'Farzi', 'Gulmohar' and the return of Amol Palekar to our screens

Amol Palekar

A man who works hard at his job but does not forget to bring tuberoses for his betrothed every time he visits her. She is distracted by her first love, and is still fascinated by his flash and glib talk. But it’s the fragrance of the flowers that permeates through the film, making you believe that gentleness in life matters. That persistent, constant lover in Rajnigandha (1974), is Amol Palekar.

He’s shy, and self effacing. He’s a little confused by the attention he’s getting from the village teacher Pitambar Chaudhary’s family, but he puts it down to the decency of village folk and repays them by teaching their daughter Geeta how to sing. Geeta who usually runs around wild, stealing mangoes with her little accomplice is tamed by music and falls in love with the shy lad. Turns out he’s not the engineer that her sister had match-made, but a junior overseer. The family wasted their attention! But all’s well that ends well. This shy guy, in Chitchor (1976), is Amol Palekar.

An older man who has lusted after Usha since she was a little girl, a family hanger-on who brings her to Bombay to make her into a star, then lives off her money, insulting her at the smallest pretext, using their daughter as a tool to blackmail Usha into staying, taunting her, "Naak ragadtee huyi waapas aaogi!" As Keshav Dalvi stares at Usha, you will be haunted by his big eyes framed by dark circles. That is Amol Palekar in Bhumika (1977).

A hesitant Tony Braganza is horrified to discover that his mother has been chattering away throughout the movie with his girlfriend’s mother. Tony and Nancy have met in the local train and their everyday commute has blossomed into love. The Mumbai local train where even today friendships are forged, and indeed the city where the duo wanders about is Basu Chatterjee’s love letter to the city, Baton Baton Mein (1979). Is Tony Braganza capable of fulfilling family obligations and expectations and marrying his sweetheart, or will he give in to his managing mother? That Bandra boy, the suburban example, that true representative of a community that’s trying really hard to keep its culture alive is Amol Palekar.

"With a name like Bhavani Shankar, the man must be born old! Oi Gardener! Go call the old man. Tell him Lucky is here," says the clean-shaven young man, dressed in a red printed shirt, with a swagger. The horror of the older man mistaken for a gardener is a comedy that is unforgettable. Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma is an ordinary man who dresses in a kurta and jacket to an interview and waxes poetic about the manliness associated with a moustache, spins a web of lies to hide the fact that he went for a game… This funny double role of Ram and Lakshman is performed by Amol Palekar in Gol Maal (1979).

Amol Palekar, an art school graduate, who worked at a bank, stumbled into theatre when the theatre doyen Satyadev Dubey spotted him (mostly hanging out at rehearsals) and asked him if he wanted to be in the spotlight. Amol Palekar made a strong debut in the Marathi play Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1967). It’s a play where actors reach early to perform their play at a small venue and their conversation about life soon escalates into character assassinations and value judgements. Amol Palekar realised that he needed to start his own theatre company and do things his way. The company Aniket performed not only in formal locations such as a theatre, but wherever there was space available: in garages and gardens, too. Amol Palekar created a niche for this avant-garde approach to theatre with his successful production of Sadanand Rege’s Gochee following up with Chal Re Bhoplya Tunuk Tunuk, among others.

Film directors such as Basu Chatterjee, Basu Bhattarcharya and Hrishikesh Mukherjee used to watch plays and "discovered" the Everyman in Amol Palekar. While Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna each brought his own brand of stardom to Bollywood, there was a huge, vacant space for the Everyman. There were stories to be told about the good guy who tried to live a life of calm and faced his daily struggles with a head bowed down. Yes, he had romance in his life. He is Arun, in Chhoti Si Baat (1976), left paying the bill at a restaurant while the flashy Nagesh interrupted his supposed date with Pratibha ("Make sure you come to the restaurant at one, or else it gets too crowded," he had told her over the phone). Filmmakers wanted to tell chhoti si baat, the little affairs of everyday life, in their stories and Amol Palekar told it the best. You are the protagonist of your life, we are told, but we are more often Arun in our life than we are Bachchan's angry young man who beats up the bullies.

The Hindi film industry told tales of revenge on the big screen and the common man lapped it up, imagining themselves to be Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan). But there was a huge space for stories like that of Sudeep (Palekar) and Chhaya (Zarina Wahab) who save money and invest in a home only to find that the builder has absconded with the money. These stories are so timeless that people are still telling tales of a Gharaonda (The Nest, 1977), the dream to build one's own nest and dreams shattered by big builders who dupe the common man. These were our stories, in stark reality, told on the big screen, that made us, the common man, felt seen and heard.

Amol Palekar made this Everyman come alive on the screen. And just when he should have embraced his successes (like Ayushman Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao have been today), Palekar quit acting and concentrated on directing movies. There too, the spotlight followed him. His debut Marathi film Akriet (1981) and Hindi film Daayraa (1996) are critical successes. Paheli (2005), starring Shah Rukh Khan, was India’s entry at the Oscars. Palekar’s foray into creating television shows like Kachchi Dhoop (1987), Mrignayani (1991), Paool Khuna (1993), among others, have received accolades from the critics as well as the audiences.

My personal favourite though is his brilliant documentary about an unusual personality called Bhinna Shadja (2013). Kishori Amonkar’s voice is unique and no Indian classical music lover can deny that she brought her own brand of fire to her performances. For every concert where she showed up late or was angry at the audiences for whispering during the performance, Kishori Amonkar’s near-flawless music made every bit of the drama worthwhile. To be able to capture every expression, minutest nuance of this unusual artiste is a feat that cannot be replicated.

But would you be Amol Palekar if you rested on your laurels? The man has had not one but seven art exhibitions and when you see him on Amazon Prime’s show Farzi, you are forced to acknowledge that there’s still the scintilla vitae, spark of life, in the man. Palekar plays grandpa to Shahid Kapoor and he is so good, we are as invested in saving the printing press as much as his grandson in Farzi. Plus, there’s Gulmohar, a film that will soon show up on Disney+ Hotstar where Palekar is part of a stellar cast including Sharmila Tagore, Manoj Bajpayee and Life of Pi actor Suraj Sharma.

We’ve barely begun to chronicle the journey of Amol Palekar as an artiste, and he’s irrepressible. Shows up as an old man in Farzi, but if you want to find him outwitting Utpal Dutt and romancing his daughter, google him and you’ll discover laughter and the travails of being Everyman. People have tried putting a label on him for years, and he’s just disappeared and reappeared in a new avatar every single time.