Just got better!
ZIYA US SALAM
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"Khosla Ka Ghosla" is making waves. "American Blend" is here. "Hope and a Little Sugar" just a bite away. There is plenty to choose from for Anupam Kher.
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Screening this coming Friday is "Hope and a Little Sugar", a Muslim-Sikh love story against the backdrop of 9/11.
Photo: N. Sridharan
GOLDEN PHASE Anupam Kher says for every film he does, he gives two thousand rupees to Mahesh Bhatt as guru dakshina. Bhatt launched Kher in his film, "Saaransh ".
He comes from a time when being gay meant happy. Another matter that more than a decade ago he etched out probably the first male homosexual character on the Hindi film screen in "Mast Kalander". Now, Anupam Kher is getting "Happy and Gay". A tentative title yet for his second directorial venture - "Om Jai Jagadish", his first failed for more than one reason - this film, the affable actor reveals has nothing to do with sexual predilections. "It has nothing to do with gay or any such thing. It is a working title. It will be a big canvas film. My script is ready, the cast is not finalised yet."
What is finalised, and ready for release is "Jaan-e-man", one of the big budget multi-starrers kissing the screen this Diwali-Eid. As also "American Blend".
"I play a dwarf in `Jaan-e-Mann'. People will be surprised by the naturalness of the character," Kher says, even as he prefers to talk of "Khosla Ka Ghosla", the long-delayed film that released across India this past week. "It is the kind of film that needs right marketing, right promotion. Honestly, we did not have a buyer initially. Then UTV came forward. The delay of a couple of years in releasing the film has helped. In the intervening period there is a separate niche for multiplex films. This film can capitalise on that. And the audience has become much more responsive to such films."
Wide acclaim
Fair enough. The film has opened to wide acclaim, and Kher is busy soaking in all of it. Indeed, it is probably the best phase of his more than two-decade long career. Long after being written off as a hamming actor in mainstream potboilers, Kher has come back, stronger, fitter, better. And proved his worth in the only way posterity can remember - sheer weight of performances. And versatility seems to be the new mantra for the man who began with "Saaransh", did "Daddy" and handful of others like "Karma" or lately "Aap Ki Khatir".
Last year on September 30, his award-winning "Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Maara" was released. The story of a Hindi professor, who is an Alzheimer patient, Kher won applause for his portrayal of Gandhiism. And now, just a little over a year after Jahnu Barua's film, he plays a dwarf in regular mainstream cinema. Now sandwich "Khosla Ka... " between the two and you have the complete picture of a man who gets into the skin of the character with the ease of a fish to water. Says Kher, "This is indeed the best phase of my career on the big screen. People call everybody versatile for playing two roles. Often those who evoke fear are worshipped in the industry. But I have been able to prove my worth with two diametrically different performances in `Maine Gandhi... ' and `Khosla Ka... ' over a period of a year or so."
But somewhere, isn't he taken for granted by the media and the audiences?
"Maybe true but I am in no hurry to impress people. I am at that stage of life when I don't have to prove anything to anybody. Personally, I am a little laidback. I have opened my own acting school, been busy with other responsibilities, even television," shares Kher. What he shies away from sharing is that he has not had the best of times with the powers that be during his stint as the Chairman, Central Board of Film Certification.
Being laidback has not stopped Kher from multi-tasking. Acting school and doing "Kuchh Khatti Kuchh Meethi" on Zee Smile, are not likely to keep Kher away from films. With "Khosla Ka... " out of the way and "Jaan-e-man" wrapped up, he is busy producing "Homeland" that is being directed by Ashok Pandit. "It is close to my heart. We get to tell a story here, the cause gets a conversation forum." Incidentally, "Homeland" is the story of Kashmiri Pandits in refugee camps in Jammu. Then there's "Gandhi Park" which Kher, is keen to clarify, "has nothing to do with Gandhiji".
"It is a cross-culture story of immigrants. The film's name comes from a park in New York."
Now add a "Vivah" or "Apna Sapna Money Money", and you would see the platter overflowing for the actor. So many different shades, so many different roles, so many different facets of cinema. For Kher though there is more to come. Screening this coming Friday is "Hope and a Little Sugar", a Muslim-Sikh love story against the backdrop of 9/11. Directed by Tanuja Chandra, the film is making ripples on the international circuit already. "It is an unconventional story," is all he is ready to say. Much the same way he talks of "American Blend" where he stars with the likes of Dee Wallace Stone and Kristin Erickson. Directed by Varun Khanna, Kher reveals, is another "cross-culture film". A story of a family's tribulations and triumph in Los Angeles, it too is likely to be released in a phased manner beginning this Friday.
He is all set to part but not before one is able to extract another gem from him. "For every film I do I give two thousand rupees to Mahesh Bhatt as guru dakshina. He goes and buys some books. This humble sum from my side is an acknowledgement of the break he provided me in `Saaransh'. It is part of a tradition, a parampara for me."
A parampara of versatility, a tradition of success, one may add. Reason to be gay. The traditional way, one may hasten to add.
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