‘I never met a better improviser than Johnny’

I remember Dutt asking me why I had dropped Johnny. “There’s no appropriate role for him in this film. He will not mind,” I told Dutt. And yes, Johnny didn’t mind at all.

I have worked with great actors and directors. But I have never met a better improviser than Johnny. Extremely intelligent, he would improvise the dialogues in his own way. Even a serious sentence would become light if he said it. I would write dialogues and keep some space for him to improvise.

In Mr & Mrs 55, in one scene, he was supposed to be sarcastic to the hero. While delivering dialogues, he invented a line Kab tak kairi chchupegi patton ki aar mein (for how long will a raw mango hide behind the leaves). It was his imagination.

Many people ask me why Dutt liked Johnny so much? I reply, “Who didn’t?” Two years ago, Johnny and I went to Bhopal to receive an award from the Madhya Pradesh government. At dinner, a state minister quipped: “If you want to live longer, spend a day in a month with Johnny Walker.”

Johnny would never bore you. He was a fine companion. He was a better comedian off-screen than on it. He would regale you with jokes, lift your mood with his wit. Humour came effortlessly to him.

Not many know that he was also a great matchmaker. He would find suitable partners for his friends and made sure they got married. In an industry where extra-marital affairs are passe, he never became controversial. He was never involved in any liaisons or extra-marital affairs.

He would throw parties like few did. Uska dastarkhaan bahut bada tha (He was a lavish host). The mere mention of a biryaani feast at his place would make many mouths water.

As he grew, Johnny, like many of his generation, became disenchanted with the film industry. Vulgar, bawdy dialogues put him off. He refused to be part of the rut the industry had started sinking into. He could not reconcile himself to the suggestive dialogues, and the lewdness scripts increasingly demanded. So he was sidelined.

When Johnny moved from Bandra to Oshivara, a far-flung Mumbai suburb, he made me move there too. I lived in Juhu, near Kaifi Azmi’s house. He made me sell that house and helped me buy one near his, just across the road. Before he fell ill and I became almost immobile, we would meet quite often. He would say,”I have just one friend in this world, and he’s Abrar Alvi.”

Now that my Johnny is gone, I have none to confide in. His throaty laugh, his jokes will always echo around me.

(As told to Mohammed Wajihuddin)