BILLBOARD
QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
SHORT TAKES
ROUGH CUTS
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT

'People go to take the Dadasaheb Phalke award. That man himself told me I am one of the best directors in the country'

Sharmila Taliculam meets Bollywood veteran Kidar Sharma

Photograph by Jewella C Miranda

Kidar Sharma

Old habits die hard. That's especially true of Kidar Sharma, who just can't help telling people how a particular shot is taken. No matter even if it is the Rediff photographer.

"You've got to take a shot properly," he cautions our lenswoman. "I know it because I am a veteran at it. When there is a highlight behind, the face naturally comes dark...

"When people take a photograph, they forget that there should be a relationship between the background and the foreground. The amount of light that is there in the background, it should be the opposite of that on the face. Whether you believe it or not is your problem. This is what is taught to me and I try to teach others the same thing."

He even changed his name to show that he was a doer. "My name is originally spelled with a 'e'. I deliberately spell it with an 'i' 'cause that's me. I have a big ego...

Kidar Sharma has an impressive record. He made Dil hi to hain, Chitralekha, Suhaag Raat, Neki Badi, Sehme Huain Sitaren, Neelkamal, Bachchon se baatein(starring, among others, Jawaharlal Nehru and his grandchildren Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi) and many other films. Besides the cinematography, he also left his mark on the lyrics of every song and shocked the conservative milieu by having a bathing scene in one of his films.

"My father wanted me to become a professor of something and he sold whatever land he had to educate me. I lived in Amritsar and did my MA in the University of Lahore. That was in the year 1932."

But Kidar Sharma's life was about to change. "The day I finished my MA examination, I went to see a film. The talkies had started and I was very keen to see it. It was Debaki Bose's Puran Bhagat. Though disappointed with the film's theme I nevertheless went in and saw it and, believe me, I was impressed.

"The hero of the film had no dialogue at all, but what a performance! I vowed that I would become the next Debaki Bose."

But the change in career plans were not received well at home. " My father was very strict. He would not think anything about removing his shoes and beating us with it." Hoping a woman in his life would put some sense in him, his father got Kidar married.

What his family had not bargained for was that his wife would support Kidar's dreams. "My father would taunt me about my plans to go to Calcutta to become a director and I told him that whenever I earn Rs 25, which was the fare from Amritsar to Calcutta, I would go. It was not easy earning that much amount then."

The days of struggle

He taught children to play the harmonium and earned Rs 8 or 10 for his efforts.

"But my wife told me not to kill my dreams like this." So taking the Rs 25 which his wife had brought as dowry, he set off for Calcutta.

"I starved and starved. I looked as if I had no life in me. I became thin." The first job he got was painting the background of a set. "I thank god that he has given me so much talent. I am a good writer, a musician and a painter, hence I got the job." Even paying obeisance, he flatters himself. "I have painted Nehru and I've got it autographed from him too," he said, wandering a bit away from the theme of his struggle. Which continued for three years.

"I believe that if you are involved and think that you will do something, then the goal is not far. This is not the end for me; I am still learning and struggling. The only thing is that I don't like conditions attached while making my films, so I put my own money in them."

Sharma made his first film, Dil hi to hai in 1935. "During those times there were two kinds of films being made. They were either romances or mythologies. I made this film and, the first day, only four people turned up. But people started coming in and my film was finally a hit.

"During those times, Jaddanbai, Nargis's mother, was considered a great intellectual. She had booked a box seat for a entire month to see this film. She expressed her desire to meet me."

When he went to meet her, she looked him up and said, "Yeh launda? (This boy?)".

"I was hurt that she referred to me in this manner," says Sharma, adding that he retorted that grey matter lies within the skull, and made some personal remark about Jaddanbai's well-endowed figure.

Continued