Urmila Matondkar is an Indian Actress and Politician.  Known for her work in  Hindi  films, in addition to  Telugu,  Malayalam,  Marathi and  Tamil  Cinema, she has received  numerous accolades, including the  Filmfare Award  and the  Nandi Award. She has been praised by the critics for her acting and dancing skills.

Matondkar made her screen debut as a child artiste in Shreeram Lagoo‘s  Marathi film Zaakol (1980).  Subsequently, she featured in  Shyam Benegal‘s crime Kalyug  (1980),  Shekhar Kapur‘s drama Masoom (1983),  Praveen Bhatt‘s  Bhavna (1984),  K. Viswanath‘s  Sur Sangam (1985),  Rahul Rawail‘s  Dacait (1987) and  Kalpataru‘s  Bade Ghar Ki Beti (1989) as a child star.

She made her debut as an adult in 1989, with  T. K. Rajeev Kumar‘s  Malayalam  blockbuster Chanakyan, opposite  Kamal Haasan. Her Bollywood adult debut came with  N. Chandra‘s 1991 action drama  Narsimha. Upon release, the film emerged a commercial success. Matondkar played the role of Meenu S. Singh, the rebellious daughter of Baapji (played by Om Puri), a goon lord and capitalist of the city.

She next starred in Rajiv Mehra’s ghost comedy  Chamatkar, alongside  Shah Rukh Khan (1992). Her first  Telugu  film came with the action-crime  Antham, and its Hindi bilingual  Drohi  opposite  Nagarjuna. She played Bhavna, an ornithologist who is in love with Nagarjuna’s character. Upon release, the film received positive reviews from critics.  The film marked first of her many collaborations with director  Ram Gopal Verma. In 1993, Matondkar appeared in Shreemaan Aashique  opposite  Rishi Kapoor  and  Bedardi  opposite Ajay Devgn. Varma’s  Telugu  political thriller Gaayam (1993 ) was her next release. The film garnered positive reviews, with six state  Nandi Awards, and emerged a  Super Hit  at the box office. Matondkar’s performance earned her a  Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1995, Matondkar established herself as a leading actress of contemporary Hindi Cinema by featuring in Varma’s musical romance  Rangeela (Colourful). The film was a major box office success and received critical acclaim.   Co-starring  Aamir Khan  and Jackie Shroff. Matondkar played Mili Joshi, an effervescent fun-loving friend of a street-toughened orphan, who ambitions of becoming an actress. At the  41st Filmfare Awards,  Rangeela  was nominated for 12 awards Matondkar including a first Best Actress  nomination for Matondkar. The became an overnight sensation and a superstar. Her fame and star status were hits like “Tanha Tanha” and “Rangeela Re”. The film proved to be a turning point for Amir’s career, whose chemistry with Matondkar was also appreciated. Film was screened at the International Film Festival of India.

In the same year, she also starred alongside  Mohanlal in the   Malayalam  action  Thacholi Varghese Chekavar. She played Maya, the only witness in a homicide who is kept under house arrest by her parents. In 1996, she played Sapna , the daughter of an RTO official in  S. Shankar‘s  Indian (1996), which marked her first Tamil film. It was also dubbed and released in Hindi under the title  Hindustani. Featuring  Kamal Haasan  in dual roles alongside Matondkar and  Manisha Koirala, it was the  most expensive Indian film  at that time. Nirupama Subramanian of India Today  felt the film was a commercial  potboiler  and wrote, “Indian  has dances, foot-tapping melodies by A. R. Rahman and two pretty women, Manisha Koirala and Urmila Matondkar”. Both  Indian and Hindustani were commercial successes. The film was  India’s official entry  for the Best Foreign Language Film  for the  Academy Awards  in 1996, but was  not nominated.

