In the three decades since Smita Patil died – at the impossibly young age of thirty-one – she has unwaveringly been one of Indian cinema’s biggest icons. That is unusual enough for a ‘parallel cinema’ actor, rendered the more remarkable in a career that spanned a mere ten years. Patil, one of the leading lights of the New Indian Cinema of the mid-1970s, has a body of work that would make veterans proud. Smita Patil: A Brief Incandescence tells her remarkable story, tracing it from her childhood to stardom, controversial marriage and untimely death. Her close friends remember ‘Smi’ as outspoken and bindaas, not beyond hurling abuses or taking off on bikes on impromptu joyrides. Film-makers like Shyam Benegal and Jabbar Patel, or co-stars Om Puri and Shabana Azmi, talk about Patil’s dedication to her craft and her intuitive pursuit of that perfect take. From the difficult equation she shared with her mother, and her propensity for ‘wrong’ relationships, about which she was always ope