It was a period, when experimental films and parallel films began to be shot in Hindi language by some young turks. Basu Chatterjee just had begun his career and a small healthy breeze was flowing. Already Hrishikesh Mukerjee and Gulzar were providing neat entertainments.The period was the mid seventies. I happened to see ’Ankur’ by a debuntant director Shyam Benegal, and being a student, I was shocked to witness the raw but aesthetic style of film making. Having bred with Hindi films of that time with Dharmendra beating guys, Helen sizzling a cabaret with junior Burman yoddling in the background, with garish sets and magenda attires, this was defenitely a new experience. Shabana Azmi, Sadhu Meher and Anant Nag were just brilliant, and it was really a worthy wait longing for Benegal’s next film.
Then came ’Nishant’, Benegal’s next film with a bunch of new faces who were destined to rule the parallel cinema scene. Along with Shabhana and Anant Nag who were already familiar with Benegal’s fans, I watched with dazed eyes, the dusky beauty Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Amrish Puri the Aadhe Adhuri man, Kulbushan Kharbanda, Mohan Agashe, Satyadev Dubey and Naseeruddin Shah. All were brilliant debundants. I don’t know whether some of them had acted previously in a feature film, but this was the film that brought them to the limelight. And among all these, the lean younger brother of the arrogant zamindar brothers, stood alone and above and it was Naseer. Naseer’s role was clearly etched out by the scriptwriters and the director. Here was a man, who was not interested in any vices like his brothers. He never drank or smoke. And he was a kind of introvert, married to Smita. But one day when he sees the buxom wife (Shabana) of the new village teacher (Karnad), he gets hooked. She is abducted, and locked in the Zamindari haveli. Rapes and revolts follow and that is another story. And this graduate from the National School of Drama , stormed the hearts of fans with his arrival.
I must confess, I have seen very few films of Naseer, compared to the volume he has performed and I will deal with only those films and most of them belonged to the era, when he stood as an unique actor of Parallel cinema, before shifting to the mainstream entertainment cinema. ’Manthan’ was Benegal’s next movie and his entire group of actors were cast in it. It was produced by the member milkmen of the Anand Milk co-operative society and unfolded the struggle of a few volunteers who tried to form a milk co-operative society in a backward village, against the local milk mafia. And Naseeruddin gave a stunning performance as a local dalit who was everdoubting and critical of the venturers. ’Go-dhuli’ was a bilingual movie made in Hindi and Kannada, directed by B.V.Karanth and Girish Karnad. Naseer was a brahmin priest in this film in direct contrast with his previous film in which he was a dalit and this musalmaan was a brahmin to core on the screen.
When Benegal directed ’Bhumika’ loosely based on the autobiography of Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar, his favourite Naseer enacted the role of a film producer, one of the lovers of the film actress. He also acted as the hero’s brother in law in Benegal’s ’Junoon’ with the sepoy mutiny background, based on Ruskin Bond’s story. His ferocious face with a sword in hand decorated the posters. In Ketan Mehta’s ’Bhavni Bhavai’ a power hungry and crazy king’s role was enacted by him with style. Saeed Mirza, who had the habit of giving long titles to his films made ’Albert Pinto ko kyon gussa aata hai’ with Nazeer in the title role of an angry middle class christian youngster and as usual he lived the role.
When Benegal’s cinematographer Govind Nihalani turned to direction, ’Aakrosh’ was his first Hindi film, and it created a sensation throughout the country with the style it was made. A rural thriller, based around the murder of a tribal (Smita) and her husband (Om Puri ) it was a notable creation. Naseer was the young lawyer Bhaskar Kulkarni who is the defence counsel pitted against his own senior (Amrish). The turmoil faced by the young advocate was excellently portrayed by Shah. Sai Paranjpe, the woman director who later directed brilliant comedies like ’Chasme Buddoor’ and ’Katha’ made her debut in feature films with ’Sparsh’ a film that dealt with blind people. Naseer was a blind teacher, and he broke the sterotype blinds of the usual movies and gave a new dimension to the role of a blind man. His gestures and movements flowed with realism and it was a treat to see him in the movie.
Till now Naseer who had been devoting his career only to middle and parallel cinemas, slowly began to shift to mainstream cinema but only films with a class. Telugu Director Bapu, who was also a great illustrator and artist directed a movie ’Manavooru Pandavalu’ based on a script by Kannada Director Puttanna Kanagal. The characters from Mahabharatha were adopted to contemporary situation. When this film became a hit, it was decided to remake it into Hindi, as "Hum Paanch". Popular actors like Sanjeev Kumar, Mithun Chakravorty, and Raj Babbar joined hands with Naseer who outshone others in the role of an angry young man, who opposed the tyranny of the local land lord of the village along with his comrades. When Vidhu Vinod Chopra directed his first feature ’Sazaaye Maut’, Naseer was in it. And who can forget Rabindra Dhanraj’s ’Chakra’ in which he played a Mumbai man of the streets with V.D in his groins! In Sagar Sarhadi’s ’Bazaar’, and Shekar Kapoor’s’ Masoom’ as a suffering father of a child from a secret affair, he gave sterling performances.
Benegal gave a black comedy ’Mandi’ with his group of brilliant actors, and of course Naseer was a part of it. And when Sai Paranjpe directed the ’ulta’ Hare and Tortoise story as ’Katha’, you can’t help roaring into laughter at the innocent simpleton hero, and the tortoise wins at last! Nihalani’s ’Ardh Satya’ showed him as the defeated alcoholic Police Officer. And next came the political satire from Kundan Shah- ’Jaane bi do yaarein’ and the characters of two young photographers performed by him and Ravi Bhaswani were simply riots. When he built a gymnastic physique for ’Jalwa’, he lost pounds of flesh for Goutam Gosh’s ’Paar’. He was "Hero Hiralal’ a film fanatic, a spoof on commercial cinema. In T.V.Chandran’s ’Pondan Maada’ (malayalam) and Kamalahasan’s "Hey Ram" (Tamil) he was stunning, and in the latter he was Mahatma Gandhi.
I can go on and on , on my favourite actor. Every best director had a role for Shah From Bollywood to Hollywood, and he was the Directors’ delight. His facial expressions, timings, body language etc. are lessons to upcoming actors. And the variety of roles he performed ranged in a wide spectrum, that can be discussed for a long time.