Age no bar for this Shoukeen
RANA SIDDIQUI
|
He is a master cutter who found himself tailor-made for films. A.K. Hangal looks back on a varied career.
|
`In my forthcoming film Paheli I am playing a chooriwala (bangle seller). So I get to hold young girls' hands,' he says with a mischievous smile.
"I am quite `Shoukeen' you know." These remarks are not from a young actor but are the hallmark of an old actor with a young heart: A.K Hangal, the grand old man of Indian cinema and theatre, who is touching 90. "If I tell you my age, you will not talk to me," he tries to evade the query.
He is in New Delhi to lend his views on Helpage India's documentary on senior citizens, "Ye Kahan Aa Gaye Hum".
Relaxing at The Great Kebab Factory at Noida, Hangal enjoys reminiscing about his life's adventures, his hometown Sialkot, his participation in the freedom movement, tenure as Chairman of the Indo-Soviet Association, meetings with policy makers, IPTA days and the films he loved to work in. All this over wine and food.
Reciting Urdu couplets at the drop of a hat, nostalgically flipping through the pages of his autobiography, "Life and Times of A.K. Hangal", published by Sterling in 1999, the veteran actor guides one through its important passages and pictures that bear testimony to a life lived with pride and dignity.
"I was offered the role of Sardar Patel in director Tom Clegg's film `Mountbatten - The Last Viceroy' (1984). Indira Gandhi had seen Richard Attenborough's `Gandhi' and did not like the portrayal of Patel in that. She asked the producer of `Mountbatten... ' to introduce the actors to her. After meeting actors playing Gandhi to Nehru, she saw me. I could make out a question in her eyes. I said to her, `Don't worry. I will do a good job.'
She smiled with satisfaction and said, `I have no doubts. I have seen you in many films.' I can never forget that moment," recalls the veteran nostalgically.
Otherwise hale and hearty, he walks with some difficulty. "During the shooting of `Lagaan', I fell and had a slipped disc. I had to use a belt throughout the film. Because of this, my role was reduced by half."
Freedom fighter
A Kashmiri Pandit, Hangal belongs to a family of freedom fighters. "For long I didn't know that my grandfather Shambhunath Pandit was the first Indian judge of the Bengal High Court. When I went to Kolkata, I found that he was given the status of a demi-god there. It was mesmerising," says Hangal, who worked as courier boy in Bhagat Singh's group during his childhood - "out of choice," he emphasises. "After I did my Matric (High School) in 1933, my father took me to a company for a job. But I refused, not wanting to serve the British. To support myself, I learnt tailoring. I worked so well at it that I became the highest paid cutting master in Peshawar. I used to get Rs.500 as salary," he recalls.
This staunch follower of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan came to India after Partition. "I was passionately inclined towards acting and had heard about IPTA in India. I wanted to start IPTA In Pakistan, but my friends told me, `You believe in secularism and you are in a minority here. You are so sensitive too. You will not be able to do what you want here.' So I came to India, and after a long gap became the IPTA Chairman in Mumbai."
He was "dragged into films" by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, says Hangal. "He saw me in plays and came to me with the offer of a cinema role. His Guddi was my first break in films." After that, Hangal never looked back.
Not that he doesn't regret his contribution to the nation still going unrecognised.
"See what kind of people get Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan these days. Someone asked me once `aapko award dilwa dein?' I felt terrible. Is this the way for the Government to work?"
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
