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Leela Mishra: The favourite aunt of Hindi cinema
Leela Mishra, best remembered as ‘mausi’ from the mega hit of 70s, ‘Sholay’, was a character actor par excellence. Clad in a white cotton sari with pallu covering her head, her presence did add that rare touch of authenticity to any scene. Born in 1908 in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, she acted in almost two hundred Hindi films
A find of Mama Shinde of Dada Saheb Phalke’s Nasik Cinetone, Leela Mishra was at best a reluctant entrant into the glamorous world of cinema. Her husband Ram Prasad Mishra was passionate about acting. He found work with a film company at a monthly salary of rupees 150. Legend has it that once when she accompanied her husband to the studio; she was asked to essay a role and offered a job on the spot at a monthly salary of 500 rupees.
She got a substantial role in the film ‘Bhikharin’ being produced by the Maharaja of Kolhapur but she refused to hug or hold the second lead’s hand in the film. Then she was asked to play the female lead opposite Sahu Modak in ‘Honhaar’ (to be directed by Kolhapur Cinetone’s Gajanan Jagirdar) but as shooting began she again refused to embrace the hero. Instead, she opted to play his mother!
Thus from a very young age, Leela Mishra’s journey as Hindi screen’s perennial mother/aunt, started and continued for about half a century, like her contemporaries Nirupa Rai, Achala Sachdev and Dulari, she made a niche for herself. Her USP was the country old woman with a distinctly
Awadhi/Bhojpuri identity. She brought variety to the stock character playing negative as well as comic roles. Her sharp dialogue delivery made her a favourite of directors and audiences alike. For example, nobody could miss her in the single scene in ‘Umrao Jaan’ where she reprimanded the heroine Rekha. One exception to her aunt roles was a rare well developed character in ‘Pati Patni’ (1966), where she played an over-the-top rich woman and was highly praised for her impeccable comic timing.
Mishra was part of the first Bhojpuri film ‘Ganga Mayya Tohe Piyari Charahibo’. She made her presence felt in a number of brilliant star studded classics like ‘Anmol Ghadi’, ‘Lajwanti’, ‘Pyasaa’, ‘Awara’, ‘Ram Aur Shyam’, ‘Rat aur Din’, ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’, ‘Mere Apne’, ‘Parichay’, ‘Khushboo’, ‘Kinara’ and ‘Katha’. The only award she received was Moscow Film Festival’s Award for Best Actress (Nani Maa, 1981). She died on January 17, 1988, in Mumbai.
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