Matondkar’s first release of 1997 was  Raj Kanwar‘s melodrama  Judaai. It tells the story of Kajal (played by  Sridevi), lured by wealth who asks her husband, Raj (played by Anil Kapoor), an honest engineer, to marry Janhvi (played by Matondkar), the rich daughter of his boss.  The Indian Express  asserted that “it is Urmila Matondkar who comes out with flying colours”. The film emerged as a commercial success  and her performance fetched her a  Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award  nomination.

Her next releases were the crime comedy  Daud  alongside Sanjay Dutt, the romantic drama  Mere Sapno Ki Rani  alongside Sanjay Kapoor and the action romance  Aflatoon  alongside  Akshay Kumar. She next reunited with Varma for her third Telugu release, the road movie Anaganaga Oka Roju, starring alongside  J. D. Chakravarthy. The film involves the comic travails of a couple eloping, on the run from their parents who get entangled as murder suspects of a politician, in a police and political mafia road hunt for an incriminating audio tape. The film received positive reviews nd emerged as a box office hit.

Her next release was the crime  “Satya“, for which she received another Filmfare Best Actress nomination. The film was r eceived favourably by critics and was a huge hit at the box office, solidifying Matondkar’s position as a leading lady of Bollywood. Satya was on  CNN-IBN‘s 2013 list of the 100 greatest Indian films of all time, in the 100 Filmfare Days  series and on the “70 iconic movies of independent India” list. It was mentioned in Rachel Dwyer’s  100 Bollywood Films (where she called it a “masterpiece”), and i n critic and author Shubhra Gupta’s  50 Films That Changed Bollywood, 1995 – 2015.

In 1999, Matondkar had six film releases, However, Matondkar’s performances were generally well received by critics,  Her first hit that year wasbb Varma’s psychological horror thriller Kaun, opposite  Manoj Bajpayee, where she played a nameless character.  Khalid Mohamed  of  The Times of India  (who would later cast her in Tehzeeb) wrote, “She rivets the viewer’s interest, carrying off entire reels on her shoulders, through a gamut of quicksilver facial expressions .

During the 2000s, Matondkar revealed strong, dramatic and psychological features in her roles, and delivered a number of critically acclaimed performances. In 2000, Matondkar re-united with Varma for the action Jungle,  Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama  wrote, “Urmila Matondkar is at ease in a role that gives her ample scope to showcase her talent. Her scenes with Durga can easily be singled out, for they have been shot with brilliance.”^[40] The film was both critically and commercially successful.  She next starred opposite  Govinda  in David Dhawan‘s romantic comedy  Kunwara.

The next year, Matondkar portrayed Ria, an o bsessed over, in Rajat Mukherjee’s romantic thriller  Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, a film which received critical acclaim. Her performance was highly acclaimed and several critics noted her for showing great emotional range and depth. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama, in a positive review wrote, “the ‘actual hero’ of the film is definitely Urmila Matondkar, who will walk away with all laurels at the end of the day. Her career – best performance, she oozes intensity, love, hate, relentlessness and obsessive behaviour with perfection. Planetbollywood.com described Matondkar as : “The star of the show is Urmila who is simply mind blowing in this film. The film is sure to get her nominated for best actress or even in some cases best villain. Not only does she look amazing, but she acts so well it will leave you speechless. If you hate everything else in the film, her performance will surely win you over! Her last two scenes in the film are simply breath taking. Ladies and gentlemen stand up nd applaud this fantastic performance!” The film emerged successful at the box office. Matondkar received various  Best Villain  nominations for her performance, including a Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role nomination.

