A close encounter....of the fourth kind???

My dear Mindi:

This was a lovely read. A well-related memento, something your family will surely remember. Besides, you have succeeded in bringing up before my eyes at least a bit of your personality and indeed even your appearance. You look Tamizh and you will never find employment as a cheer leader. To be able to convey so much through sheer cyber contact is no easy task. I enjoyed thinking about your suppressed awe and later regrets (?) about the un-asked questions.

I suppose each one of us has a tale or two to relate that bear some resemblance at least to the one you have posted. Let me take this occasion to tell you about one of my own experiences.

As a young man, around 22-23 years I guess, I was well into stage acting. I had no idea where my future was headed (not that I have much idea even today). Well, I was part of what has come to be referred to in Kolkata as the Group Theatre movement and a member of one such Group. It had a name, but that is irrelevant. Although it was Utpal Dutt who introduced me to the stage, he had nothing to do with this particular Group and the man who used to direct the plays was a curious person (-ality?) called Kamal Kumar Majumdar. He was more of a writer than a play director and he is still remembered by Bengalis for his stories.

But this is not about his stories. It is about someone whom you probably know along with a large number of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Indians, living here as well as abroad</st1lace></st1:country-region>. Someone from the show business who is at least as famous as Rajnikanth.

Well, one day we arrived at the rehearsal venue to learn that Ms. X had expressed a desire to be a part of our Group. She was already well-known in Bengal for her films(though not yet all across <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">India</st1lace></st1:country-region>). She wanted to join our group to pick up stage acting I was told. She was apparently impressed by Kamal Kumar Majumdar's originality vis-a-vis the stage and wanted to learn the tricks of the trade from him. I don't think she wished to join the stage, but, being a true professional, she believed that she could pick up a few ideas from stage acting to aid her in film acting.

At that time, we were rehearsing a well-know play called Alamghir (yes, the historical character). Of course, the play is no longer remembered, the world having moved in other directions. I was playing the lead role and Ms. X was the heroine. Kamal Kumar Majumdar was far, far too demanding (as I see it today) and sometimes made us rehearse for 7-8 hours, with few breaks in between. Ms. X demonstrated true grit and went along with the cruel routine. I don't know what she was doing with her shooting schedules at the time.

As I look back at the event, I tend to feel that Kamal Kumar Majumdar, despite his great achievements as a writer, was suffering from a complex as far as Ms. X was concerned. She was already a celebrity and despite all the humility that she approached him with, his ego made him behave with super-meanness. I think I saw what was happening, but I was very young and wasn't too sure.

He tried his level best to ensure that she left us. For example, on one particular day, he came up with this ultra-novel idea that she alone would be rehearsing and we would merely sit down and watch! And he wanted her to play all the roles in the play! Which means, for example, she would be speaking out my lines to her from one corner of the empty stage and then rush over to the other corner to speak out her own lines back to me. Not only my lines, she was made to play each and every other character. This must have gone on for at least 4 hours at a stretch.

How this would have improved her acting skills, i.e. alternating between man and woman in quick succession, I can't say. Anyway, she did as she was asked to do without a murmur, always smiling, not showing a trace of tiredness or irritation. She never complained.

This was only one example of the stuff she had to endure and she endured them for around 3-4 months, if I remember correctly. And then, one day, she left for Bollywood and spent her entire career there. Of course, once in a while, she did Bengali films too. She still does.

I have no guess to offer about the reasons that prompted her to leave. Was it the lure of the Bollywood offer? Was it her realization that she was not getting from Kamal Kuman Majumdar what she came seeking?

