Opinion The stars that never were
On Bollywoods essential but peripheral actors.
Some actors are destined to tremble on the verge of stardom,never quite managing to break into the charmed circle,never quite managing to fade away. Navin Nischol,who died of a heart attack on Saturday at the age of 65,had hovered at the edge of our vision,sometimes outlined clearly,at others hidden by that old adage: out of sight,out of mind. He existed in the sort of killing uncertainty that durable actors are placed in.
Nischol played the heros father in his last outing Break Ke Baad (2010),typifying one of the saddest traits of Bollywood. As good actors age and weather,they are designated as mothers and fathers to the lead actors,never mind if those lead actors desperately need to be buoyed by more seasoned,talented co-stars. But even in this most hackneyed part,he brought an intelligence and a rare sense of self his hallmark. This had set him apart right from his first role,which had him romancing another debutant. That film was Sawan Bhadon (1970) and his leading lady was Rekha: he was the more assured one,even if he wasnt really able to hide an inner amusement at having to dance around the trees with a dusky,plump bombshell that Madam Re used to be when she broke into films.
It was a dream debut for anyone hoping to be a Hindi movie star at the cusp of the 1960s. The film was a loud melodrama,with foot-tapping music. It made Nischol the next big thing in an industry always looking for the next big thing. He went on a signing spree,made all kinds of wrong choices and did only a handful of films that were worth noting after Sawan Bhadon.
Looking back,it is easy to see that the clunkers he did,one after the other,made sure that he never really made it to the top slot. But there are so many stars who gambol through a spree of bad movies and come out smelling of roses. Nischols was a case of ill-timing. He came in at a time when Rajesh Khannas star was on the wane. But when a huge star like Khanna is on his way out,he doesnt go easy. All the big romantic parts would still come to him automatically,for him to accept or reject: the leftovers would get passed around. Hungry newcomers like Nischol would only be considered if the second- and third-rung stars also cut and ran. The ill luck was made worse by the fact of having to contend not just with the short,fair Rajesh Khanna,but also with the tall,dark Amitabh Bachchan,rising swiftly on the horizon.
In Parwana (1971),Bachchan was his co-star. It was one of those films that takes everyone aback,still. It had,hear this,a discernible plot and identifiable characters. Nischol was the hero who would get the girl in the end; Bachchan was bumped off,so that it would be a no-contest. It was not only about looks. At that time,the ideal hero was the hatta-katta,fair and lovely Punjabi puttar who came from a long lineage of butter chicken and maa ki daal. Nischol was not a clean-cut,crinkly-eyed charmer like Shashi Kapoor. He wasnt a soft-hearted,muscular alpha male like Dharmendra. Nor did he have the quality that Bachchan oozed: the ability to brood and glower most satisfactorily. And,yes,sexily. Nischol was the kind of actor who never let us see that he was acting. That made him a fine actor,in the way he could fill every role differently. It was,ironically,this very trait that stopped him from being a star.
Bachchan may have been ousted from the romantic stakes in Parwana,but he walked away not just with that film,but every other film thereafter. It was not just Nischol who was forced to sit on the sidelines,waiting for Bachchan rejects to come his way: all other aspirants to the Bollywood throne during that period colonised by the Big B ended up being also-rans. Nischols career,which zoomed into the hit territory with his first few films (the rollicking crime caper Victoria No. 203 in which he and Saira Banu played second fiddle to the bumbling duo Pran and Ashok Kumar was a blockbuster),sank into the no-no land of being and nothingness.
He never lacked for work,even though he famously never went asking. His part in the super successful TV series Dekh Bhai Dekh was memorable,as was his turn as the helpful theatrewallah in Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006). To the end,he was an actor who projected the part,rather than himself: you dont just remember him,you remember the character he played.
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