First Person: Amol Palekar ranks his five best performances  

It’s heartening at one level and embarrassing at another level that although I’ve given up acting for 22 years, people still remember me for my role in Gol Maal. When people still talk to me about it, I am surprised.

I rate Gol Maal very high, one of my five best performances, the other four being Akriet(the film I directed). It came immediately after Gol Maal and was so different and dark. The third favourite performance would be Tapan Sinha’s AadmiAurAurat. My association with Tapanda continued even when he was no longer directing and I was no longer acting. Then there is Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika where I played a black character.

My fifth favourite roles is a tie between BhimSain’s Gharonda and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Khamosh. In Gharaonda I played a grey, financially challenged character who suggests to his girlfriend that she marry an older man and carry on an affair with him. I had to make my character desperate rather than slimy…as for Khamosh I gave a ‘killer’ performance(laughs). That too was an exciting challenge.

When Vinod re-released Khamosh recently, I told him it was his best work. Not one frame can be taken out of the narration. The results Vinod got in spite of the budgetary constraints, were staggering…Gol Maal was my biggest hit. A dear friend pointed out to me that Gol Maal was the first time when a comic performance was taken seriously. I got the Filmfare award for best actor. All other earlier heroes like Kishore Kumar and Mehmood never got awards for the best actor. Sadly, I missed out on the National award for Gol Maal because they argued that I had got the popular award.

This was the first film Hrishida and I worked together. When he called me to meet him, I was determined to refuse his offer. I had heard he was a disciplinarian on the sets. I was also told he doesn’t give a script to his actors. But since I had tremendous respect for him, I went to meet him. He started chatting and I realised he knew everything about my work and my personal life. He even knew exactly what was happening in my daughter’s life.

During our conversation Hrishida’s mother brought in nariyal ke laddoo. Hrishida’s mom’s laddoos were used in Gol Maal. They were from coconuts in his own backyard… Then Hrishida said he wanted to make five films with me. He narrated those five films to me. We eventually made all of them.

Gol Maal was the first. My resolve not to work with him dissolved. I told him about my misgivings. He had a hearty laugh. He said what I had heard about him was true. But he said the equation with me would be different from what he shared with other actors. And it was.”

“I still remember the resistance against my doing Bhumika that came from within the film industry. I did this after three lighthearted comedies in a row. But I was adamant on playing Smita Patil’s greedy husband although ShyamBenegal was kind enough to offer me an option to do another role, the one of the lover-boy that Anant Nag played in Bhumika. But Hansa Wadekar, the lady on whose life Bhumika was based, was my next door neighbour when I was a child. I used to go to her house. Shyam Babu knew my skills as an actor because he had seen me on stage. Likewise, Hrishida had seen me on stage before he offered me Gol Maal. He shared a different bond with me.”

“Have I given up acting? Well, I did return to it two years ago with the Marathi film Samaantar. My wife Sandhya had actually written that role with Girish Karnad in mind. I said, nothing doing I want to do it. I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off after such a long layoff.”

(As told to Subhash K Jha)