Opinion A bad guy,an old friend

Pran was the only villain of those days,and for many subsequent decades,who was handsome enough to attract lovely ladies. The characters he played could,with some justification,believe that the heroine would choose him over the feckless hero. Again and again,the lovely ladies chose someone else. But he was memorable despite these setbacks. One film after another,he mastered the villainous persona. In many films,he was like Anand — the urbane,sophisticated,well dressed,young man-about-town. But he was equally at home in costume dramas and easily adapted to diverse roles as long as it was he who was out to lure the innocent maiden. In Bari Behen it was Geeta Bali,Padmini in Bahar,Kaushal in Biraj Bahu,Meena Kumari in Hulaku,where he essayed the title role,Vyjayanthimala in Madhumati,Nalini Jaywant in Munimji and Waheeda Rehman in Dil Diya Dard Liya. There is an unforgettable moment in Bahar,when he seduces the rural belle,Padmini,by saying that he would swear before the sacred fire that he will be faithful — but by using his cigarette lighter! Raj Kapoor cast him against type in Aah as a sympathetic doctor who has to tell the hero about his TB,but the viewers rejected a friendly Pran. He was better received in Chori Chori,once again opposite Nargis and Kapoor. In Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai he was back with Padmini and Kapoor,now as the heir apparent of the sardar of the bandits and the father of the heroine. He manages,at the end,to lead the surrender of his gang with resentful dignity.

Dilip Kumar enjoyed a tremendous working relationship with Pran,as can be seen in their films Azaad,Madhumati,Ram Aur Shyam,Dil Diya Dard Liya and Aadmi. In Ram Aur Shyam,Pran has to stand up to Kumar in a double role,dominating over Ram but being defeated by Shyam while being in the dark about the fact that they were two different people. He carries that off memorably.

He followed through after the heroes of the 1950s had moved on to senior roles as the villain opposite Shammi Kapoor with Mumtaz,Sharmila Tagore or Asha Parekh as heroines. Later still,Amitabh Bachchan had him in his most memorable role as Sher Khan,where he gets to sing and dance “Yaari hai iman mera yaar meri zindagi”,this time attractively,and not as a figure of fun,as in “Dil ki umange hai jawan” in Munimji,where he brays rather than sings.

He developed into a more versatile character actor,taking on comic roles and sympathetic supporting roles. As Rajendra Kumar and Dharmendra were followed by Rajesh Khanna and Bachchan,Pran was still there. It was the familiar figure of Pran that audiences came to trust and love. That’s why he became the highest paid actor in the 1970s and early 1980s. At first,he may have been expected to be the bad guy,but as time went on,he was an old friend whose face cheered the audiences up,no matter what role he was playing. He could be Malang chacha in Upkar or clown it up with Kishore Kumar in Half Ticket,or come onscreen as Bachchan’s business tycoon father in Sharaabi.

Awards came to him,but perhaps not as many as one would have liked: he won three Filmfare awards for Best Supporting Actor in Upkar,Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool and Be-Imaan. It shows the nobility of Pran’s nature that he refused to accept the award for Be-Imaan to protest against the injustice done to Ghulam Mohammed,the music director of Pakeezah,who was overlooked in favour of Shankar Jaikishan,who had composed the music for Be-Imaan. He received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. He also received the Padma Bhushan in 2001,but the Dada Saheb Phalke award,though much deserved,eluded him. It came just in time earlier this year. By that time he was too frail to go to Delhi to receive it. In a nice gesture,Manish Tewari,the minister for information and broadcasting,went to Pran’s residence to confer it. One could see then a frail man,much reduced but with a glow on his face,which is what we had come to expect. It came to me that Pran has been a part of my life through all my life,from when I was a boy until today. And I am sure I am not alone.

The writer is emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics and a Labour peer

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