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The raconteur over tea

Farooque Sheikh chitchats on a tableaux of topics over chai and pakoras

THODI CHAI HO JAYE Farooque Sheikh enjoying his tea at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

Tea with steaming hot pakoras in wintry Delhi and no issue worth its salt to dissect at leisure, is just robbing off the very charm of the experience. But if it is veteran actor Farooque Sheikh, then pat off all your doubts about it to perhaps more than the proverbial forty winks as this fine raconteur has oodles to talk about. It does not always have to be a nice teatime natter. With a candour that is not just everyone's cup of tea, be it the shifting social norms, the return of the parallel cinema in the age of multiplexes, whether films need to have a social message after all, his plays, his possible homecoming to the silver screen or the rasping long nights in his "remote tribal village" in Gujarat in this telly age, or even in naming the favourites when it comes to choosing food, he has a clued-up spectacle of all.

In a relaxed mood at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, donning a snow-white kurta with self-coloured Gujarati work on it, Farooque though begins by saying, "I hope this food column is not another Page 3 type. I have never enjoyed doing these things. A plain interview is better, isn't it?" Enters into the scene a cheerful waiter with a tray of tea, chicken pakoras and vegetable fritters in response to his request for "Ek cup garma garam chai bas". Soon the waiter pours a cupful of the brew for him. A sip and then another sip and next you know is the rolling on of an interesting conversation.

"Some years back, I was the last person to switch off the lights in my village in Gujarat. Going home once a month from Mumbai, I used to have long chats with ammi and then read a book till late in the night but now, it is different. Thanks to tele-serials, almost every house is awake," he nearly complains. Hailing from the entertainment industry, he should have been feeling good about a bigger base for actors but Farooque reasons, "These serials are too far from real life and so insipid but sadly, they are fast becoming the gospel for the small town viewers affecting not just their wardrobe but the very socio-moral value system."

Nibbling at vegetable fritters and chicken pakoras, his conversation takes a natural swerve towards our national broadcaster Doordarshan. "Doordarshan so far has been the most wasted medium. DD, which reaches the highest number of viewers across the country, is sadly following the trends thrown up by cable TV instead of showing a new path that it began with. It is time it gives producers and actors more artistic freedom to roll out something worth watching. I hope the recent change of guard in Doordarshan rectifies these mistakes," he comments.

Armed with a solid vocabulary in Urdu, Farooque, you soon learn, is a Gujarati much beyond his kurta. Some of his preferred fare is the Gujarati sweet dal, khandavi, handova and oondiya, he names.

"Give all these to me any day. Actually, I prefer to have a good home-made meal any day," he adds.

And cooking? "Not quite," he admits like a true blue Indian male smilingly, perhaps a tad proud of this disability.

Return to reels

Talking about films, he says, he might return "since parallel cinema too has returned to the halls as crossover films." And having seen him in movies like Chashme Buddoor, Kise Se Na Kehna, Saath Saath, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Katha, Umrao Jaan, Ek Pal... . you suddenly perk up.

"I am reading some scripts, might end up doing them," he shares. Meanwhile, what is keeping him busy is the stage.

"Tumhari Amrita" with Shabana (Azmi) has been very well received. I am now staging its sequel - `Aapki Sonia' with Sonali Bendre," he says.

Taking the last sip from his cup, Farooque concludes the conversation by bringing in a contrast between movies made yesterday and those being produced today: "Earlier some big people made memorable films and now, rich people make expensive films." The survival for an actor lies in finding a place between these parallels, he feels.

But if you fail? "Then don't work. Koi zabardasti hai kya?"

Well, must say, Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai.

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

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