ABBAS SAHAB KO GUSSA KYOON AATA THA ? By - Ali Peter John

Standing before him on one more Sunday morning , i think about the way he couldn't take lies from anyone, big or small ..... Ali Peter John

He couldn't tolerate anyone who came late after making an appointment with him , so what if it was a governor , a powerful minister, an ambassador of a country, a union leader or the chairman of a bank .

He could send back even his friends and relatives if they came to meet him later than the time he had given to them.

Some stupid people didn't like him for this sense of discipline he had , but he never changed till the very end.

He could walk up the five floors to his office in haste even with a broken leg if he by some circumstances felt he could be late to keep and appointment, even if it was with a sweeper who wanted to tell him about the problems the sweepers of Bombay were facing and once he was convinced with what the sweeper said , he went out of is way to see that justice was done to the community.

He had made his most difficult to make film , "Shehar Aur Sapna " in which he had portrayed the realities of life in a city like Bombay.

He showed a poor couple played by Dilleep Raj , ( the son of the veteran actor P. Jairaj who was besides being an actor also a very good friend who shared his love for books with Abbas Sahab ) and Surekha.

All was well till the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr Morarji Desai heard about the scenes with the couple living in empty concrete pipes which were to be used for the building of the upcoming space of Maharashtra.

Desai who was never happy about anything wanted to ban the film because of these scenes because he said it was the imagination of Abbas Sahab and not the reality.

Abbas Sahab who had already completed the shooting of " Shehar Aur Sapna" had done his homework before starting shooting and had even taken photographs.

When he heard about Moorarji Desai thinking of banning the film , he challenged the powerful Chief Minister to drive with him around Bombay and he would show him more shocking scenes.

Desai refused to accept his challenge and all kinds of problems were created for Abbas Sahab , who finally got the film released and also won him the National Award for the best film.

He couldn't take any nonsense from politicians with malicious motives and i know of several politicians who tried their best to buy him off , but u have seen him driving such politicians out of his office and not allowing them to come anywhere near his simple one room house at Philomena Cottage which was owned by a Goan Christian family who were honoured to have him as their tenant and charged him a monthly rent of hundred rupees till the end of his life.

I saw him at his angriest best when received a call from Sanjay Gandhi , the spoilt and almost cruel son of Mrs Indira Gandhi about whom Abbas Sahab had written a book called "Return Of The Red Rose" ( he was an admirer of Jawaharlal Nehru who had found time to watch his film "Munna" from the beginning to the end when he was the Prime Minister).

I was sitting in the chair opposite him when that call came from Delhi and i could see Abbas Sahab flaring up and his face going red as he talked and his final words to Sanjay Gandhi were, " you are a spoiled brat.

You can do whatever you want , but i will not even think of accepting your orders " and he banged the phone and continued writing.

It was only after he had finished what he was writing that he told me about what had transpired between him and "that useless and worthless son of Indira Gandhi who is out to destroy her with his dictatorial ways".

Raj Kapoor was in a financial crisis after Mera Naam Joker and had taken to heavy stinking. One afternoon , he walked up to Abbas Sahab's office with his right hand man , Harish Bibra and tried to touch the feet of Abbas Sahab who sprang out of his steel chair and screamed at the great showman and said , ye sab natak kisi aur jagah karna.

Aur yaad rakhna , aaj main tumhe samjaata hoon ki ye mera office hai aur yahaan main kaam karta hoon.

The showman bowed his head and joined both his hands and apologised to Abbas Sahab , but nothing could change the mood of Abbas Sahab , but he asked the showman to come back the next day without drinking and he would listen to him.

The result of the meeting between the two giants and best friends was the script of "Bobby " which changed the fallen fortunes of the great Raj Kapoor and his empire, R K Studios . Later , when Bobby was released and was a big hit , Abbas Sahab in one of his better moods told me , " you know, if i had directed Bobby , it would have been a very big flop . It takes a Raj Kapoor to give that magic touch to a script ".

On the personal front , Abbas Sahaab"s voice when he lost his temper could reach the ground floor and beyond and all those like me who loved him, we knew that his anger was just a short season which could end in a few moments if one had the patience to wait for his anger to pass over and for him to be the same smiling and caring Abbas Sahab he was.

It was one of his birthdays and for the first time he was having a small party for his friends at his Philomena Cottage home.

It was naturally a " dry party " with the highlights only being some very good non veg food.

But we his young admirers wanted to celebrate his birthday with a couple of drinks. Tinnu Anand who was brought up by Abbas Sahab and was his assistant director and actor once in a way , came up with an idea.

He got the door of Abbas Sahab's garage opened and asked us to get in and he shut the door.

A bottle of whiskey was the main decoration in that garage. We were delighted to have a great time with the best whiskey which was organised by Tinnu who was the richest assistant of all of us .

We were still in a great mood when the large wooden door of the garage suddenly opened.

It was Abbas Sahab himself pulling the door open and we were all sure that we would get a tongue - lashing from the angry old man . But the anger was not so severe.

He just said, "arre bavqoofon , aise darr darr ke kyoon pee rahe ho . Peena hai toh mere ghar mein aur mere saamne baith kar peeyo " and when we walked out of that garage, the whiskey had lost both its taste and its nasha and within minutes we were all sitting at the dinner table with him on relishing kebabs , biriyani and other delicious items of food, topped by caramel custard pudding , all prepared by his sister who took very good care of him , without really knowing how great her brother was .

PS As i was walking away from the plaque, i could see his home which has for some strange reasons been locked over since that dark morning when he died.

Nothing has changed , the landlord and his wife are both dead and some members of their family are living there and in all my visits to pay my respects to Abbas Sahab , i have not even seen them once.

And that garage is still there as a witness to that evening when Tinnu Anand , me and some other young men tried to turn it into an "adda".