Present imperfect

The film sees Yadav play a farmer Budhia,and elder brother to Manikpuri’s character Natha in the satire on the increasing disparity between Indian urban and rural life through the issue of farmer suicides. While all other characters in the movie were auditioned,Yadav admits that he is humbled by the confidence director Anusha Rizvi showed in him by bringing him on without a screen test. She recommended that Yadav be cast in the role,and after a costume trial and shooting a few scenes with him,the videos were shown to Aamir Khan,the producer of the film,who agreed with Rizvi’s choice. “But it was intelligent of Anusha to not cast stars in her debut film and instead go for local artistes from the Madhya Pradesh region,” he points out,explaining,“Established actors have a style which they are unable to break away from,intentionally or otherwise. And it didn’t matter even if these locals didn’t know how to act because if they were merely standing there in front of the camera,they were at least standing in character.”

However,what Yadav relished the most about working in Peepli Live is the fact that his role extended beyond acting. “I got a chance to revisit folk music through Mahangai Dayan,which I sang. It was like the old days when music had soul because we practised the song for two hours and shot it in sync sound at one stretch.”

With the response that the promos and his song have received,the actor realises that the film might elevate his status in the film industry. But it isn’t his future that concerns Yadav. “I don’t care whether I get better roles; Peepli Live should change the kind of cinema being made today. This has been the battle I’ve been fighting for years now,the prevalence of mediocre cinema and the evil word that is ‘commercial’,” he complains. It is this reason that has had Yadav maintain a low profile as an actor over the last few years.

Surprisingly,despite having been a part of three Academy Award-nominated films — Salaam Bombay!,Water and Lagaan — apart from notable work in National award-winning films like Dharavi,Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda and Bandit Queen,the renowned character actor feels there is no satisfaction in doing films. “You get little time to rehearse and then you go and perform whatever you’ve been instructed to do. But when you later realise that you’ve done a shabby job of it,there is no way to improve the performance because it has already been filmed.” This,Yadav states,is also why theatre will always be his first love. Having started his career as part of the famed Parsi Theatre Company at the age of 15,he lived life like a nomad with the theatre company. He later joined NSD and even composed the music for playwright Vijay Tendulkar’s famed work Ghashiram Kotwal. Naturally,he misses those ‘golden days’. “Those were the times when the focus was on learning and not on performing.” The mediocrity,he feels,has slipped into nearly every form of performing art and theatre doesn’t satiate him either. And about TV,where he became famous as the protagonist in Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne,he quips,“The less said,the better.”

Future Gazing
* Films Chali Chali Re Patang and Kausar Prasad Ka Bhoot
* Has had a few scripts ready since 1994
* Is open to directing either a play or a film.

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