In the many tributes made in the aftermath of Satish Shah’s passing, the one aspect which I found missing were the three cult horror-comedy films which Satish Shah was part of by the Ramsay Brothers: Purana Mandir (1984), Veerana (1988) and Purani Haveli (1989). There is a lot of talk of the Maddock Horror Universe nowadays, but as everyone from my generation will vouch for, these were the OG horror-comedy films. Take Purana Mandir, for example, made on a budget of Rs 2.5 lakh; the movie collected a total gross of Rs 2.5 crore, standing second that year only to Amitabh Bachchan’s Sharaabi.
Then there was Purani Haveli, centred around a bunch of friends who visit an abandoned mansion in a rural area, which is obviously haunted. In it, Satish plays a double role. On one hand, he is the jovial Mangu and is working for Deepak Parashar, who is a photographer; on the other, he is playing the dreaded, bumbling dacoit, Kala Gangu. As Mangu, he breaks into impromptu mimicry every now and then—sometimes as Raj Kapoor, and at other times as Rajesh Khanna from Anand (1971). Later, as he takes his camera and tours the haunted haveli for photographs, he keeps commenting on the faces of the animal murals displayed on the walls, passing comments first on a deer, saying, “Iski toh badi badi Sridevi jaisi ankhein hai,” and then, “Dara Singh jaise seengh hai,” for a horned deer. And then leading us to a horror-comic moment, when, as he copies a mix of Dev Anand and Rajesh Khanna, a scared Satish realises that the huge devil statue seems to have come to life and is following him.
Dacoit Mangu actually happens to be his brother, who got lost in the Kumbh Mela, and mimics Dilip Kumar and sings Love to Love You Baby (1975), the song by American singer Donna Summer, as he prepares to take a bath in a lake, wearing probably the most gigantic underwear you have ever seen on screen.
On the other hand, in Purana Mandir, he had played a darker role, that of Sanga, a woodcutter who later gets possessed by the spirit of the demon Saamri. A few years ago, when I had spoken to him, Satish had talked about his experience working with the Ramsay Brothers, saying that although people put them in the C-grade category, he really enjoyed working with them.
Veerana saw him return to the comic avatar, playing Hitchcock, dressed in a Sherlock Holmes–style black jacket and cap. The most memorable of his scenes from that movie being when he is trapped inside a jail cell with an evil giant. All these movies are available on YouTube, and some on Amazon Prime, so if you want to understand what made Satish Shah such a lovable actor, add them to your watchlist. Till then, Happy Halloween.
