Pause & Ponder

Watch the world go by,catch your breath,pause,just don’t keep running,success is not about how much material wealth you have,take it easy,step by step…Farooq Shaikh has never been in a hurry and worries about the mad pace that’s making everyone run,to what? “Don’t analyse everything so minutely,all the time,it’s a sickness,’’ smiles the actor,here for a seminar on The Author In Search of An Audience,where he spoke about the stories on the silver screen. “I’m an oddball in the seminar,’’ he smiles,as always comfortable in his skin,fluid,grounded. For someone who had no idea that he’d become a professional actor and did some memorable films and roles,Farooq terms it as a bonus that work came to him in the ‘80s,when the parallel cinema movement gained momentum. And it’s back to business,of good cinema,“it’s a great time for Hindi cinema,and we have to credit multiplexes for getting the audience back to theatres and young filmmakers for thinking out-of-the-box and creating work of varied genres,’’ Shaikh is reading a lot of scripts these days and jokes how he’s going to spoil someone’s fate this year! Which also gets him back to the essentials of life,success,failure,money,ambition. The vision,technique,foresight…young directors he agrees have it all,but the ethics required for making a “lasting” film…that’s the dilemma. “There is such a mad rush,to get better than the other,earn more money,achieve more that what he or she has. We need to pause,for it’s only when you stop you can think,catch your breath,that you have a perspective. The need is to take it easy and go step by step,’’ Farooq refers to the first and most important prerequisite of a great film,the script. A performer,he adds,can become tall only if the script is great and for him,that’s how a choice of role is made. “If I’m confident of what I’m reading,I accept it,which really does not translate into that I’m simply happy with my performance,’’ he refers to his role as the nawab in Umrao Jaan,which he feels he didn’t justice to. As for the audience,he believes it’s a give and take relationship,“you have to take cinema seriously to expect quality,’’ Farooq says it’s important not to be scared of failure,yet not make the same mistakes again. “Theatre,cinema,television,just the histrionics change according to the medium,not the actor’s core,process. I simply enjoy every medium,for the experience is varied,’’ someone who’s been there and done that,should know…