From ‘Moments of Truth. My life is Acting’ by Roshan Taneja

koi to sood chukaye

koi to zimma ley

us inquilab ka

jo aaj tak udhaarsa hai

-          Kaifi Azmi

….a remark about Chekhov by Maxim Gorky. ‘In Chekhov’s presence everyone felt in himself a desire to be simpler, more truthful, more one’s self.’

Danny [Denzongpa] also is an accomplished singer: he has sung with Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle – three stalwarts of Hindi film music. He has recorded Nepali songs and has sung for Nepali movies too. His two most famous songs recorded in the 70s are still popular: ‘hiso chiso Hawana’ (In the cool air) and ‘Manko kura bandhi mara kha…’ (do not keep the words of the heart tied).

Vijendra Ghatge…………. A descendant of the Holkar royal family of Indore, he abhorred any kind of physical exertion.

What I found personally more satisfying was working with Naseer and Shabana in a film called Albert Pinto Ko Ghussa Kyon Aata Hai? In it I played Shabana’s father, a rum guzzling Catholic who talks about migrating to Canada. It was a cameo, but I got noticed for it.

……..Nargis [film], with Rehman as the male lead………I’ve found that among all the heavy-handed acting around him, Rehman stood his ground. It’s a marvel that in the melodramatic madness of the industry he has never been tempted to go the melodramatic way. I regard him highly, as he was a method actor without knowing anything of the method at all. He made use of himself the method way, and this has always amazed me about him. He was an actor with a heart.

During the late 1930s and 1940s, the major development in the art of screen acting was in the rise of the ‘screen personality’. Actors like Paul Muni, Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Betty Davis, Clark Gable etc. were more effective as ‘personalities’ than as actors. They seldom varied their performances from role to role, and embellished every role with personal mannerisms and gestures. These mannerisms – like Gable’s smile, Tracy’s bowed head, and Davis’ hands – endeared them to audiences and became the trade-mark of their performances regardless of the roles they played. In our films, too, “personalities” have prevailed, from Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Meena Kumari, to Rajesh Khanna. Even today, most actors are ‘personality’ actors. Among the older lot, Nargis was the only one who tried to vary her performances in different roles.