The second language

He may not have command over Marathi language but his acting abilities,his screen presence and character portrayal is so strong that it overshadows everything else. All set for his second Marathi film ‘Thoda Tuza…Thoda Maza’,actor Anupam Kher was not fond of languages right from his school days. “I am comfortable speaking Hindi. In my previous Marathi film,Pramod Joshi’s ‘Kashala Udyachi Baat’,all my dialogues were dubbed by a professional Marathi dubbing artist. Thankfully,in this film all my dialogues are in Hindi,except a line or two in Marathi,” beams Kher,who has worked in more than 450 Hindi films.

“After working in so many films,commercial cinema gets a little monotonous. There’s no doubt that it’s a great time for commercial cinema now with so many films on a variety of themes coming up. But somewhere down the line,I feel that regional cinema is allowed to be more experimental because it doesn’t need to cater to the audience that Bollywood is compelled to satisfy,” says Kher,who firmly believes that acting can transcend the barriers of language and is basically the art of expressing emotions.

While he played the role of a blind man in ‘Kashala Udyachi Baat’,in Anil Kakade’s ‘Thoda Tuza…Thoda Maza’,which is themed on generation gap,he plays the role of a neighbour of a family around whom the film revolves. The storyline focuses on the issues faced by a family when the teenaged son and daughter want to go out partying and feel that they are old enough to make their own decision against their parents’ wishes. Kher plays the role of a Kashmiri happy-go-lucky neighbour,who spends much time in the family’s home trying to get rid of his loneliness as his son has left him and gone abroad to work. The film will release in January 2013.

His character in the film,says Kher,has many shades. “There is an undercurrent of melancholy in the character. Even though he seems to be jovial all the time,he silently misses being with his own family and his son,” reveals Kher.