BEAUTY WITH BRAINS: Esther Victoria Abraham

Half of her beauty was her skill and determination. The unabashed Victoria Esther is one of those personalities of the tinsel town who often goes unnoticed. But once you know her, there is no turning back. A perfect amalgamation of beauty and brains, let's see her in action...

Esther Victoria Abraham; Image Credit: Wikipedia

It is general knowledge that Kolkata is the cultural capital of India. Yet, many of us are unaware of those who worked so hard to give the city this kind of recognition. Let's take a look at one of those lost beauties of the tinsel town, Esther Victoria Abraham.

Born in Kolkata, on 30th December 1916  to Matilda Issac, and Reuben Abraham, her family had a Baghdadi-Jewish origin who had settled around the Indian Ocean and the South Chinese sea trade ports. Her father was a businessman. Esther had six siblings and three half-siblings.

Due to reasonable fees, Esther transferred from the Calcutta Girls High School to St James. She was good both in studies and sports, especially in hockey where she won many accolades. She completed her graduation with a degree in arts from Cambridge. She would initially teach in a kindergarten at the Talmud Torah Boys.However, she would soon be drawn towards Hindi cinema.

Her family completely supported her because they were also interested in dance and music. A stroke of luck helped her enter into silent films. At the same time, a Marwari theatre personality married Esther and, they had a son Maurice Abraham. Later, her parents urged her to annul the marriage and Maurice would be brought up by them.

A visit to her cousin sister Rose Ezra in Bombay completely changed the trajectory of her life. Rose was an actress for the film ‘The Return of the Toofan Mail’, and once on a visit to meet her, Esther was spotted by Director R S Chowdhari. Her charisma and beauty impressed the director so much that she was immediately signed up for a role in the film. Although unreleased, this was the first movie that Esther did.

Following this, Esther started working in the Imperial Company. Her first movie Bhikaran released in 1936 and caused a huge rave because of her anglicized Hindi. She was given the screen name ‘Pramila’ after this by Baburao Pendherkar.

She would often portray a vamp or work as a stuntwoman. She has an impressive record of movies in her name like Maha Maya, Ulti Ganga, Our Darling Daughter, Bijli, Jhankar, Shahzadi, Burra Nawab Sahib, etc.

A well-known face in the fashion magazines of the ’30s and ’40s, she had a unique way of draping her saree and she often 'designed, drew and stitched her own costumes'.

After her second marriage to Syed Hassan Ali, better known by his screen name ‘Kumar’, she went on to adopt the name Shabnam Begum Ali.

Esther was 31 expecting her fifth child during her Miss India win. “The title was okay—it didn’t really mean much to me then. It only became important 20 years later,” she said later in an interview.

“At that time, it (the Miss India pageant) was more of a popular-face contest, and since I was on the cover of most magazines in those days, I was chosen. In those days, the rules and regulations had still not been formally laid down,” she added.

In 1942 Esther along with her husband, established her own film production company, Silver Films. She was against power being in the hands of the wealthy producers and wanted actors to be seen in a new light rather than as 'paid employees of studios'.

She established her own production company and started raising funds for her films. She was a successful producer, with many films under her name.

She was the first woman to produce 16 films under her banner Silver Productions. She even got arrested because the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai thought of her as a spy because of the constant travellings. However, it was only for promoting her films, that she travelled extensively.

Although Murad, which was released in 1964 was her last film as an actress, the Amol Palekar directorial Thangg saw Esther play the role of a grandmother years after she had retired from the industry.

She died on August 6th, 2006 five months short of her ninetieth birthday. Her cemetery in Chinchpokli is a reminder to all of us of the icon that she was.