THE NO -NONSENSE NANA PATEKAR

THE ICONIC FIRST LINE OF A SONG,"EK MACHCHAR BHI ADMI KO HIJDAA BANA DETA HAI "
ISN'T IT SO MUCH LIKE WHAT CORONA VIRUS IS DOING TO THE WORLD TODAY ?

Ali Peter John

In the beginning, there was Kishore Kumar and then there was Raaj Kumar and the two were best known for their eccentricities and A time came when it was difficult to say who was more eccentric and at times even "dangerous "because of their eccentric behaviour and manner of talking . Who can forget the story about Kishore Kumar making a well-known producer like G.P.Sippy chase in a car from his bungalow ,"Gauri Kunj" in Juhu right upto Madh Island and then turning hostile and charging Sippy of harassing him , because he refused to accept that he was Kishore Kumar and Sippy had to drive back without meeting Kishore Or who can forget how he asked his entire shooting unit to gather at a location in Khandala to shoot for one of his films and did not report for the shooting till late evening and called his production controller to ask the unit to have a great time as he had no intention of shooting at all ?

There are hundreds of stories about Kishore's madness as some liked to call it , but those who knew him well (like this writer ) will vouch for the fact that the great all -rounder was a very intelligent and a sensitive man ,who didn't like being taken for a ride . And who can forget how Raaj Kumar got out of his car and took an auto to the Ajanta dubbing theatre , owned by Sunil Dutt, the only actor he held in high esteem ? Or how can one forget how he said he didn't like working with Prakash Mehra because he used a particular brand of oil in his hair or that he couldn't work with a cinematographer called G.Singh because he
scratched his beard or that he dressed up in clothes made of colourful curtain cloth and wore gold ear rings and how he sometimes got angry with the dialogue writers and tore the pages they wrote on into pieces in front of the unit and wrote his own dialogue ? I had the good fortune of being accepted as a friend by this genius of an eccentric man and I can again say that I have rarely met a more enlightened man like Raaj Kumar , whose favourite line to me was "Duniya mujhe paagal samjhtee hai , mein duniya ko murkh samjhta hoon, kya kare ,apna apna khayal hai ?"

In the nineties came Nana Patekar to add to this small but much talked about gang of eccentrics .Nana was an artist from the J.J. School of Art in Bombay .He was a back stage helper with eminent Marathi theatre personalities like Vijay Tendulkar , Vijaya Mehta,Dr Shreeram Lagoo , Amol Palekar and others and had got onto the stage because of an "accident "and the absence of an actor just before a performance could begin and then never looked back till he was recognized as one of the major actors of Marathi theatre .He had started working in Marathi films and had shot into the lime light with his gripping performance as a cold-bolded murderer in "
Maafichaa Saakshidaar ".

It was Smita Patil who brought him to Hindi films and he made a striking debut as a villain in B.R.Chopra's "Aaj ki aawaaz"which also had Smita as the female lead with Raj Babbar .It was to be the beginning of one of the most controversial and yet very successful careers in Hindi cinema.

Nana also excelled in films like "Ankush "and "Pratighaat ", both directed by N. Chandra , the onetime assistant director of Gulzar and the editor of the films of Gulzar and Bapu from the south .

Nana however shot to stardom with his power -packed performance in Mehul Kumar's "Krantiveer" which was based on the riots of 1993 in Bombay , in which Nana himself had played a vital role by helping the police in tracing criminals and terrorists by his art of sketching people and also by his bravery in driving into both Hindu and Muslim dominated areas and appealing to people of both religions to see sense and defeat hatred .Scenes of his driving into riot -stricken areas in an open jeep and all alone are still fresh in the minds of the people of the city .

"Krantiveer" had made Nana a cult figure and he was flooded with offers to play similar roles and to quote his own price. The actor who was paid a few thousand rupees was now being offered and paid a crore and more From his old house in Mahim ,he had moved into an apartment in the Lokhandwala complex and from an open-air jeep , he had two or three of the best cars .

It was time for him to show his eccentricities and within no time , Kishore Kumar and Raaj kumar had found their third famous partner and once again it was difficult to say who was the master . Nana was known for sending away well-known filmmaker like B.R. Chopra and Saawan Kumar, screaming at them and asking them to come to him only if they had the proper script with proper dialogues. Nana was known for speaking his mind out two big heroines like Madhuri Dixit and Dimple Kapadia and there was a time when people in the industry were scared of working with him. He however created his own place on his own conditions . Even when he had his romantic dalliances with Deepti Naval and Manisha Koirala , it was on his own terms and conditions .

He directed his first film, "Prahaar" for producer Sudhakar Bokade . He put his very best into the making of the film it was based on the tough lives of the commandos .The film also had Madhuri and Dimple but the film ultimately flopped and Nana bowed never to direct a film again .

It was while he was in this commanding position that he decided to do a film called "Yashwant". It was almost like a film dictated and directed by him , even though the official director was a young man called Anil Mattoo .It was the story of a daring police officer who cannot take nonsense from any kind of powers and his young collector -wife , who he trains how to be an upright IAS officer. It was only Nana who could think of a scene in which he is shown making love to his wife (played by Madhoo , Hema Malini's niece who made her debut with Ajay Devgan in Phool aur Kaante) , While he is giving her instructions on how to go about carrying out her duties .

Nana needed a hard -hitting song in the film. He literally imprisoned (something like the quarantine we are getting so used to these days )and told Sameer that he would not let him free unless he gave him the song. Sameer was a very busy and one of the highest paid song writer of the time , but he dared not defy an eccentric man like Nana. It took Sameer three days of constant encouragement and prodding and even pushing from Nana to finally come up with the line "Ek machchar bhi admi ko hijdaa bana deta hai "Nana's performance in "Yashwant" and this line are the only things that are remembered today.

WAS NANA PATEKAR MAKING A PREDICTION OF THE TIMES WE ARE LIVING AND EVEN DYING IN TODAY? THE ONLY CHANGE NANA WOULD HAVE TO MAKE WOULD HAVE BEEN IN CHANGING THE MACHCHAR"TO VIRUS OR CORONA VIRUS. AND THE NEW LINE WOULD READ ,"EK VIRUS BHI AADMI KO ITNA DARPOK ,LACHAAR AUR BEBAS BANA DETA HAI".