What was I doing all this time? I was rehearsing every day with the prettiest woman I had ever come so close to. Literally so. There were scenes where Alamghir, in a fit of anger, yelled at Udipuri Begum, their eyes staring at each other, separated by a distance that could not have exceeded 1/2 an inch. She was my age too. Her beauty was so overwhelming that it would have been normal for me (at that tender age) to have fallen madly in love with her. But I can swear that this did not happen. I could have fallen in love of course had I thought that she was reachable. But I lacked the courage to even think along those lines. This is what happens to small and inconsequential people. They are so sure of being rejected that they give up even before they start the chase. Indeed, leave alone Ms. X (she was too big a name), they can't even run after far lesser mortals. (I, like many others, belonged to this class, needless to say. I am worse now at 93. I have lost the courage even to post a new thread at IL!!)

We were reasonably good friends, particularly so given her exceedingly pleasant nature. She was never pretentious, was always ready to share a joke and so on. I can't recall how friendly she was with the other members of the Group though. I suppose I had an advantage. I was already into academics and had a reasonably good educational background compared to the others in the Group. This could have impressed her, but I can't tell.

The play was never staged with Ms. X as the heroine. It was staged of course, but an unknown Ms. Y was selected for the role. Ms. X had left as I said and within a few months after she left, her Bollywood debut hit the country, coast to coast.

I am sure that Ms. X wouldn't recognize me if she were to see me today. However, she cannot have forgotten her encounter with Kamal Kumar Majumdar. And once she recalls Majumdar, she might, perhaps, just perhaps, even remember me! Vaguely, needless to say.

Do you want to know who Ms. X is?

Love.

oj-da

 

Dear OJJI - Hope the heroine of your fb and the heroine of my fb are not one and the same!!:rotfl

 

@ monaifa 13

I went back and read your fb.

In my fb, I have described the characteristics of the person I spoke of. From the story you had to tell, does it appear to you that we could possibly be speaking of the same person?

Also, note that ours was not a single encounter. It was close encounters of the FIRST kind. We saw one another almost everyday for a few months and worked together. Of course, it is possible that no one you know has heard of her. That is not a crime either.

It is a good guess though that most adult Indians, I mean teenage upwards, know her name. I will of course reveal the name. But I will do so only if anyone wishes to know.

In the meantime, I am wondering if Kamalji or Cheeniya have guesses to offer. They love watching films. I have left enough hint in the fb and my gut feeling is that one of them at least will guess correctly. However, the rule of the game is that one is allowed to make a single guess at most.

oj-da

 

Dear Mindi:

Happy to know this. I have complimented you too, but in cyber emptiness. Now that you admit, I feel proud that I was not off the mark!!

It was Sharmila indeed. The movie that brought her immediate fame in Bollywood was Kashmir Ki Kali I think. At the time she was rehearsing with us, she had already appeared in two Satyajit Ray movies. Apur Samsar and Devi. I think she had acted in a few other Bengali films too. (By the way, Aparna attended the same college as I (Presidency College), but she was four years junior to me. Sharmila and I were about the same age. I have no idea about her educational background, except that she was quite sophisticated in her conversation. Her "Tagore" past could have given her the culture she beamed. Aparna of course was a good student. Studied English literature. She was a good student too. Both Sharmila and Aparna were Satyajit Ray finds.)

She was a very gentle person as I knew her. Don't know how she is now.

You were right in analysing me the way you did. I think a large part of my reactions were linked to the fact that we were regularly in touch for an extended period of time. I knew I had to have total control over myself.

You know what? When I look back at my past, I am surprised that it was not entirely colourless. Quite a goof I must have been though. Even now, I am no better!!

Love.

oj-da

 

Dear Mindian,
So you are also an introvert like me! You have missed a wonderful chance to take a picture with the superstar!
You know Maddy is from Jamshedpur. His mother, aunt and uncle are all our family friends. We have even attended his cousin's marriage where he was present with his wife. He also graced the Jamshedpurians' meet.
My grandsons only regretted that we had not taken picture with him. They told me that they would have attended the meet if they had known that he would grace the occasion.
Even my daughter once traveled with superstar from Bangalore to Chennai and she also kept her cool.
There are people who are crazy over film stars.
Love,
PS