Actor Bharti Jaffery, daughter of cinema icon Ashok Kumar, breathed her last on Tuesday, her son-in-law and actor Kanwaljit Singh confirmed. Singh, who is married to Jaffery's actor-daughter Anuradha Patel, took to his Instagram account to write, "Our beloved Bharti Jaffery, daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, neighbour, friend, and inspiration has departed today 20 Sep (sic),"
"We will bring her home at 1.30 pm today for her final goodbye at 403 Ashok Kumar Towers, 47 Union Park, Chembur 71, and thereafter cremate her at Cherai Crematorium, Chembur Camp," her further wrote.
The cause of her death and age could not be immediately confirmed.
Bharti Jaffery has worked in some of pathbreaking films including 2001 Kalpana Lajmi directorial 'Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence', starring Raveena Tandon, 'Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa' (1998) and the popular 1990s TV show 'Saans', in which she starred with Neena Gupta and son-in-law Kanwaljit Singh.
'Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence' is a 2001 Indian drama film directed by Kalpana Lajmi released on 4 May 2001. Raveena won the distinguished National Film Award for Best Actress for her role as Durga Saikia. The film follows the story of a battered wife and marked the debut of Bollywood singer Shaan, son of singer and composer Late Manas Mukherjee and younger brother of pop singer and actress Sagarika Mukherjee, as an actor. Apart from Raveena and Bharti, the other actors in the film were Sanjay Suri, Raima Sen, and Nipon Goswami.
'Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa', on the other hand, was a 1998 Indian feature film that deals with the life of a woman who loses her son, a Naxalite, to the violence that is a result of his adopted ideology.
The film, directed and produced by Govind Nihalani, was based on Magsaysay and Jnanpith award recipient Mahasweta Devi's Bengali 1974 novel Hajar Churashir Maa. The film also starred Jaya Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Milind Gunaji, Seema Biswas, Joy Sengupta and Nandita Das. It marked Jaya Bachchan's return to acting after a gap of 18 years and the film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
Just like Bharti's films, his TV show 'Saans' was also a cult. Directed by actress Neena Gupta who works in the series as well alongside television actor Kanwaljit Singh, it focused on the accidental love triangle between the characters Priya, Gautam, and Manisha. Neena Gupta won the award for 'Best Director' and Kanwaljit Singh won for the 'Best Actor' categories at the Kalakar Awards 1998 for it.
