Swara Bhaskar recounts the time spent with Farooq Sheikh in Delhi, during the shoot of listen Amaya
The most vivid memory I have of the iconic and gentlemanly Farooq Sheikh is from the second day of shooting listen Amaya. We were in the chaotic and uncontrolled environs of the Paranthey Wali Gali of Old Delhi, trying to shoot sync-sound — a long conversational scene. It was hot, noisy and the narrow lane was becoming increasingly stuffed with curious onlookers since word had got around that the veteran actor was in Purani Dilli. We were between shots and had eaten paranthas, and the production had relaxed the ‘set-lock’ so that the crowd could go about their morning routine. Two scrawny men, hands-in-one-another’s neck sauntered by. One of them spotted Farooq sir and stared. He came up up to his face, close enough for me to smell the gutka in his breath, peered at him with beady eyes and told his friend, “Abey Farooq Sheikh ko dekh le.” (See Farooq Sheikh). The friend looked carefully and said, “Abey yeh Frooq thodey hi hai.” (He is not Farooq). They argued a bit more, till the first friend turned to Farooq sir and asked nonchalantly, “Abey tum Farooq Sheikhho kyaIJ” (Are you Farooq SheikhIJ). Sir looked regretful and said, “Haan bhai sahib, hoon. Maaf kar do, agle janam mein yeh galati nahi karunga!” (Yes I am, pardon me won’t repeat it in my next birth). That day I discovered the most telling aspects of sir as a person — grace, dignity and wit in any circumstance.
Generosity was another quality that defined him. He was always giving gifts, but his generousity had the mark of an aristocrat. The flourish of the nawabs, who he has essayed in more than one memorable portrayal. In the bylanes of Old Delhi, we passed by a sweet shop. “Swara ji, would you like a gulab-jamunIJ” I said, sure. He turned to the man behind the counter and asked, “How many gulab jamuns do you haveIJ” The man replied, “How many do you wantIJ” “How many do you have my dear manIJ I’ll take as many as you have,” he repeated. The man told he had 25 kilos and sir bought all and distributed them among the entire unit.
As an actor he was a lesson to observe and his technique was difficult to fathom. He never spoke much about the craft of acting or his ‘process’ and one often found him reading between scenes. He once said, “An actor can never go beyond the vision of a director. This is the truth of our cinematic medium and it’s important for an actor to understand that.”
Farooq sir was a fund of stories — about the industry, actors, directors, stories he witnessed, stories he heard, about his own time and the time gone by. With each story he would sigh about the human condition. In one such account involving an incident between a producer and a-then-superstar, he ended with the well-known saying that “just because the sunlight is falling on you does not mean you have become the sun. Today it shines upon you, brightening your countenance, tomorrow it will bestow this grace upon someone else.”
Co-star and friend of many years Deepti ma’am (Deepti Naval) would often chide sir saying, “You must write Farooq.” “Who will make the effortIJ All that hard-work is for your type, I have neither the discipline nor the brains,” he would retort.
He was an observer. He had that quality that perhaps is considered more apt in philosophers — of observation, understanding, analysing but never judging. For a man of such sense, education and judgement, sir was also a person with great empathy. Never once in the (albeit short) time that I was blessed to know him, did I hear a harsh judgement from him. Even when he was critiquing someone, it seemed as if he was empathising with the person’s flaws. He always had a perfectly balanced, liberal and fearless position on world events. He relished this position. Of being able to step into the circus-ring (Bollywood), play his part and step out, take his seat and watch the show, with that knowing smile on his face. Perhaps that is the true uniqueness of Farooq Sheikh’s place in Bollywood: an insider but an outsider; an actor, but an observer. That is why in an industry which espouses the ‘when-in-Rome-do-as-Romans-do’ philosophy, he held his own, and lived and worked on his own terms, truly nawab-like.