Her first release of 2003 was the supernatural horror Bhoot. She played Swati, a ghost-possessed woman. Taran Adarsh wrote praised her performance and wrote: “…the film clearly belongs to Urmila Matondkar all the way. To state that she is excellent would be doing gross injustice to her work. Sequences when she is possessed are simply astounding. If this performance doesn’t deserve an award, no other performance should. It beats all competition hollow”. Khalid Mohamed wrote, “Matondkar is consistently excellent – controlled and persuasively vulnerable – as the beleaguered wife, evoking your concern and empathy. She’s the major triumph of Bhoot actually”. She received her first Filmfare Award  under the  Best Actress Critics’ Choice)  as well as various  Best Actress awards at different award ceremonies, including Star Screen Awards,  Zee Cine Awards  and  Bollywood Movie Awards. She received another  Filmfare Award for Best Actress  nomination and also received the national honour  Rajiv Gandhi Award  for the work in the film, also recognising her achievements in Bollywood. The film became successful at the box office with gross earnings.

She achieved further critical acclaim for her portrayal of the title role of a girl in a strained relationship with her mother, in Khalid Mohammed’s crime drama  Tehzeeb (2003).  Rediff c omplimented her by stating, “Urmila as the emotionally scarred Tehzeeb, who is uncomfortable expressing her feelings even to her husband, has done a commendable job. The only person she expresses her love to is her mentally challenged sister.”

She next played the role of Puro, a North Indian girl who leads a happy life but her dreams of a happy future are shattered when, one evening, she is kidnapped by Bajpayee’s character, in the background of the  1947 India partition  in the critically acclaimed  Pinjar (2003). Derek Elley of  Variety  reviewed the film commenting, “A handsomely shot drama centered on a Hindu woman’s travails during the 1947 Partition, “Pinjar” ranks as one of the better Bollywood treatments of this still hot-button issue. Good performances, especially by lead actress Urmila Matondkar and by Manoj Bajpai as her Muslim partner, compensate for a slightly wobbly structure”.

In 2004, Matondkar starred in the thriller  Ek Hasina Thi. The film (which marked the debut of Sriram Raghavan) tells the story of a Sarika Vartak, a deceived woman, played by Matondkar, who is jailed and arrested for having links with the underworld, because of her lover, played by Khan, and later flees from prison to seek revenge on him. Upon release, the film was positively received by critics, with Matondkar’s performance earning praise.  The Deccan Herald  commented : “An author-backed role ensures that Urmila gets to do everything just right. Whether it’s kicking a bully into shape in the dreary prison of which she’s an inmate or whether it’s making nice with Karan while plotting his ruin, she’s a total treat. She carries off the transition from naive to knowing effortlessly. Seductive and steely, she’s quite explosive.”^[55] The film was a box office success.  For he r performance, Matondkar received nominations at the Filmfare, Screen, Zee Cine and IIFA ceremonies. The film was premiered at the  New York Asian Film Festival.

In 2005, she played the title r ole in the horror  Naina. The film tells the story of Matondkar’s character who after receiving an eye transplant, realises t hat she can see into the supernatural world. The film was premiered in the  Marché du Film  section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. She next starred as Trisha Chaudhary, a caring daughter of Professor Uttam Chaudhary, played by Anupam Kher, in Jahnu Barua‘s art drama  Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara. The film was well received by critics, with Rediff stating, “Her credibility as a versatile actress is further established in her reserved albeit realistic delivery of emotions.”^[Matondkar won her second Bollywood Movie Award for Best Actress. In 2006, she appeared in  Pankaj Parashar‘s romance  Banaras : A Mystic Love Story,  

During her years in the film industry, Matondkar has been involved in different charitable organisations and has particularly supported women’s causes in India. In February 2013, Matondkar along with Parineeti Chopra, walked for Manish Malhotra  in London, England, to support the Angeli Foundation – a charity that works to empower the Girl Child in India. 

Matondkar joined the  Indian National Congress  on 27 March 2019. She contested from  Mumbai North constituency  in the  2019 Lok Sabha Election, but lost. On 10 September 2019, she resigned from the party, citing petty internal politics.  On 1 December 2020, she joined  Shiv Sena  in presence of party president  Uddhav Thackeray. Shiv Sena hoped to add a nationally recognised face and voice, well conversant in Marathi, Hindi as well as English, to represent the party.

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.