Saeed Jaffrey: An acting legend remembered

Saeed Jaffrey, an actor who worked with a broad range of directors from Satyajit Ray (in Shatranj Ke Khiladi) to Kalpataru (in Ghar Ho Toh Aisa), died on Sunday at the age of 86.

News of the actor’s death came through a relative’s Facebook announcement. Bollywood lost touch with, and interest in, Jaffrey after he left the industry in a huff.

The deeply saddened actress Deepti Naval worked with Jaffrey in one of his last films.

Naval recalls his disillusionment with the industry. “I remember we were shooting for a film that neither of us was enjoying shooting. It was called Ghar Ho Toh Aisa. He was miserable shooting it. He had told me, ‘Enough. I am going back to London. Ab jo hoga wohi dekha jayega’ (whatever is to happen will happen there).”

Naval and many of Jaffrey’s friends in Mumbai feel Bollywood couldn’t find a place for him.

“Look at his range of work. It was staggering. He worked with Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor, John Huston [in The Man Who Would Be King], Sai Paranjpye, David Lean, Yash Chopra and Raj Kapoor. He enjoyed his work thoroughly, and it showed,” says fellow actor Om Puri.

Jaffrey, who was born in Punjab, was a natural-born actor. At an early age, he started his own theatre group in Delhi and went on to act in plays by Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams and Christopher Fry.

Inured in the classics of the theatre world, Jaffrey made his way into Bollywood in 1972 with a long-forgotten Rehana Sultan-starrer, Tanhai. It was Vinod Pandey’s Ek Baar Phir that brought Jaffrey to the attention of Bollywood’s big filmmakers. From then onwards, Jaffrey sold his soul to the highest bidder in Bollywood, and became a commercial actor.

Naval recalls: “Ek Baar Phir was my first film. I was new to India and Indian cinema. So was Saeed. We hit it off instantaneously. He was very protective towards me. Perhaps I came across as vulnerable, and he saw that. He had a fabulous role in Ek Baar Phir. He played an actor. A character actor.”

Not hard to do for Jaffrey, who made a career of it.

But it was for his role as the incorrigibly good-hearted paan-seller (paan is an Indian snack made with betel leaves) Lalan Miyan in Sai Paranjpye’s Chashme Buddoor that Jaffrey obtained the most recognition in India. It was an instantly likable character and it connected with the audience better than any character Jaffrey played in India, barring that of the leading man Rajiv Kapoor’s do-gooder uncle Kunj Bihari in Raj Kapoor’s Ram Teri Ganga Maili.

With Raj Kapoor, Jaffrey hit it off immediately. Their social meet-ups extended to another film, Henna, which was completed after Raj died. But it was Chashme Budoor for which Jaffrey is best remembered.

Naval recalls Jaffrey’s enthusiasm for the part. “We were shooting in the Nizamuddin area of Mumbai, where a paan shop had been set up for Saeed’s character. When Saeed arrived he looked around the crowded area and spotted a man walking by in a lungi [sarong] with the Taj Mahal printed on it. He made up his mind that his character Lalan Miyan would wear that lungi. He made the passerby take off the lungi and wore it for his character. That’s how I’d like to remember Saeed. Vivacious and exuberant as an actor. When he wanted something he would get it anyhow.”

In his book about Satyajit Ray, The Inner Eye, Andrew Robinson recalls how Jaffrey accosted Ray at Beirut airport to be part of his movies. Ray, who knew Jaffrey as the husband of the cuisine queen Madhur Jaffrey, told Jaffrey to be patient.

The role happened sooner than expected. Jaffrey’s performance in Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi was regarded by many, including Jaffrey himself, as his finest ever.

Naseruddin Shah says, “Zia Mohyuddin and Saeed Jaffrey were the first sub-continental actors to make a mark on the British stage.”

Adds fellow OBE recipient Gurinder Chadha, “Saeed is very much a British-Asian institution. He was one of the few actors who managed to shine in both British movies like Gandhi and Hindi movies like Chashme Buddoor. The ease with which he performed both roles to perfection is indicative of his breadth of talent.”

Jaffrey’s laughter preceded his presence wherever he went.

It is for that laughter of vivacity and the joie de vivre that Naval would like to remember Jaffrey.

“I am sure he is up there entertaining the angels with his anecdotes about all the actors and directors he worked with in Bollywood and Hollywood. If I am lucky I’d also feature in one of his anecdotes,” says Naval.

— Subhash K. Jha, a self-confessed film freak, has written extensively on Bollywood. He is based in New Delhi.