Available for viewing right now are two faces of Naseeruddin Shah. With hair styled back slickly, dignity in his bearing, a mix of pride and resolve on his face, Naseer can be seen as the French and English-speaking JRD Tata. In formal suits and ties, JRD is both boss and benevolent colleague to Xerxes Desai in The Titan Story, currently running on Amazon-MX Player.
Playing JRD is not the same as playing a regular Parsi, which Naseer did in Pestonjee. Wearing a sadra (sacred white undershirt of Zoroastrians) and a Parsi topi, Naseeruddin spoke the Parsi-Gujarati dialect of the community in the 80s’ film where he lost the love of his life (Shabana Azmi) to best friend Pestonjee (Anupam Kher). Those were different times when a simple story with actors beginning to make a mark in Hindi cinema had its own audience.
The westernised boss of the Tata empire who flew his own plane has no resemblance to the Parsi from Pestonjee. But the two faces of Naseer under discussion today may be found in The Titan Story where he is the Tata with a vision, and in Imtiaz Ali’s latest film Main Wapas Aaunga where he is a dementia-wracked 95-year-old.
While the freshness of youth is invigorating when Vedang Raina, playing the younger version of Naseer, cycles with abandon and woos his ladylove in undivided Pakistan, the presence of a thespian on his deathbed in Chandigarh, yearning closure over the girl he had left behind, is reassuring.
Tenacity in an ambience of nostalgia is about the only element common to the sleek JRD, single-minded about making an Indian watch that can take on the best from Switzerland, and the long-haired Sardar Grewal, who fights death and dementia to reconnect with the Pak girl he’d promised to go back for in 1947.
Although he has his limitations as an artiste and as a person, which prevented him from becoming a big-ticket commercial star, Tata and Grewal stand as examples of Naseer’s ability to attempt variety with credibility. It is the staying power of an actor who strode in via FTII and parallel cinema to burst into a mainstream Oye Oye with Tridev in 1989.
While the actor has always won the admiration of critics, what has not drawn enough attention is Naseeruddin’s physical fitness. People rightly applaud Amitabh Bachchan for energetically hosting KBC in his 83rd year. But they miss noting that Naseer, who’ll turn 76 this month, is not just all there mentally but can also sprint to the dais at the rare event he attends.
Naseer defies all known rules for longevity and fitness. Composure, calmness, a friendly disposition and staying away from cigarettes may be recommended by medical science. Naseer has been a smoker for most of his life, even adding a little something to his cigarettes. When campaigns against tobacco gained momentum, an annoyed Naseer had told me, “It’s a conspiracy against smokers.”
Not particularly famous for his friendliness, Naseer is known to unreservedly comment on colleagues from Rajesh Khanna downwards, and sneer at most films. But the only time he himself directed a film —Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota in 2006 — it was as flat as a runway.
Yet, he is one of the fittest actors around. A strong swimmer with the discipline that comes naturally to theatre people, Naseer takes care of the little health niggles that crop up by going to a physiotherapy clinic to set right a bothersome back. He has also switched to aqua therapy.
There is one other mentally agile 75-year-old who walks erect and needs no help climbing stairs — Naseer’s bete noire Narendra Modi. They were both born in 1950.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author