Ritu Menon’s Zohra! A Biography in Four Acts is the fourth in a series of biographies on Zohra Segal. The first was Stages: The Art and Adventures of Zohra Segal by Joan Erdman and Zohra Segal (1997), followed by Close Up: Memoirs of a Life on Stage and Screen by Segal herself (2010), and then Zohra Segal ‘Fatty’ by her daughter Kiran Segal, published on Zohra’s 100th birthday (2012). While the book with Erdman was published before Zohra became the much-loved ‘feisty granny’ of Bollywood, between the three memoirs the essential facts of Zohra’s life are covered. Why then a fourth biography?
Zohra! Is structured in four acts, two scenes per act with two intermissions – an ode to Zohra’s deep love for theatre. Act 1 is her life with dance and with Uday Shankar. Act 2 centres on her introduction to theatre, and her 14 years with Prithviraj Kapoor and his touring company Prithvi Theatres. After a short intermission in Delhi, Act 3 takes place in England, where she remakes herself as an actress and a single working mother; this Act is broken with another intermission in Delhi between Scene 1 (‘rehearsing’) and Scene 2 (‘Breakthrough’) in England. Act 4 traces Zohra’s ascent to stardom, both in India and in England, to the point where roles in theatre, film and television were being written specifically with her in mind. The book ends with Curtain Call – a summary and reflection on Zohra’s life – trying to understand her in her times, teasing out the key aspects of the way she lived and who she was.
This book, unlike the others that are personal memoirs, situates Zohra squarely in her times, and travels with her through the (often rapidly) changing scenarios that mark the context of her life. The first two acts are vivid evocations of a pre-independence to post-independence India, with an important nod to the World War that has taken place in Europe. The endeavors, experiments and impact of Uday Shankar and Prithviraj Kapoor are an illuminating read – as we understand their impact on Zohra, we get to see too what their practice meant across the cusp of Indian independence.
The writer’s exploration of these two great artists is so immersive that sometimes we lose track of Zohra, but Menon expertly pulls her back into the frame just in time. As the book moves through time, it also draws for us a picture of a changed Europe pre- and post-World War II. We also see a churning England, faced with the reality of embracing its former colonial subjects as bonafide British citizens. Zohra’s life choices place her across these changing environments, with a brief foray in Communist Russia and Eastern Europe as well. What Menon manages to do is paint a life that is both made by circumstances but also constantly making itself in those circumstances.
