On Naseeruddin Shah's 75th Birthday, Ketan Mehta Says, 'Love You Brother'

Naseeruddin Shah and Ketan Mehta’s friendship dates back to their FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) days in Pune. During those “crazy two years”, the fellow students even went on a strike together. “The acting students were demanding that student-directors be forced to cast them in their institute films. Naseer and I would smoke together, have fun together, then, since I was studying direction and he acting, join the protesting groups, on opposite sides,” the filmmaker guffaws.

After graduating from the institute, Ketan took a leap of faith, and with a loan of Rs 3.50 lakh from the Film Finance Corporation (later NFDC), started a Gujarati film, Bhavni Bhavai. Since he had no money, he approached his FTII friends, and Naseer, Om Puri and Smita Patil worked without monetary compensation, even sleeping on mattresses on the terrace of the old haveli in Gujarat where they shot without any complaints. “We even set up a Film Cooperative Society in Ahmedabad to help with the production and everyone contributed. We were the first post-Independence generation, and there was the eagerness to contribute to a new kind of cinema, the belief that we could redesign India as a nation,” he recounts.

Bhavni Bhavai is a 1980 historical costume drama, set in the 1940s, and based on a Gujarati folk story. A mix of folklore and contemporary relevance, with a comic book treatment, Ketan needed an open mind to grasp the complexities of the script and showcase it effectively on screen. Having done plays with him before, he was confident of Naseer, who had impressed everyone with his range and versatility, and approached him for King Chakrasen.  

“In my opinion, Naseer is the first modern actor in Indian cinema. Trained at NSD (National School of Drama) and FTII, he had a wide exposure to world literature, cinema and theatre, and was up to date on all developments in these mediums. Like Om (who plays Malo Bhagat, the narrator) and Smita (gypsy girl Ujam), Naseer reacted with a “let’s do it”. All three were extremely supportive of a young filmmaker trying to make his first film,” Ketan says gratefully.

Being outsiders to Bombay (now Mumbai), and the torchbearers of the ‘New Wave’ in Indian cinema in the ’70s and ’80s, the trio was open to experimenting even though they didn’t know Gujarati. “They learnt their lines early, understood the nuances of the language, and with their passion for cinema and love for me made Bhavni Bhavai happen,” he adds emotionally.

The film was screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art festival, in London at the New Indian Cinema festival. and bagged the UNESCO Club Human Rights Award at the Three Continents Festival in Nantes. “I didn’t have money to travel abroad, but I attended the National Awards. It won two awards. Even after 45 years, we are all proud of the film,” he beams.

Naseer, Om, Deepti Naval and Dr. Shreeram Lagoo also did cameos for free in Ketan’s next film the following year, the experimental Holi, starring newcomers Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker and Amole Gupte. “It was shot at the FTII campus and completed in just 18 shots, with actors even singing songs in sync sound. An act of bravado or maybe madness!” the director chuckles.

He had just finished Holi when NFDC cleared the script and agreed to produce Mirch Masala. On a recce in Gujarat, Ketan learnt that the chilly season would be over in three months. Unwilling to wait a year for the peppers, integral to the narrative, he rushed back to Bombay. “All his actors juggled their dates to make this film happen too,” he shares.

Naseer not only got into his costumes, but also the mind space and time frame of the villainous subedar, making Sarkar come alive on screen. Ketan recalls the scene where he turns hysterical over a broken record, but then controls his murderous rage to get another record and play it on the gramophone, leaving the villagers awestruck. “He contributed so much to the character and his idiosyncrasies,” he applauds.

Ketan admits that when he approached Naseer for Hero Hiralal, he wasn’t expecting him to agree to play the Hyderabadi auto rickshawallah who’s an obsessive fan of a Bollywood starlet. “It came immediately after Mirch Masala and the critics lambasted me for moving towards popular cinema, but I thought a man dying for love was a great metaphor, and the idea of him doing so before a live audience, very futuristic,” he argues.

It was a challenge for Naseer too, to do a realistic period drama, Junoon, alongside a surreal satirical romcom, Hero Hiralal. “He played the hero with a pinch of salt,” Ketan smiles, recalling Hiralal on the floor, picking up what he has dropped, when he sees Sanjana Kapoor’s Roopa for the first time, upside down.  “Naseer was very uncomfortable, but I stood my ground. We fought and packed up. But the next day, he returned, prepared, and sailed through. He couldn’t be a singer, but he’s a phenomenal actor and human being, passionately in love with cinema and theatre, who has inspired many actors, from Shah Rukh Khan to Irrfan Khan.”

After Hero Hiralal, they wanted to do a scifi, but it didn’t materialize. Ketan made very few films thereafter while Naseer gravitated towards mainstream cinema for a while. “Perhaps he was frustrated. An actor wants to be loved by as many people as possible and unfortunately, for various reasons, new wave cinema could not reach a larger audience. So, when the opportunities came by, Naseer grabbed them,” he reasons.

Is a reunion possible with the actor still standing tall? “I haven’t made a film in five years, but never say never. He’s an actor in the true sense,” Ketan says.

Meanwhile, on his 75th birthday, he wants to tell Naseer, “Love you brother!”