Pearl Padamsee

Pearl Padamsee
Born 1931
Died 24 April 2000
Mumbai, India
Occupation actor, theatre director-producer

Pearl Padamsee (1931 – 24 April 2000) was an Indian theatre personality as a stage actress, director and producer of English language theatre in Mumbai active in 1950s–1990s. She acted a few Hindi and English language films,[1] including Khatta Meetha, Junoon (1978 film), Baaton Baaton Mein, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, and Such a Long Journey.[2] She ran after-school theatre workshops for children.[3]

Personal life

Padamsee was born the daughter of a Christian father and an Indian Jewish mother.

Her first husband was a Bengali Hindu man named Mr. Chowdhry. They had two children: a son named Ranjit Chowdhry who is an actor and a daughter named Rohini Chowdhry. This marriage ended in divorce when her children were still toddlers.

Pearl then married Alyque Padamsee, a Muslim who was a Kutchi Khoja Memon. Pearl thus became the first of his three wives. It is this marriage which brought her the name by which she is known professionally, and moreover, the profession itself: her second husband was active in English theatre, and Pearl became a part of the same group, promoting "English theatre" in Mumbai.[4][5] Shortly after her second marriage, Pearl endured the death of her 10-year-old daughter, Rohini, who died after a wasting illness.

With Padamsee, Pearl had a daughter, Raell Padamsee, who runs her own theatre company in Mumbai.[6][7] Pearl and Alyque were divorced very shortly after the birth of Raell. (Alyque then married Dolly Thakore (later divorced) and then Sharon Prabhakar.)

Pearl Padamsee died on 24 April 2000. She had been raised a Christian (her father was one) and had remained one throughout her life, notwithstanding marriages. She is buried at a Christian cemetery in Bandra.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Total recall: Ten years after her death, the remarkable Pearl Padamsee comes alive on stage again". Time Out, Mumbai.
  2. ↑ "Pearl Padamsee: Filmography". New York Times.
  3. ↑ Tharoor, Shashi (19 February 2003). "Bombay in the '60s:a morality play". New York Times.
  4. ↑ http://m.outlookindia.com/story.aspx?sid=4&aid=209328
  5. ↑ http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/baghdadi-jewish-women-in-india
  6. ↑ "Pearls of wisdom by Raell Padamsee". DNA. 20 Apr 2010.
  7. ↑ "Pathbreakers: Rael Padamsee". Hindustan Times. 8 March 2006.
  8. ↑ "The Alyque Padamsee brand of life - The Times of India". The Times Of India.
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