Shaukat Kaifi passed away on Friday in Mumbai due to age-related illness at the age of 93. The veteran stage and film actress is survived by daughter Shabana Azmi and son Baba Azmi. The last rites will be held on November 23 in the afternoon in Mumbai.
Shaukat Kaifi has acted in evergreen movies such as ‘Garam Hawa’, ‘Bazaar’, ‘Umrao Jaan’ and ‘Salaam Bombay!’ to name a few. She was last seen on screen in Shaadi Ali’s Saathiya’ in 2002. Post the demise of her husband Kaifi Azmi in the year 2002, she also penned an autobiography named ‘Kaifi and I’ which was later adapted into a play.
The news was confirmed by poet and writer Javed Akhtar, her son-in-law. Akhtar told the Press Trust of India, “She was 93 and she was having one problem after another. She was admitted to the Kokikaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital; for certain days she was in the ICU and then she was out of ICU. It was all age-related.” He added, “Ultimately they brought her home. She wanted to come back to her own room. She stayed for a day or two and then passed away. Shabana is in Mumbai.”
A source close to the family added that Kaifi was 93s and had been ailing for a long time. She breathed her last at her residence in Juhu in Mumbai, in the arms of her daughter Shabana Azmi. Shaukat Kaifi was married to the celebrated Urdu poet and film lyricist Kaifi Azmi. She along with her husband was the pioneers of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and the Progressive Writers Association (IWA), which served as the cultural platforms for the Communist Party of India.
