Candid confession

“I am actually a victim of the British conspiracy. I was educated in an English medium school,so like any other kid of my ilk,I was more familiar with Shakespeare,than with Premchand or Tagore. I am thankful to friends like Ankur who intiated me into the work of Ismat Chughtai and spoilt me for Indian writing.”

It was actually,Shah’s old friend Devendra Raj ‘Ankur’,former head of the National School of Drama,on whose invitation Shah came to

Lucknow for the function,though the actor’s association with Kamta Nath also comprises staging Sankraman,a story by the latter.

“Any fool can act. It is the writing pen that does the magic,” said the reticent actor,whose films now are few and far between.

“I did Khuda Kay Liye,the Pakistani film,because I was fascinated by a thought so daring being expressed in an environment so repressed.

As for A Wednesday,it was clear that the film maker was not as much after money as keen he was on conveying a mindset,” said the actor.

He said all the praise showered on him for Mirza Ghalib was actually due to Gulzar bhai.

Any actor in that role and with that script would have done a wonderful job. I was lucky to get that nemat (blessing). His curly hair is all silver. “By the way,I have turned 60!”

He was defensive about the expletives he is seen using in the promos of his forthcoming film Ishqiya.

“There’s nothing such as good language or bad in literature,theatre or cinema. There is just language that is appropriate and suited to a particular scenario.”

Highlighting the work of Kamta Nath at the function were eminent persons from theatre and literature,including former NSD head Devendra Raj ‘Ankur’,present BNA head Suryamohan Kulshreshtha,author Shekhar Tiwari,Urdu writer Qazi Abdul Sattar and writer Giriraj Kishore. They all spoke highly of the writer,a book of whose stories was also released on the occasion.