in Varanasi, India, in 1938 and follows the lives of widows at an ashram. Mehta's Elements trilogy concludes with this film.

Water is a bleak look at the lives of rural Indian widows in the 1940s, and it tackles serious issues including misogyny and ostracism. The film had its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received the Opening Night Gala Award, and was distributed in November of that year across Canada. For her work as Shakuntala, Biswas won the 2006 Genie Award for Best Actress.

Kothanodi

Burhi Aair Xadhu(Grandma's Tales),  a story that many Assamese children have grown up hearing is the plot of the film Kothanodi.  Tejimola, Champawati, Ou Kuwori, The Outenga (elephant apple) Maiden, and Tawoir Xadhu are four fables entwined into one that constitute a story (The Story of Tawoi).  Biswas as Dhoneshwari in the film played a main character .

Bhaskar's maiden feature film, Kothanodi (The River of Fables), won the Asian Cinema Fund's Post Production Award. It premiered at the British Film Institute's 59th London Film Festival in addition to the Busan International Film Festival's 20th edition.

Idam:

Idam, starring Seema Biswas, was released in 2019 and is a Malayalam film. On the international film circuit, director Jaya Jose Raj's drama about an elderly lady who flips the idea of the elderly having to go to an old-age home on its head has done extremely well. The New Jersey India International Film Festival recently awarded Idam the best feature award. The Davis International Film Festival, the Guwahati International Film Festival, and the Dhaka International Film Festival all selected it.

The film depicts an elderly woman who informs her sons, who are attempting to place her in an old age home, that she will marry again so that she will no longer be regarded alone. At the Ottawa India Film Festival, Seema was named best actress for the part.