Naseeruddin Shah is cheeky with a rather healthy dose of irreverence
Naseeruddin Shah
Mumbai: In 2002, Naseeruddin Shah said yes to a big-budget Hollywood film for two reasons: “I would get to meet Sean Connery, who I had long adored, and I was promised an amount of money which if not totally obscene was definitely pretty vulgar. So vulgar in fact that with a couple of weeks’ per diem I purchased a laptop and hired a man to teach me how to switch it on”.
Once he got the hang of it, he started typing, “I was born in...” But then he got bored, had self-doubt, went back to it, abandoned it again... and so it went on, his journey to writing his memoir, And Then One Day.
Released last week, the book, written in a chatty style that pulls the reader in immediately has already gone into second print. The first half of the book is about growing up with the overwhelming feeling of disapproval.
Though there was no physical violence, Shah says, “Disapproval is one of the most strong of the other kinds of violence where you feel that your whole, your existence is disapproved of, not just what you’ve done is disapproved of. YOU are disapproved of. I always felt like that with him.” Him being his father, Aley Mohammed Shah, an officer with the Provincial Service, whom he has since forgiven.
Shah ran away to Bombay, was found on the street by Dilip Kumar’s sister, and after spending a few quiet days at the thespian’s house, was packed off home. Then on to the National School of Drama in Delhi, film institute in Pune, sex, drugs, protests, a role in Nishant and, finally, becoming a reluctant member of the Hindi film industry. This part of his life runs on the two tracks of love and loathing love for theatre, loathing for Bollywood. He calls Bollywood awards “the annual orgy of mutual jerking-off”, is wickedly cruel even about people he likes, and lets us see his narcissism and moments of extreme selfishness.
When I met 64-year-old Shah at Delhi’s Oberoi hotel, I had enough time to ask him why his memoir gets over at the age of 32. But I didn’t. I was more interested in asking him, “How is sex on LSD?” He said, “Somehow on LSD it’s the last thing on your mind… because there’s so much else that’s going on in your head at that time. It seems like a very mundane thing in that state.”
Edited excerpts:
You mention many actors you admire in Hollywood, but you mention a total of 11 Indian actors somewhat complimentary. Dara Singh, Shammi Kapoor, Kishore Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Dilip Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Dev Anand, Mehmood, Yakub, Amitabh Bachchan, Pran all of them get backhanded compliments, except the 11th, Om Puri.
(Smiles) Because I owe Om too much. It’s not as if Om is without flaws. Om has in fact made a hash of his personal life, but that’s none of my business. And he’s also let himself go physically and that’s not a good thing. He’s not in good health and I worry about him. But I love him deeply. He’s been a friend for more than 40 years. I’m very concerned about him. And I wanted to put all this on record, the positive aspects of Om, what I gained from Om. So I didn’t want to, in any way, run him down.
You’ve said in interviews that there should be a law preventing many of Bollywood’s grossly overpaid stars from acting. What is the one most frustrating thing about Bollywood? Is it the star system, is it the stories, is it the way these stories are told...
The fact that making a good film is the last thing on anyone’s list of priorities. Making lots of money is the first priority, always. Making big news is the second priority. Packing them in on the first weekend is the third priority.
Who is acting in it, is the top priority. Then when they’ve got that actor on board, then a script is thought of. Now these things that have been going on for donkey’s years, and Bollywood has stayed afloat despite that. In fact, Bollywood is going from strength to strength. Toh who am I to knock it.
(With grand flourish) The whole world is watching Bollywood now.
Given your high taste (before I can finish)
My high taste, okay. Since you’ve made that sarcastic crack, I’ll tell you, one of my favourite Hindi films of all time is Teesri Manzil. Guide, Mughal-e-Azam and Teesri Manzil. I rate them all three together.
Okay.
Given your high taste, and your fine understanding of acting, and your pursuit of purity of acting, which you’ve written about, about its very interesting evolution but given all this, it must have been a bitch to live in Bombay, and work in Bombay. You never thought of Going abroad? No.
France, Germany, Japan?
No, never. I did think of England. I thought if studying drama in England before I went to the drama school here. But I didn’t have the resources to even go there to audition.
In the book you also bitch about FTII, you also bitch about...
Everybody. I’m a great bitch.
You also bitch about Saeed Mirza, parallel cinema. But you don’t bitch about theatre at all.
Hahahaha... I bitch about (Ebrahim) Alkazi. I bitch about (Polish theatre director) Grotowski.
That’s not bitching. That was complete insanity. It was like being at Osho ashram without sex.
Ya, completely. Insanity. And it was very scary and I got the hell out of there. Because I felt I was losing my bloody marbles.
Theatre, you see, I owe too much to theatre. I haven’t... I’ve bitched about Alyque Padamsee and his Tughlaq.
But that’s not about theatre. You have such reverence for theatre
I guess I do, ya, I guess I do. To me it is, it’s an activity that means perhaps a little more to me, it’s closer to my heart. I owe it more.I found myself due to theatre. I can also not tolerate a bad play.
You’ve described your journey to understanding, learning, even going to crazy-ass camps to learn acting. You’ve also discussed various styles of acting, and you enjoy teaching. So today, what is your commitment to acting, in Indian cinema?
To be a part of movies which I think will be remembered. In between, to make a fat amount of money as well, which is why I’m doing a film called Welcome Back. Shooting in Dubai, immediately after this. I’ve always balanced what I’ve wanted to do, my theatre work, my teaching work, my serious work with the odd commercial movie which helps my bank balance. So it’s the same now.
I very much want to be part of movies, which I think will be remembered. I am not really interested in the length of the part; I’m not interested in playing the great roles anymore. I want to be part of work, which I’ll enjoy and which will be remembered.
How were you in Finding Fanny?
(pause) I’m receiving a lot of compliments for my performance, but two very close friends of mine, who I’ve mentioned in the book, Asif and Jasdev Singh, both saw the film in London and they thought, “Theek hai yaar. It’s okay. But tumhara kaam bahut hi bura hai. Tumhein jhapar marne ko jee chah-raha tha... You were very irritating.”
Yaar, everybody’s telling me “you were very loveable”.
“Koi lovable-vabeble nahin... Arre, come on, get on with it. How long are you going to keep on crying?”
They are people who know me very well, and they know I’m not at all that kind of a person. So something about that bugged them... there is perhaps something to that criticism.
What did you think, is what I’m asking.
I find it very tough to be objective about my own work in such a short span. I will probably be able to give you an opinion two years from now.
So you are happy with your performance in Finding Fanny, as of (I’m desperately controlling, holding my thought lest it slip out of my mind into my mouth)
Well, it was what the director wanted. I really, I really don’t know how to assess it. I think
I think you were crap.
Ya? Really? Why? No why? Tell me why.
Well, you played him like a retard.
But it was written like that.
He was a simple man in a mythical village. He wasn’t a retard... it was, what you said, “sentimental” acting. Like when you put your head on Deepika’s shoulder... Eewo.
Ya? See, a performance is a good performance if it serves the purpose of the script. If you analyse it separately, then that’s a different matter. So far all I know is that it has served the purpose of the script. I don’t kid myself when people say how cute and this and that. I don’t buy all that.
To be able to assess it myself, and thanks for saying this, because it really gives me a way to watch the movie a little more carefully and to see whether this quality that I’ve played helps or hinders the film.
You’ve describe yourself in the book as an arrogant, loud mouth, conceited, crabby bitch
That’s what other people call me, crabby bitch.
( Source : dc )
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