Naseeruddin Shah : 24 carat gold
ragon mein daudte firne ke ham naheen qaayal
jab aankh hee se na tapka to fir lahoo kya hai (Ghalib)
It was not just a coincidence that Naseeruddin Shah got to play the character of Mirza Ghalib in the remarkably brilliant TV serial of Gulzar Saab.
Quality of being rebellious, independent thinker, honest and fearless in expressing his views, awakened about the topics on which he speaks, often suggests that why he looked so befitting in the character of Mirza Ghalib.
Enjoy Naseer Saab’s interesting personality and style in this conversation.
Tags: gulzar, Mirza Ghalib, Naseerudin Shah
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
this is terrific. he’s got such cynicism and perfect sarcasm for everyone without getting political correctness.
@Tejas,
He is spot on various subjects. If people find it sarcastic or whatever then its fine. Even directors making films and singing one line song, about shooting directly in Slums, have not seen Chakra. Ignorance is bliss for so many people.
Given his higher level of talent, he may be joking but because he is saying truth so it may look as sarcasm to many culprits in the film industry.
Naseer Saab, needs to start blogging. Media, by its very nature, can never do any justice to true sayings of a person. It has to manipulate the statements for its benefit.
It will be a fortune of the people if stalwarts of good hidi cinema of 70s and early 80s, start writing.
People like Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Girish Karnad, Govind Nihalani, Om Puri, Naseer, Shabana Azmi etc should start blogging. Their writings will be highly helpful in improving the cinema in present era.
*getting into..
Nopes, he’s right on spot. Even when he talks about Kamal Haasan, he is right on spot.
This was a brilliant interview..the answers were so candid..they are so blunt that it makes us chuckle and uncomfortable at the same time..just like when someone points out that little pipmle on your nose..
I remember one other interview Naseer gave to Vir Sanghvi in Star Talk..he was at his best even there..and talks about how shitty “league of extraordinary gentleman” was..etc..
i wonder if the interviewer got the tone and what nasser saab was trying to convey…because the questions were kind of ordinary.
Naseer Saab & Ratna appeared on Bombay Talkies on NDTV last friday. The interviewer was Sreenivasan Jain. Naseer Saab was very candid and spoke his mind, as usual! One of his interesting answers was “Vinod is yet to make a good film!” (this is when Ratna tried to gently shush him!).
@thecommunist,
He is not much wrong about VVC. Man had started so well with Saza-e-maut and Khamosh and gave birth to good expectations but his huge love to show technical competency in filmmaking surely affected his growth as a filmmaker.
Parinda’s acclaim over the years might have been the reason behind this narcissism on his craft which goes more towards technical side than the story, script, characterization and human emotions and hence a kind of imbalance has been quite clear in all his films from Parinda onwards.
Fascination for “Big” may bring a weakness, is very well proved by his films.
But man has many years to deliver that one great film for which he might have vouched and dreamed while studying at FTII. have been watching all his films in search of that great film.
Communist, you meant this interview?
Naseeruddin shah and ratna pathak shah in conversation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoQ9CVINjCo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PyqtoZ2HzY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YwCSxN3rj8
Who is Vinod? VVC?
Yes! He was talking about VVC! Sreenivasan asked him do you remember Vinod’s first feature film (since Naseer remarked that in case of most of the directors from the parallel cinema movement, their first film was their best film) and Naseer chuckled with delight mentioning “Sazaa-e-maut”!
By the way, Ratna gave a thumbs-up to Anurag & Dibakar!
RK – Yes, that’s the one. Great to watch, isn’t it?
@thecommunist,
yes, Watching Naseer Saab is always a great watch.
This particular interviewer should develop this habit not to interrupt senior and experienced people because they are speaking in a flow and his eagerness breaks that flow. Moreover I felt he reads his questions so its not a continuous progressive conversation where one spontaneous mind can draw the next question based on the last piece of conversation.
Perhaps there are no good interviewers in cinema. and most of the good interviewers come from social and political sides of journalism.
RK..this guy once interviewed Devsaab and it was soo horrible..now how difficult is it to understand that Dev saab is quite old now and will not have the same chain of thoughts as he does, and it is very difficult for dev Saab to recollect things, so why not just let Dev saab speak and you shut up!
But, then again he was at ease and did a fine interview of Anurag, Zoya, Dibaker and Navdeep! all together
Thanks RK and thecommunist..that was a wonderful interview..enjoyed it immensely..but now i have become greedy to watch more naseer interviews..
An interesting read. Interviews by Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Gulzaar have always been candid.
