Shabana Azmi recently opened up about her late father, poet Kaifi Azmi. During an interview, the veteran actress has stated that she used to lie to her friends in school about her father’s profession.
Shabana was asked to recall the time when she released that her father was a special person. To this, the actress said that this did not happen easily during her childhood. She said that her father was always different. Neither he used to go to the office like other fathers nor did he wear normal trousers and shirts. He always used to be in white cotton Kurta Payjama, Shabana added. “My earliest memory of Abba… Of him sitting on a writing table in his kurta-pyjama, smoking incessantly, and writing till the wee hours of the morning. As a child, I was convinced a poet was a euphemism for someone who didn’t have any work,” she was quoted as saying.
Shabana said that used to call him Abba instead of Daddy like others. However, she used to refrain from saying these things in front of her school friends.
On understanding who her father is, Shabana said that once a friend told her that she read her father read Kaifi’s name in a newspaper. And, Shabana was quite amazed by the fact she was the only girl in the class of 40 whose father’s name was in the newspaper. This was the moment when she stopped feeling bad about Kaifi wearing Kurta Payjama. She added that her father was a true feminist. It was from him that she got the courage to raise her voice against torture.
Shabana added that her father taught her humanism. She also opened up about her parents’ relationship. She said that the love between Shaukat Azmi and Kaifi Azmi was way beyond promises of getting stars and moons. Shabana said that her parents’ relationship had an effect on her as well and today even after 37 years she still loves Javed Akhtar the way she did in the beginning.
Shabana added that her father spent his last days in his village Mizwan and bid a due to this world happily. The actress said that her mother was very romantic and her father impressed her with his poetry. Later, they also had a strong relationship which attracted Shabana.
