Jaya Prada – the gifted dancer of bollywood.
Jaya Prada is one of the most accomplished dancers of bollywood films. She was unique in her classical dance performances in the film Shankaravaranam, and carried on the brilliant work in the film Sargam, opposite Rishi Kapoor. She played the role of a dumb character who could not speak, and was ill-treated by her relatives. Rishi Kapoor encouraged her to continue with her dances, and he complimented her with a dafli. The songs in the film stormed bollywood. Laxmikant Pyarellal were at their best and Rafi and Lata gave adequate expression to all the songs of the film including “koel bole”, “dafliwale dafli baja”, “ramjiki nikli sawari” etc.
She never had to look back after that. She was praised for her performance in the film Kamchor, opposite Rakesh Roshan. She was elegant with Big B, in the film Akhree Rasta, where she was killed by Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Big B took revenge against the offenders in the film. Big B acted in a double role, where the role of the son was also played by him, and Sri Devi acted in the other role. Although it was a male-dominated film, Jaya Prada, had performed her part very well.
She had done well in the film Indrajeet, opposite Big B, where she had an affair with him, when he was involved with the duties of a police officer. Just because her father stood in the way while he was investigating an important case, their affair ended at that time. But when Indrajeet, in the last part of the film took revenge against all the criminals who had killed his daughter Neelam, he met Jaya Prada , who helped him in fulfilling his goals.
She showed her dancing skills in Amitabh’s Sharabi, where Amitabh was a drunkard and she had brought a change in his life with her performances, including the performance in Lata’s song “o mere sajna”. She had also acted in a number of films opposite Jeetender. She became a member of the Parliament and reduced acting in films.
Still viewers have lot of appreciation for Jaya Prada and whenever films like Aaj Ka Arjun is shown in TV Channels, people cherish her performance in those films. Her dancing skills are at par with Hema Malini, Vaijayantimala and other South Indian actresses who had glorified bollywood films during their tenure. Viewers expect her to make a comeback in bollywood films by performing in character roles in future.
By: Supriya Chatterji.
