Timeless Appeal of Salim Langde Par Mat Ro

The other day I was watching Saeed Akhtar Mirza's Salim Langde Par Mat Ro on YouTube. The movie was released in 1989, but the plot seemed eerily relevant to the present times of chest thumping and polarising debates on nationalism and the overwhelming tendency to wear patriotism on one's sleeve. 

Set in the backdrop of Bhiwandi riots in 1984 (a precursor to much more horrific 1992-93 Mumbai riots) the movie is about the life in a predominantly Muslim mohalla in central Bombay (as it was known then) or the mill districts (which have now gentrified into high street malls and corporate offices).

In the movie some social workers screen a documentary in that mohalla about the horrors of Bhiwandi riots and explain to them the perils to falling prey to the guile of communal forces. It strikes a chord among the local populace and stirs up a debate on communalism.

During one such discussion at a tea shop, owned by one Rahaman bhai (Ajit Vachani), Lala  (Achyut Potdar), a Hindu businessman cum wheeler dealer, says the documentary was all bakwas and misleading propaganda to incite people. He then goes on to blame the British for the Hindu-Muslim divide.

Vilasbhai (Ashok Banthia) a local thug interjects 'the Brits left long ago, but now why this strife'. To which the Lala replies that it is because some people are not patriotic enough. Then he points to the paanwala, sitting in a kiosk next to the tea shop. The bashful paanwala modestly replies that he is too busy making both ends meet to think of deshbhakti.

Just then Rahman bhai asks Lala, 'Are you patriotic?'. 'Of course' replies Lala proudly. Then Rahman bhai asks, "How? By selling smuggled goods, selling essential commodities in black market, pushing gullible women into flesh trade." The Lala dismissively laughs an says, "What Rahaman bhai tum bhi na."

Just then Vilasbhai interjects, "what Rahman Bhai said was correct". Then what follows is his tongue-in-cheek punchline, "Iss mulk mein desh bhakton ki lambi line lagi hai, kaahe to traffic jam karta hai" (In this country there is a long line of people claiming to be patriots, why are you creating a traffic jam!). 

Thus Mirza in this short clip very tellingly exposes the hollowness of the pseudo patriotism practised by Lala and his ilk in the society, which of late seems to be very much on the rise and is very much in your face - right from TV studios to cricket stadiums. It is a pity that he no longer makes such films.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Naseeruddin Shah Unplugged

Finished reading And Then One Day A Memoir, by Naseeruddin Shah. Like his incisive performances on screen and stage the book too has been written with uncanny frankness. It is a no holds barred take on his life and also on the film industry. He takes nothing seriously, including himself.

Probably the first film of Naseeruddin Shah I saw was Manthan and I was in high school. While watching the movie I totally missed Naseer and didn’t realise he was in it. The movie was one of those early offering from what came to be later known as ‘arthouse’ cinema.

I could make out Girish Karnad (having seen him Swami earlier and he was one of those few men wearing shirt and trousers in the film) and Smita Patil, as I had seen her photo in some film magazine, the rest of the cast I totally missed out. I thought they were real cowherds from Rajasthan or Gujarat and realized many days later through some film magazine that Naseer was one among them!

In his memoirs he mentions that during the shooting of Manthan he used to stay in cowherd’s costume for the whole day, sleep on the floor and learned to bathe and milk a buffalo!

As I was brought up on a regular diet of formulaic Hindi ‘masala’ films with larger than life heroes with drop dead looks and heroines with distinct hour glass figure and aadarsh Bharatiya naari character, to me Manthan looked staid, weirdly disturbing, incomprehensible and somewhat amusing. How could someone make a film on lowly cowherds? Their pronunciation of ‘society’ as sissotti evoked lots of classroom banter, especially during Civics classes, when this particular word used to frequently crop up.
 
It is not that mainstream cinema did not have working class heroes. In fact Bollywood has always celebrated the triumph of the underdog, but in case of actors assaying those roles their starry mannerisms often came in the way. An Amitabh Bachchan may be a dock worker in Deewar or coal miner in Kaala Patthar, but the swagger and halo of superstar remained. On the other hand guys like Naseer or Om Puri quite literally got into the skins of characters such as cowherds and rickshaw pullers, as if they have been living it all their lives.

……

Although Shah’s father was not prosperous, he was a dyed in wool brown sahib who never left home without his hat “even in a one-tractor town like Sardhana”. In order to ensure that his three sons got the best public school education, he sent all of them to St Joseph’s School in Nainital. Naseer later went there to shoot for the movie Masoom.

Though he was not a good student and hated school, he was lucky enough to get early exposure to best of Hollywood movies. He got to see the likes of Orson Welles and Spencer Tracy, at a time when his contemporaries elsewhere in India were getting hooked to the brain dead ‘two hanky family and social drama’ of Hindi films.

……
 
Naseer's own life reads like a script of Anurag Kashyap or Sudhir Mishra movie. He lost virginity at 15, got married at 19 to Purveen Morad, a Pakistanin woman nearly 15 years his senior. He met her while doing his graduation at Aligarh Muslim University. He smoked grass and was quite hooked on to it, wonder when he came out of it. He even survived a knife attack from his friend turned foe Jaspal. Shyam Benegal and his wife took care of him while he was in hospital.

His first marriage has some parallels to his role in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. He was busy building up his acting career and family life took a hit. Anyway at nineteen he was no way ready to start a family. The couple drifted apart and they had a daughter from that marriage.

More than a decade later in 1982 he got married to Ratna Pathak Shah. Before getting married the couple had to surmount lots of family obstacles as they happened to be from different faiths. Moreover Ratna's family was strict vegetarian. Thankfully terms like love jihad had not come into existence back then.

Ratna was a steadying influence in his life and after marriage managed his house and finances very well. Probably in the book she is the only person whom he treats with some reverence!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat