1 Acting in highly acclaimed, award-winning films is a thing of the past for this five-time National Award recipient. For every Ankur that she has acted in, there has been a disastrous Tehzeeb and for every Arth that she has been lauded for, there has been an Umrao Jaan (2007).Of late, the actress has hardly been seen in any quality film, save for an appearance in the otherwise young film Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. which, too, was rather a weird setting, and the low-budget Loins of Punjab Presents. Her future projects do not look very promising.

2 Lack of films has meant Shabana Azmi has taken to television with a vengeance. Switch on any talent hunt show, and chances are that you will spot Shabana staring at you from the screen. From playing the guest judge on Indian Idol 3 and STAR Voice of India, she has now graduated to being a permanent judge on Sahara One’s curiously-spelt Jjhoom India in which she has the insufferable Mahesh Bhatt for company. On Indian Idol, she picked a fight with co-judge Anu Malik. On Jjhoom India, she gives the contestants serious competition as far as cheap dramatics is concerned. And yes, she cries along with them too. The only place you are acting seriously, Ms Azmi. Isn’t it sad for an actor whose name is pronounced in the same breath as Smita Patil' In fact, when she was around, you got the meatier roles — always.

3 In her early years, she was one of the most elegantly turned out actors. But post the Khalid Mohammad directed Tehzeeb, in which she played an over-the-top actress past her prime, Shabana’s dress sense seems to have sagged. Loud makeup, garish clothes and obnoxious hairstyles is what the lady has been sporting of late. She should also stop posing for photographs — in her heavy silks and brocades, she looks like a cross between a Mumbai socialite and a moth-eaten Mughal princess. Her neckpieces, in particular, look like embellished dog collars.

4 From global warming to globalisation. From population control to peer pressure. The lady has an opinion on just about everything under the sun. Taking her role of a social activist a tad too seriously, Shabana tends to go overboard on most occasions. “I am a daughter, a wife, a mother, a woman, an actress, an Indian and a Muslim. Each of these identities is important to me,” is what she mouths in all of her interviews. She needs to hire a script writer soon. Husband Javed Akhtar would have done, but as another spokesperson for every cause, he needs to hire one for himself first. The couple needs new scripts especially when they talk of communal divide in the country.

5 This is what she has to say about herself: “The trouble is that I can never keep quiet.” We have no choice but to offer her VRS.