Veteran theatre and film actor and writer Shaukat Kaifi is no more. According to a family source she was in her 90s and ailing for a long while and passed away on Friday evening at her Juhu home in the arms of her daughter, actor Shabana Azmi.

Shaukat Aapa, as she was called, along with her husband, Urdu poet and film lyricist, Kaifi Azmi  had been the leading light of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and the Progressive Writers Association, the cultural wings of the Communist Party of India (CPI).

In the world of films she is best known for her work in M.S. Sathyu’s Garm Hava, Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan and Sagar Sathadi’s Bazaar.

Shaukat Kaifi’s memoirs , Kaifi and I had been turned into a theatrical rendition Kaifa aur Main with Shabana and Javed Akhtar reading the parts of Shaukat and Kaifi respectively.

She is survived by her daughter Shabana, son and noted cinematographer Baba Azmi, daughter in law actor Tanvi Azmi and son-in-law, poet, writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar. She has passed away even as the year-long Kaifi centenary events roll on.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Movies / by Special Correspondent / Mumbai – November 22nd, 2019