Ritu Menon’s Zohra! A Biography in Four Acts is the fourth in a series of biographies on Zohra Segal. The first was Stages: The Art and Adventures of Zohra Segal by Joan Erdman and Zohra Segal (1997), followed by Close Up: Memoirs of a Life on Stage and Screen by Segal herself (2010), and then Zohra Segal ‘Fatty’ by her daughter Kiran Segal, published on Zohra’s 100th birthday (2012). While the book with Erdman was published before Zohra became the much-loved ‘feisty granny’ of Bollywood, between the three memoirs the essential facts of Zohra’s life are covered. Why then a fourth biography?‘Zohra! A Biography in Four Acts’ by Ritu Menon.Zohra! is structured in four acts, two scenes per act with two intermissions – an ode to Zohra’s deep love for theatre. Act 1 is her life with dance and with Uday Shankar. Act 2 centres on her introduction to theatre, and her 14 years with Prithviraj Kapoor and his touring company Prithvi Theatres. After a short intermission in Delhi, Act 3 takes place in England, where she remakes herself as an actress and a single working mother; this Act is broken with another intermission in Delhi between Scene 1 (‘Rehearsing’) and Scene 2 (‘Breakthrough’) in England. Act 4 traces Zohra’s ascent to stardom, both in India and in England, to the point where roles in theatre, film and television were being written specifically with her in mind. The book ends with Curtain Call – a summary and reflection on Zohra’s life – trying to understand her in her times, teasing out the key aspects of the way she lived and who she was.This book, unlike the others that are personal memoirs, situates Zohra squarely in her times, and travels with her through the (often rapidly) changing scenarios that mark the context of her life. The first two acts are vivid evocations of a pre-independence to post-independence India, with an important nod to the World War that has taken place in Europe. The endeavours, experiments and impact of Uday Shankar and Prithviraj Kapoor are an illuminating read – as we understand their impact on Zohra, we get to see too what their practice meant across the cusp of Indian independence.The writer’s exploration of these two great artists is so immersive that sometimes we lose track of Zohra, but Menon expertly pulls her back into the frame just in time. As the book moves through time, it also draws for us a picture of a changed Europe pre- and post-World War II. We also see a churning England, faced with the reality of embracing its former colonial subjects as bonafide British citizens. Zohra’s life choices place her across these changing environments, with a brief foray in Communist Russia and Eastern Europe as well. What Menon manages to do is paint a life that is both made by circumstances but also constantly making itself in those circumstances.Zohra’s background of privilege repeatedly places her within easy access of people holding power and possibility. Menon takes pains to point out however that Zohra’s life cannot be seen as merely circumstantial. “Look closely,” she writes, “and you realise that at every stage she carved out her own path, making the most of the small, mixed opportunities that came her way.”Also read: In Sally Rooney’s Latest Novel, Love Leaps Over All ObstaclesIn an interview with Githa Hariharan, Menon describes her book as an attempt at a ‘feminist biography’. This approach enables her to tell Zohra’s life story as a unique interplay of social context and active personal choices, highlighting the collectivity of her experiences as well as the particular path she carves out for herself. In each ‘Scene’ of Zohra’s life, Menon expands on the world Zohra finds herself inhabiting and simultaneously foregrounds Zohra’s agency, courage and grit. She underlines how Zohra takes decisions that feel right to her without regard for convention, the financial responsibility that rests on her shoulders for much of her life as a married and later single mother, her awareness of what she wants or needs and her dogged pursuit of it. She brings out too Zohra’s driving love of work, and her profound commitment to her profession, which plays out not only in the major decisions she makes but also in the way she lives the daily-ness of her life. This ‘attempt at a feminist biography’ makes the book a rich, layered read.What the reader will not get from the book, however, is an insight into Zohra’s emotional life. This is perhaps because of who Zohra was and how she handled her life – Menon indicates this, and it is missing in the first two biographies on Zohra as well. Very personal circumstances in the book are acknowledged, alluded to, but not delved into – the writer veers away, almost as if respecting the subject’s wishes.The one lacuna in the book – a lacuna common to many books on artists, and perhaps unavoidable here as the book was published posthumously – is that we do not get a sense of the relationship of the artist to her art, beyond an acknowledgment of her love for it. In Zohra’s case, we get to know of her professionalism and the rigour she follows towards her practice. But though Menon says in the very first page ‘can one separate the dancer from the dance?’, for the reader who has not seen Zohra perform either as dancer or actress on the live stage, this book will not help to imagine the specifics of what she brought to the stage. The archival memory of her performance will sadly remain enshrined in the films she has done, which though they made her a star, do not reflect the scope of her performative brilliance – as Menon herself acknowledges in the book.Also read: Book Review | Inside Banaras: Honeyed, but TangerineAll in all, Zohra! is a compelling read. Menon’s language is easy and flowing, she evokes times and places and experiences masterfully. Each ‘Scene’ and ‘Act’ immerses you in a different way, and you change location and experience with them, quite like the theatre. There’s something special in it for the arts-curious, the theatre lover, for women looking to define their own lives, for those who enjoy history, for Zohra lovers certainly, and for those who just enjoy a good read.There are two great family trees (father’s side and mother’s side) that kick off the book with a small but diverse selection of lovely photographs. Sources that inform the book include a variety of books and articles on Zohra and the contexts she lived in, correspondence between her and her family and colleagues, and first person interviews with people who have been co-travellers in her life. This last is an invaluable addition generated by Menon. These are voices, voices, voices of so many people that Zohra lived, worked and interacted with, and welcomed into her home while cooking up a storm – this aspect of the research for the book perhaps gives the greatest sense of the expansiveness of Zohra’s spirit, and the wonderful universe of people that she traversed her life with.Sameera Iyengar is a theatre person and creative producer.