Tabu at Her Best: 10 Films That Defined a Singular Career

Tabu has spent decades choosing roles that most leading women were told to avoid. On her birthday, Filmfare has rounded up 10 of her finest films—a reminder that her stardom was built less on box-office formulas and more on complicated women who linger after the credits.

From Maachis in 1996 to Andhadhun in 2018, the list spans three decades—and every decade carries a different kind of risk.

Filmfare also notes her off-screen reputation as a recluse—a label that has never nudged her toward safer choices. The proof is in the roles themselves.

Why the list matters

What ties the picks together is a refusal to play safe. In Maachis (1996), she left the commercial set-up to play a Punjabi woman pulled into Punjab’s insurgency. In Chandni Bar (2001), she played a bar dancer struggling to keep her children away from crime—a role that won her a National Award.

Then came the darker, literary turns. Vishal Bhardwaj cast her as Nimmi in Maqbool, the mistress who urges a gangster to murder his mentor, and as Ghazala in Haider, a mother torn between her son and her brother-in-law in conflict-hit Kashmir. Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun gave her a role that starts as a bored housewife and curdles into something unhinged; it remains one of the most thrilling performances in recent Hindi cinema.

10 Tabu films worth revisiting

• Maachis (1996) – the Gulzar drama that made the industry take her seriously.
• Virasat (1997) – a village romance where her quiet Gehna wins over Anil Kapoor’s Shakti.
• Hu Tu Tu (1999) – a political drama, again with Gulzar.
• Astitva (2000) – Mahesh Manjrekar’s sharp look at society’s double standard on infidelity.
• Chandni Bar (2001) – the National Award-winning bar dancer Mumtaz.
• Filhaal… (2002) – Meghna Gulzar’s debut about surrogacy and friendship.
• Maqbool (2004) – Lady Macbeth-style ambition in the Mumbai underworld.
• Cheeni Kum (2007) – an age-gap romance with Amitabh Bachchan built on food and wit.
• Haider (2014) – Hamlet in Kashmir, with Tabu as Ghazala.
• Andhadhun (2018) – a pianist, a murder, and Tabu at her most unpredictable.

Some of these films are also milestones for the directors—Meghna Gulzar’s debut, Bhardwaj’s Shakespeare adaptations, and R Balki’s first film. That says something about how often Tabu has been the actor a filmmaker trusts with a risky idea.

Where to start

If you only have time for a few, start with Andhadhun for the thrill, Chandni Bar for the performance, and Astitva for a story that still feels uncomfortably current. This is a career that rewards watching in full.

Source: Filmfare

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