Happy Birthday Tabu

Actress Tabu turns 38 today. As the saying goes, about wine becoming better with age, then so is the case with Tabu. The actress has just gone from strength to strength, with every passing year, preferring to live and work on her own terms. Born Tabassum Hashmi, the actress spent her initial years in Hyderabad before she arrived in Mumbai. Following in the footsteps of her sister Farah Naaz and aunt Shanbana Azmi, she made her debut in films with Dev Anand's 'Hum Naujawan' in 1985, at age 15.But her first role as leading lady was for a Telugu movie. However, it was Boney Kapoor who launched her as a heroine in Hindi films in 'Prem', which also saw the debut of Boney's brother, Sanjay Kapoor. But the film took eight years to complete and didn't do too much for her. It was 'Vijaypath' in 1994, opposite Ajay Devgn which catapulted her to fame as she won the Filmfare Award for the Best Female Debut that year. As the actress became more and more particular about her roles, her appearances in commercial cinema started dwindling and she moved eagerly towards films of substance. Even though, Tabu was a part of films like 'Border', 'Saajan Chale Sasural', 'Biwi No. 1' and 'Hum Saath Saath Hain', she is known more for her performances in films like 'Maachis', 'Viraasat', 'Hu Tu Tu', 'Astitva', 'Chandni Bar', 'Maqbool' and 'Cheeni Kum', all of them films with directors like Gulzar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Madhur Bhandrakar and Vishal Bharadwaj. Her histrionic abilities were not restricted to just Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu films and she was picked up by Mira Nair to act in 'The Namesake', which got her much critical acclaim in the US too.
Currently, the actress juggles her time between Mumbai and Hyderabad. She selects her films very carefully and is definitely not a part of the rat race. She has some interesting films in hand, like 'The Legend of Kunal', where she is once again paired opposite Amitabh Bachchan. She has already won 2 National Awards for Best Actress, and has been judged Best Actress by critic's four times for Filmfare. There is little that she needs to prove to herself or the world. But this much is true, her fans would really love to see more of her. We would like to wish Tabu all the best for today and every other day of her life