Join WhatsApp Channel
The recent demise of Dharmendra had one sad element: a giant who gave 65 years of his life to cinema never got any acting award, except for the “Lifetime Achievement” awards that are given to everyone more as token recognitions.
Absolutely splendid performances like Chupke Chupke (his universal standout one), Yaadon Ki Baraat, Ghazab, Apne and even Phool Aur Patthar, Anupama and the recent (for Supporting Actor this time) Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahanii failed to get due notice.
The man is no more, and TOIFA (the Times of India Film Awards) has already honored him for “Contribution to Cinema”. Now let us watch how many posthumous trophies he gets—his swan song, Ikkis, releases this Christmas!
What is the use of recalling his genius, his versatility, his acting talent now that he is not there? Why wasn’t he given his due in life?
Why do we wait?
There is an unending list of mega-talents who have never got their dues in life, and with some, it’s been just a sporadic recognition. The government has its own rationale for doling honors, but I am talking about the film industry itself.
Frankly, awards, especially in the millennium, are restricted to a handful of talents in each field of cinema. Forget an Aamir Khan or Ajay Devgn who refuse awards, but why are deserving names sidelined?
I remember an after-awards party where guests and the film folk were dancing to (mainly) Pritam compositions. In that year, the man had earned four Best Music nominations of five, but the award went to the fifth nominee, who was the editor’s favorite! And this latter awardee did not even turn up to receive his trophy, later stating on record that another institution’s award was the only worthwhile one!!
For the first decade of his career, in which Pritam gave us some exceptional scores, he never won any award. But he went on a winning spree later as the competition had failed to stand out.
But then, Dharmendra and Pritam are not alone. The list encompasses many actors and actresses (lead and supporting), directors and music people in the non-technical side.
The Indian propensity for considering dramatic theatrics as great acting is another major cause of all this. Cinema cannot be equated with stage or even television. An actor can stand out with just two minutes of screen time, and thus to consider length of role or melodrama to constitute a great performance is far from being fair. Nutan was considered a great actress (Yes, she was!) but the equally or more versatile sister, Tanuja, who never got the weepy, sobs-studded roles that “decided” acting “greatness,” was not!
Asha Parekh was lucky to get a Kati Patang after being considered a glam doll, ditto Rekha after Khubsoorat, but many others were not so lucky. No one noticed or were bothered when Neetu Singh eclipsed the reputed Shabana Azmi in an equal role in Parvarish. Rishi Kapoor was never considered a great actor as a hero, despite fantastic turns no one else could have done as well as he did, like Doosara Aadmi, Karz and more.
Not a single soul realizes—or, more importantly, accepts—that it is infinitely more difficult to direct an Amar Akbar Anthony, Sholay or Om Shanti Om than it is to direct a serious drama of any genre. Did Manmohan Desai, Ramesh Sippy or Farha Khan get any official recognition? No way!
In this context, South director Singheetham Srinivasa Rao made an illuminating remark to me: “My first film won a National award, but flopped. I then made over 60 films, most of which were hits, and at one point, I revisited my debut. And I thought, ‘What was so great about this film? I have made so many better ones!’ So it took me 20 years to realize something that the public makes out in less than three hours!!”
Nowhere am I implying (or he too!) that only ‘hit’ work should get awards. But the mind of a juror should be clear. When a director is evaluated, the parameters should be of the project he took on and narrated and what he extracted from his entire team. So many brilliant films have won awards, while the Best Director trophy has gone to another film! Please-all mentality? Possibly. Addle-pated thought? Definitely! Isn’t the director the captain of the ship?
When Pritam was not getting awards, he told me simply, “I would rather connect with the people. I would rather be Shankar-Jaikishan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal or Bappi Lahiri than just win awards!” And he was right.
Dharmendra also came to believe in the credo of the love of the masses. And Time has their unerring quality of filtering out talent, awards or no awards. How many heroes, filmmakers, composers, singers and songwriters do not get recognition they deserve, especially in their lifetimes? How many last longer than the hyped names? So why is this cruel and discriminatory injustice meted out?
Why do Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, R.D. Burman, Roshan, Anand Bakshi, Rajendra Krishan, Shammi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Nasir Husain, Raj Khosla, Manmohan Desai and so many others have to be ‘no more’ for people to realize what stupendous talents they were?
Will someone answer?
