Music is a gift that keeps her young forever

“In college, the boys would nudge each other whenever I walked down the corridor and say: look, there goes Devika Rani,” laughs Sushila Rani Patel, pouring over her old photographs. “Do you think I looked like her?” Looking at her images as a young actress, it is easy to see why Patel would have made heads turn.

But even as a sprightly nonagenarian, who turns 91 this week, clad in a gorgeous chiffon sari, with fresh jasmine in her hair and a dancer’s graceful poise, Sushila Rani Patel still epitomises timeless charm.

Over the span of an eventful life, Patel has donned hats of an actress, journalist and musician. She was a trusty lieutenant to her husband, the late film critic, journalist and parliamentarian Baburao Patel.

Sushila Rani appeared as an actress in two films, including Gwalan (1946) which was directed and produced by her husband; but the venture was a commercial failure. “Baburao was a stringent film critic, so when his films didn’t work, people would smile to themselves,” she laughs.

While remaining devoted to her husband, Patel managed to carve her own niche as a prominent member of Mumbai’s cultural elite, mostly through her love for classical music.
But this passion for music was also the cause for her entering some of the toughest bargains of her life. “My husband would always deliver ultimatums to me with music as the condition,” she says. For instance, she recalls, he made her master the sitar as the condition for being allowed to sing. “Another time, he got me to study law, if I wanted to continue with my music.”

Poignantly, at the time when he struck this last deal, he was seriously ill. “I would have to study late at night since I was looking after him all day,” adds Patel.

Incredibly, she scored the highest position in her class that year. Even more impressively, at the time she got her law degree, Patel was 65 years old!

Passing years have not dimmed her enthusiasm for the art — she still does riyaz in a spacious music room in her bungalow, with idols of Saraswati and a smell of fresh incense filling its corners.

Each year, she also organises a memorial concert for her husband, which sees the presence of talents like noted sitarist Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan and vocalist Shruti Sadolikar Katkar. “I do it with a clear heart, out of love for music,” says Patel.

For now, her mission is to find and encourage young talent in the city. “If I sing for 20 minutes, I give the stage to my pupils for over half an hour,” she says. “It is important for the old to encourage the new.”

Clearly, for this doyenne of Mumbai’s cultural scene and a prominent citizen of the city, music is the gift that keeps her forever young.