Shaukat Kaifi, mother of Shabana Azmi, dies at 91

Shaukat Kaifi, wife of the late poet and lyricist Kaifi Azmi, died at her Juhu home of age-related ailments late on Friday. She was 91.

Born Shaukat Khanum in Hyderabad on 20 October 1928, the actress and social activist and her husband were instrumental in forming the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) and the Progressive Writers Association (PWA).

She appeared on stage in plays like Pagli and Africa Jawan Pareshan for Prithvi Theatre. On film, her most memorable roles were in Garam Hawa (1974), Umrao Jaan (1981) and Salaam Bombay! (1988). She first acted on screen in Chetan Anand's Haqeeqat (1964) and her last on-screen appearance was in Saathiya (2002), directed by Shaad Ali.

Her children, cinematographer Baba Azmi and actress Shabana Azmi, are also part of the Indian film industry. In fact, Shabana took on the role of Khanum Jaan in the 2006 remake of Umrao Jaan, the same part her mother had played in Muzaffar Ali's classic.

After Kaifi Azmi's death in 2002, Shaukat wrote her memoirs Kaifi and I which was turned into the play, Kaifi Aur Main, in 2006. This year, their family celebrated Kaifi's birth centenary with several events throughout the year, including the documentary Kaifinama, directed by Sumantra Ghosal.