Zohra! A Biography In Four Acts

Description
Zohra Segal (1912-2014) spanned an Indian century of the arts and became
the only woman to make a mark in all the performing arts, with the exception
of music, within the country and abroad. This elegant biography traces her
remarkable journey.
Born into a family with connections to the nawabs of Rampur, Zohra
Mumtazullah Khan chose adventure over tradition when she was eighteen,
travelling to Germany to learn modern dance. For the rest of her life,
she continued to defy convention and was associated with transformative
initiatives in the arts. In 1935, she was recruited by the bohemian genius
Uday Shankar and toured the world with his dance troupe, until he disbanded
it. In 1943, she set up a unique dance school in Lahore with her husband
Kameshwar Segal, eight years her junior. In Bombay two years later, she joined
Prithvi Theatres, founded by the legendary Prithviraj Kapoor. For the next
fourteen years she travelled across India, taking socially relevant plays directly
to the people—through the turbulence of Partition and the heady idealism
following Independence, and the tragedy of Kameshwar’s suicide.
In 1962, Zohra went to London on a drama scholarship and stayed on for
twenty-five years, becoming part of a tiny band of Asian artistes who would
change the complexion of British theatre. From here to her participation in
pioneering TV series and films like Doctor Who, Jewel in the Crown and Bhaji
on the Beach was a natural progression. Back in India, she was surprised
to find Bollywood at her door when she was well past eighty. Playing the
unconventional grandmother—by turns charming and crusty—she became a
household name.
In this biography of the unlikely star, Ritu Menon helps us understand both
the performer and the person, and the times she lived in