But over a period of time I have noticed the growing angst in these great actors/ technicians. Angst of not finding mainstream appreciation, by way of awards/hits is affected. However, hard they try to brush it off either by saying – I am happy doing 1 or 2 quality projects OR I am more happier doing theater etc.
I know, almost all of your readers will balk at this observation. But I see see a sliver of pang in all these interviews (except maybe Gulzaar’s) which is most often disguised as sarcasm.
@Skay,
There could be many reasons behind such behaviour. So many times journalists are asking similar questions again and again and its a well proven fact that people like Gulzar Saab, Om Puri Saab or Naseer Saab, need, not only vareity in the works they do but variety in the questions also, shot on them. So many times, repetition of similar irrelevant, bogus questions might activate them and they are not acting at that moment so they may opt any kind of behaviour which any normal humanbeing would opt.
Gulzar saab is enjoying a good lime light since last 3-4 years in the field of lyrics writing and he could be said as one of the most successful lyric writer of present time and he has colloborated with almost every big artist in the field of music in the recent years so in that field he can not have any angst on being ignored by mainstream people. He is quite selective also and he works on his own terms.
His limitations can come in to the light if he decides to opt direction again because there market will try to dictate him the terms but he has not shown any desperation for that field. If demand for him will be increased then he will work on his terms in this field also.
His occasional anger can be due to lackings of journalists handling him in wrong manner. Old men that too intellectual ones, having all the experience of life and who are still active need different treatment than what very young journalists give to new stars. Gulzar saab, Om Saab and Naseer Saab etc are not to get sound bites, they are there to treat with proper respect and appropriate questions so that their experiences can be shared with millions of people, reading/watching them.
Om Saab and Naseer Saab’s case can be little different. They both have been terrific actors and world knows and approves it and they have been having exposure of working in international projects also where every actor is treated in a similar way while shooting is going on and there are no special preferences give to so called saleable stars. But in hindi cinema, some So called stars, many not having even 10% of acting talent in comparison to these two and alike people, and who can be equated as best with wood, earn millions and they are given extra dose of respect on the sets in hindi cinema and producers and directors team may not treat senior and good actors with same enthusiasm because Mr Woods sell on Box office while they think actors are better to be used as fillers.
A whole generation is dying to see cute dimples and artificial adayen.
Their angst can be against such corrupt system as all of us remain angry against a system, in which we work because we find injustice is done to deserving people.
If we can have ways to express in whatever way we like, then actors should also get this right.
and if they remain under frustration all the time then they can not give us high quality creative works which they have been giving us continuously or occasionally. They might have learnt not to take seriously bogus things and thats why they treat these things with wit, sarcasm or whatever we may call it. Till they are getting chances to give creative input they should have contentment inside. Momentary deviations are different things which are dependent on provokation, most of the time.
@OM
Yeah! We want more of Naseer Saab putting forth his views on life, the universe, cinema & everything!!
Thanks RK saab. The NDTV interview was very refreshing. It’s wonderful to see someone who speaks his mind.
@Kenny,
yes most rather all of his interviews (available) present him in this fearless manner only, he does not chew his words and speaks what he thinks is right at that mind as per his understanding.
This alertness and dissatisfaction from the things, which are repetitive, should be one of the main reason behind his refreshing portrayals.
He does not belong to Shahrukhs and Aamirs etc of hindi cinema, so he may not be having command over full project so sometimes its possible that though he gives his best from his side and after the film is completed and released he remains dissatisfied or unhappy with the overall project because other things dont match with his high level of input/performance.
and its so easy to recall most of his performances in last 10 years. Cant recall any other actor in Bombay Boys but him, as a cruel mafia cum director. Complex ghazal singer in Sarfarosh, Bhaisaab in Omkara, Policeman in Maqbool, Monsoon wedding, 3 deewarein, Iqbal, Parzania, Being cyrus, Khuda ke liye, Amal, Dus Kahaniyan, Mithiya, A Wednesdy, Maharathi.
Its amazingly good record. characters performed in totally different ways.
Given this record of last 10 years only, he has to be an interesting person and his views are bound to attract attention and curiosity.
His sayings in March 1999:
On critics: I’d say to them that I’m not through yet. Hold on until you’ve buried me. Then come back and assess me. I’m not through.
On quitting Mahatma vs Gandhi: Well, Feroz Khan is a marketing genius. Basically, he lets the team do all the work and hogs the credit. This is a pathetic approach to work and I got fed up with it.
On directors: I would love to work with Shekhar Kapur-he’s the best we have. Gulzar, Ram Gopal Varma maybe. But I’m hoping that soon a fresh crop of filmmakers will arrive.
More quotes here
Naseeruddin Shah on Jaane bhee do yaron