Zeenat Aman is a shining star on Instagram. Amongst the celebs of the 70s era, she is a maverick and her social media posts are the most awaited. Zeenat shares some major goals on the internet sharing her pictures, stories, and experiences. The actress is an inspiration to the new generation and is known for taking up fearlessly bold roles. In a recent Instagram post, Zeenat Aman has shared that moral police had been a steady companion through her career.
Zeenat Aman has managed to create headlines forever for breaking stereotypes. With her latest social media post the actress shared an anecdote from her film Manoranjan dated back in 1974. The film, an adaptation of 1963 American comedy ‘Irma Le Douce’ featured Zeenat in the role of Nisha, a sex worker with a sense of dignity, independence, and humour. Shammi Kapoor's directorial debut Manoranjan also starred Sanjeev Kumar in the lead role.
Aman claimed Manoranjan was a ‘haste-haste, khelte-khelte’ affair. Taking to Instagram the actress shared three pictures from her throwback album of Mmanoranjan. The first image was a still while the second was a hand-painted poster and the third one featured Sanjeev Kumar and Zeenat with their director Shammi Kapoor. Writing up on the pictures she started with “If I’ve had a steady companion through my career, it’s been the moral police. And, my goodness, did they have a field day with this one!”
Talking about her character Nisha, she wrote, “Nisha was no damsel in distress! Her outfits were flirtatious and sexy, but more importantly, she was unapologetic about how she earns a living. This was a character that I could have fun with: sexually liberated, financially independent, and fully capable of locking horns with, and turning down, any man.”
She further added, “I’ve always maintained that I am a ‘director’s actor’, and I do believe Shammi ji coaxed out one of my better performances with this film. The music and costumes were also a hoot. In ‘aaya hoon main tujh ko le jaoonga’ we dance upon gigantic musical instruments, ‘chori chori solah singar’ (sung by Asha ji) has a titillating shower sequence, and ‘dulhan maike chali’ is pictured entirely in a police van full of sex workers being taken to the police station and was sung by all three Mangeshkar sisters! If you’re interested, you can watch these on YouTube.”
According to Zeenat Aman, despite the moral police the 70s were a wonderful time. For her, the atmosphere of experimentation, freedom and fashion was unmatchable. Manoranjan presented prostitution as a fun activity and was a classic despite not making a mark at the box office. The 1974 film can now be watched on Netflix.
