Sheila Ramani
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A profile
The Times of India, Jul 16 2015
Avijit Ghosh & Rajesh Jauhri
Actor Sheila Ramani Cowasji breathed style and sensuality to the Anglo-Indian nightclub singer Sylvie in the superhit Taxi Driver (1954). Ramani played the lead role in another Navketan film opposite Dev Anand Funtoosh (1956). But she re mained embossed in memo ry for Taxi Driver. With her languid sway in a dark sari and shiny blouse in the song Dil jale to jale and her easy abandon in an off-shoulder dress to the dance track Dil se milake dil -she oozed spunk and sexuality , cool and control. “Ramani was a precursor to the urban modern heroine we see today . She set the stage for them. In her roles, she had agency ,“ says Sidharth Bhatia, author of Cinema Modern: The Navketan Story .
Born in Sindh province (now in Pakistan), Ramani was a Miss Shimla in the early 50s. V Shantaram's Surang (1953) was one of her early films. “I played a miner in the film while she was a colliery owner's daughter.The movie did reasonably well,“ recalled actor Chandrashekhar, who played the film's hero. He is 93. An article posted on cine plot.com says she visited Karachi at the request of her uncle to play the lead in a Pakistani film, Anokhi (1956). Ramani's other films include, V Shantaram's Teen Batti Char Rasta, Naukri (with Kishore Kumar), Railway Platform (Sunil Dutt's first film), Jungle King and Return of Mr Superman, where she starred opposite Jairaj. Awara Ladki (1967) was probably her last movie.
Ramani's husband Zaal Cowasji, a noted industrialist who was the first to produce and supply electricity in Mhow, Mount Abu and Mumbai, passed away about two decades ago. She is survived by her two sons Rahul and Zaal junior.
