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One is always wary of an autobiography, a memoir, even a personal blog. While fiction offers the solace that some thinking and craft must have gone into it, a memoir induces a formless terror that the whole thing might just go on and on vacuously. Naseeruddin Shah addresses this fear head-on early in his memoir where he states '......I begin to wonder why I am writing it at all. Is this a story worth telling?''
Well, it is.
Shah exhibits a surprisingly lively literary flair. Surprising, because one was not really expecting him to suddenly emerge as a gifted raconteur, which Naseer most definitely is. One recognizes the blunt, no-bullshit honesty and the scathing sense of humour, but the surprise is in the literary style, pleasantly uplifting with some wonderful observations told with an original turn of phrase.
For any one who has been to boarding school, the school memories will evoke a sharp recognition. Moving away from one's parents, learning to fend for one's self, and compulsory letters home that always began ` Dear Mom and Dad. I am well and happy. Hope you are well and happy too....' The excitement of the movies shown and the indescribable boredom of everything else, except cricket and the school plays are evocatively remembered. His first entry on stage is very well recounted, and will have all actors light up with a flash of recognition.
Naseer's early childhood memories have the patina of fading history, of an earlier time, evoking not just one family but a whole way of life, a civilizational ethos. Sharply-etched memories of his major influences in school end in a magnificent tribute to Geoffrey Kendall.
Honesty to the point of lacerating self-indictment underlies his recollection of his first marriage. But through it all is a magnificent obsession and assurance of his destiny as an actor. His reverence for Ebrahim Alkazi, the erstwhile NSD (National School of Drama) Guru, does not prevent him from a critical appraisal of his strength and his weakness.
NSD is followed by his training at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Actors will find this section insightful - the realisation that he hasn't learnt anything, the discovery that there is a craft behind the art, the necessity of working on one's self, taking an assertive charge of the self, and a search for deeper answers.
The FTII experience segues into his first film, 'Nishant'. It is an exciting time in Hindi cinema when the moronic technicolour stupidity of our conventional narratives is challenged by a new sensibility, more real, accompanied by sweat and dust and a rootedness confronting the artificial fantasy of song and dance. Some of the most interesting characterisations in Hindi film history follow; the priest in 'Godhuli', the shepherd from 'Paar', the STD infected slum-dweller of 'Chakra', the football player from 'Situm', the mad King of 'Bhavni Bhavai', the blind Principal from 'Sparsh', the village idiot of 'Mandi', the apologetic blackmailer from 'Bezubaan'...however, the new wave now seems more like a flashing comet that blazed by, leaving just a few dying sparkles.
A moving closure with his father is recounted next. It's real, it's personal, it's a memory, yes, but it's also well-written, literary, in a nice way.
An interesting analysis of his discomfort in playing a conventional hero in a conventional film follows; we are left guessing if it's due to an innate inability to play the larger-than-life hero of Hindi mainstream cinema, or due to an inability to be false to one's own idea of truth.
Then there's vintage Naseer.
'I began to loathe all competitive awards, particularly those which are an excuse for the film industry to indulge in its annual orgy of mutual jerking off.'
' ...a role model in the Hindi film industry has been hard to find except perhaps for the eccentric Mr Raaj Kumar...the way....he sent all Follywood on a flying fuck to the moon....'
The book ends with the formation of his theatre group Motley and his marriage to Ratna Pathak. The no-bullshit actor takes his readers on a personal journey, which is quite funny too. An enjoyable read.
The book is available on flipkart.com: http://www.flipkart.com/then-one-day-memoir-english/p/itmdzzs5zqfjy4f6
Shiv Subrahmanyam is an Indian actor and director who has worked in both theatre and film. He is an award-winning screenwriter and some of his best known screenplays include the films 'Parinda' (1989) directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and 'Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi' (2005), directed by Sudhir Mishra. His theatre credits include the play SNAPSHOTS FROM AN ALBUM, which he wrote and directed.
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