If Satyajit Ray had his way, according to Suresh Jindal the producer of Shatranj ke Khiladi, Asrani and not Amjad Khan would have played Nabob Wajed Ali Shah in the film.
It is difficult, even impossible to say what Ray had spotted in Asrani’s eyes to consider him to play the Nabob.
In the annals of Hindi cinema, Asrani aka Govardhan Asrani who died on Monday afternoon would forever be associated with the school of comedy that in its best avatar is buffoonery. But Asrani as he was known all through his acting career was no buffoon.
Asrani, coming from a Sindhi family of traders in Jaipur, learnt and was also an acting instructor at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune.
The buffoonery that has forever been associated with Asrani had its roots in a less than a minute appearance in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1975 film Mili. Asrani’s unnamed character, gate crashes into a birthday party, apparently drunk, holding a large bouquet, looking for a Mandakini Iyer.
Asrani found his best with Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films from Satyakaam to Jurmana, spanning over a decade. In between he also worked with Gulzar in Mere Apne and Koshish.
After his first appearance in a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film in Satyakaam, where he appeared in a song (Kishore Kumar did the playback for Asrani), he had to wait for some more years before he could get another role.
In his own words, as he had told Kapil Sharma in one of his appearances in the show with fellow actors Shakti Kapoor, Paintal and Tiku Talsania, Hrishikesh Mukherjee a guest lecturer on editing at the FTII had come looking for Jaya Bhaduri, then a student at the FTII with a Ray film Mahanagar in her kitty.
The film was Guddi. Asrani appeared in a brief role in the film of an aspiring actor who runs away from home to become a hero in then Bombay (Sadhana to hogi na) and finds himself in queues for extras.
“Ab to role mila, I thought when they came. But they asked me who is Jaya Bhaduri. Maine apne mann mein bola, “Hatt saale..jaya bhaduri kaun hai? Meri maa hai..” (I was disappointed with their question and in my frustration, I wanted to tell them Jaya Bhaduri is my mother). But I didn’t say this. I then went to the canteen to call Jaya. I told her Hrishikesh Mukherjee is looking for you. She dropped the tea cup and exclaimed, ‘Hrishi kaku..'”
Jaya Bachchan got her screen test. A disappointed Asrani approached an assistant of Hrishikesh Mukherjee if there was any role for him. Gulzar (who gave him a role in his debut Mere Apne) confirmed there was a role of a struggling actor.
Months later Asrani got the role followed by eight more films. There was, as the cliché goes, no looking back.
Asrani’s own life story was not unlike the character Kundan. Except that Asrani did meet with success. The struggle from those days would find its way into celluloid in Asrani’s directorial debut Chala Murari Hero Banne. Much like his real father, the screen father AK Hangal in Chala Murari Hero Banne played a tailor.
In his career Asrani formed many partnerships. With Kader Khan, Govinda, Aruna Irani and the highest of those was with India’s first superstar Rajesh Khanna. From their first film together Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Bawarchi till Ghar Parivar, for 19 years the duo did 25 films together, most of them have now faded from public memory.
Over the last few months, FTII on its YouTube channel has released films made by its students, some of them featuring Asrani. The depth of his acting prowess lies in those films and not what has been dished over the last 40 years.
Asrani was much more than mere buffoonery.