Madhur Jaffrey is an actress, food and travel writer and television personality. He is famous for bringing Indian cuisine to the West. He made his debut by writing the cookbook ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’ in 1973.
Wiki/Biography
Madhur Jaffrey was born on Sunday, 13 August 1933 (age 88 years; in 2021) in Delhi. His zodiac sign is Leo. He studied at St. Mary’s Convent School, Kanpur and Queen Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Delhi. He completed his studies from Miranda House, Delhi in 1950 and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, England in 1955. He obtained a BA degree in English Honours. Jaffrey was born in Delhi but moved to Kanpur when he was two years old. When he was five years old, he played the role of a mouse in the play ‘Pied Piper of Hamelin. She moved back to Delhi in 1944. During her high school, she played the role of Titania in the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and was also the lead actress in the play ‘Robin Hood and His Merry Men.’ During his summer vacation, he worked at All India Radio and got paid for it. While Jaffrey was studying in 1950, he participated in many plays. He joined the Unity Theater in Delhi in 1951. This theater was founded by Saeed Jaffrey. After his graduation, he worked as a disc jockey at All India Radio where Saeed worked as an announcer. They fell in love with each other. He met British novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala who wrote the book ‘To Whom She Will’ in 1955 which was based on the love story of Saeed and Madhur. In 1955, she played the role of a mother in the drama ‘Auto-da-Fe’. He took admission to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to pursue a course in acting. The food he used to eat there was bland and he didn’t like it at all. He asked his mother to give him the recipe so that he could cook food easily.
Physical appearance
Height (approx): 5′ 0″
Weight (approx): 60 kg
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Jaffrey’s father’s name is Lala Raj Bans Bahadur and his mother’s name is Kashmiran Rani. He has two brothers. Their names are Brij Bans Bahadur and Krishen Bans Bahadur. He has three younger sisters. Their names are Lalit, Kamal and Veena.
Madhur Jaffrey (centre) with her sisters Kamal (left) and Lalit
Husband & Son
Madhur Jaffrey married actor Saeed Jaffrey in 1958. Their marriage lasted for seven years and in 1965 they divorced.
Madhur Jaffrey with her ex-husband Saeed Jaffrey
In 1969, Madhur remarried Sanford Allen who was a violinist.
Madhur Jaffrey with her husband Sanford Allen
He has three daughters. Their names are Zia Jaffrey who is an Assistant Professor, Meera Jaffrey who is a Teacher and Sakina Jaffrey who is an Actress.
Madhur Jaffrey’s daughter Zia Jaffrey
Madhur Jaffrey with her daughter Sakina Jaffrey
Career
Movie
Madhur was seen in the films ‘Shakespeare Wallah’ (1965), The Guru (1969), Autobiography of a Princess (1976), Heat and Dust (1983), and The Perfect Murder (1988).
Madhur Jaffrey in the movie ‘Shakespeare Wallah’ with Shashi Kapoor
Madhur Jaffrey in the movie ‘The Guru’
Madhur Jaffrey in the movie ‘Autobiography of a Princess’
Madhur Jaffrey in the movie ‘Heat and Dust’
Madhur Jaffrey in the movie ‘The Perfect Murder’
Television
Madhur appeared in the shows ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Far Eastern Cookery’ in 1989 and ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Flavors of India’ in 1995. In 2019, she appeared in a rap video with Zohran Mamdani (director Mira Nair’s daughter).
Cooking
Madhur wrote her first cookbook in 1973. The title of the book was ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’.
Madhur Jaffrey’s book ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’
In 2006, a memoir written by him was published. The name of the memoir is ‘Climbing the Mango Tree’.
Madhur Jaffrey’s Memoir ‘Climbing the Mango Tree’
Controversy
In 2014, Madhur Jaffrey said in a show (Cheltenham Literary Festival) that Balti dishes are not very popular. Balti is a dish introduced in 1977 in a Birmingham curry house. This dish gained a lot of fame in the 1980s and 1990s. Experts of the dish said that they were not happy with what Jaffrey said about the dish and also said that the dish is still important to them.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- He won the best actor award from the Berlin International Film Festival in 1965 for his performance in Shakespeare’s Wallah
- He won the Taraknath Das Foundation Award presented by the Taraknath Das Foundation of Columbia University’s South Asia Institute in 1993.
- He was named ‘Who’s Who of Food and Beverage’ in America by the James Beard Foundation in 1995
- She won the muse award presented by New York Women in Film & Television in 2000
- He received an honorary CBE on 11 October 2004 for his services to the United Kingdom, India and the United States
Facts/Trivia
- Madhur Jaffrey eats non-veg food.
- During his school days, he used to visit his brother’s college and watch plays there.
- He was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He witnessed the partition of India. His Muslim school friends have separated. In 1948, when Mahatma Gandhi died, he attended prayers at Birla’s house.
- Jaffrey said in an interview that after partition, there were Punjabis who had settled in India. They used to cook Tandoori Chicken, Dal Makhani, Butter Chicken, etc. He further added that he likes Punjabi style of cooking.
- In an interview, she talked about her cooking skills and said,
I was not taught to cook. I taught myself through my mother’s handwritten recipes. But I must have had good taste, even if I didn’t know the word ‘palate’ at the time. I can instinctively translate a three-line recipe into a dish and through trial and error I get it right.
- In 1956, Saeed asked Madhur’s parents if Saeed and Madhur could get married. His parents denied it and said that he did not earn enough. However, after convincing his parents, they got married.
- After Madhur graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1957, she was torn between staying in London or returning to India. He began teaching at St. Michael’s Playhouse in Winooski and also worked in the Drama School Library at Catholic University where Saeed studied.
- In 1958, after getting married, he moved to New York. He works as a tour guide there.
- She got divorced in 1965. After the divorce, she started her acting career. Her ex-husband Saeed took to Facebook and posted how much he missed his wife. The message is as below:
I was 19 when I married Mehrunima and she was 17. As I grew up, I learned to speak English fluently, wear suits, and developed impeccable manners. But Mehrunima grew up to be the complete opposite of me – an ordinary housewife. And he’s not what I want. All my advice and reprimands couldn’t change his basic personality and I didn’t want him to. The more I tried to change it, the more we drifted apart. After 10 years, I divorced him and left him. For about 6-7 months everything went smoothly. Then I began to realize, my new wife was not caring and loving. He only cares about her beauty, her ambitions, her will, and her desires. Sometimes I miss Mehrunima’s caring touch and concern for my welfare. But, life goes on and we are 2 different people living in the same house.”
- For the Shakespeare film Wallah, Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress. In an interview, she recalled the day of her shoot and said,
I was young, I introduced James [Ivory] and Ishmael [Merchant] each other in England, we are all friends. The initial plan was that my ex-husband, Saeed Jaffrey, and I would return to India and start a touring theater company there. Jim said that was a great idea for a movie and we were going to sit down and talk about it in his apartment. Then he went to India and met the Kendal family, whom he wanted in his film. Jhabwala [the story and screenplay writer] created the character of Manjula so that I could be in it too.”
- While filming the movie in 1965, she began dating Sanford Allen. They married in 1969.
- He is known as the ‘Actress who can cook’.
- Once he was asked about the word ‘Foodie’ in an interview, he replied,
That I think is obsessed with taking pictures of food and showing off. The younger generation really likes the little gadgets you have there [pointing at my phone] and sending what they’re doing to all their friends — that’s a new attitude I don’t have. I don’t want to tell the world what I eat, I just want to enjoy it.”
Categories: Biography
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
