Whenever I refer to Naseeruddin Shah as Naseer, Pinch has this trademark reply, “Is he some next-door neighbour of yours that you call him Naseer? His name is Naseeruddin Shah.”
After my friend lalunadiosa rhapsodised about Naseer in ‘3 Deewarein’, I wondered if there was a single film that I disliked him in. Positive. The answer is ‘Sarfarosh’ where he played a ghazal singer who ultimately turns out to be the villain of the show. His performance was too… is pretentious an apt word? Oops, I almost forgot…’Main Hoon Na’. Can’t blame Naseer for his performance in MHN, I guess. He had neither a well-etched role nor a good length of time to endow his character with any depth or credibility. He was as good as the rest of the film which was…. below average.
Sparsh: A lovely film (Was it by Sai Paranjape?), Naseer plays the role of a blind man who runs a school for visually impaired children. A brilliant performance…
Mirch Masala: Ketan Mehta’s offering; a stellar cast; beautiful camerawork; great background score and fantastic performances. Naseer shines as a cruel Subhedar in a small village in the Kutch who is brought down to his knees by the women of the village. By virtue of his fine acting, he averted the Subhedar from turning into yet another loud, crass and vulgar Hindi-film-baddie. I am sure that I have seen this film atleast a dozen times. Would love watching it again….!
Ijaazat: RD’s lovely music, gorgeous Rekha, classically beautiful Anuradha Patel and pitted between the two women … Naseer. Had any other actor done the role, he’d have been labelled as a loser. Inder from ‘Ijaazat’ was a loser, nearly. Naseer salvaged the role. A charming cameo by Shashi Kapoor.
Masoom: Was I the only one who thought that Naseer resembled Prince Charles in this one? My heart went out to him as the last reel of the film unwounded. As natural as any Dad would get…
Of course, there are other films…’Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ (what a cast, what a script!), ‘Maalaamaal’ (Quite a flair for comedy he has!), ‘Paar'(one of the most disturbing Hindi films, my Mom says), ‘Jalwa’ (adorable Naseer again), ‘Katha’, ‘Tridev’, ‘Bazaar’, ‘Teen Deewarein’, ‘Junoon’…
Did he feature in ‘Kalyug’ as well? What about ‘Party’?
What an amazing body of work!
savyasachi says:
Naseeruddin Shah is my favourite actor, too. Loved his work in Sparsh, Maasoom, Ijaazat, Katha, Paar and Jaane bhi do yaaron. The honesty in his voice is especially touching. I had the good fortune of hearing him talk in college – what a man!
July 2, 2004 — 11:24 am
Lakshmi says:
I watched him play the part of Gandhi in ‘Gandhi v/s Gandhi’ too. Hmmm, was kinda average on the stage….:-(
July 2, 2004 — 11:27 am
Anonymous says:
Naseerudin Shah
What about ‘Mirch Masala’, the lawyer in ‘Akrosh’
July 7, 2004 — 8:27 pm
Lakshmi says:
Re: Naseerudin Shah
Loved ‘Mirch Masala’. Haven’t seen ‘Aakrosh’ yet.
July 8, 2004 — 9:45 am
lalunadiosa says:
Excellent subject for blogging I must say….
Have to agree with you about ALL his performances…
You missed Hero Hiralal though…..his first foray into commercial cinema…I think he did an excellent job…the movie was typical Ketan Mehta….slightly outlansdish but based on extremely believable characters….
Oh and his role in Umrao Jaan was heart breaking too…he is in love with Umrao but she loves the Nawab who turns out to be married to her long-lost sis….talk about kahani main twist….and this was based on an old Urdu novel…..
I think I did mention though my fave performance is Jalwa…that is one hot movie you know….should buy the VCD the next time I am home…
Haven’t seen Sarfarosh but you know his role in Mohra was annoying enough….he has gotten really badly-scripted roles in the world of commercial cinema….he does do a goo job in some of them though – Sir, Najayaz, Chamatkar…..
Oh this comment is getting to be longer than some of my blog entries….should stop!!!!
July 2, 2004 — 12:02 pm
Lakshmi says:
Have you seen ‘Kalyug’ or ‘Party’ ? Do you recall if he was there in either film?
July 2, 2004 — 12:54 pm
lalunadiosa says:
Was Kalyug the modern version of Mahabharata? if yes, then it didn’t have Naseeruddin Shah…thought it does have Shashi Kapoor, Rekha and some half a dozen other stalwarts…..
Maybe he was in Party….not sure since I barely remember anything about the movie except that I didn’t like t much…
July 2, 2004 — 1:36 pm
Lakshmi says:
‘Kalyug’ was the modern adaptation of the Mahabharata. ‘Party’ also boasted of a stellar cast a la ‘Kalyug’.
July 8, 2004 — 9:46 am
madhav says:
I think his first truly commercial movie was Subhash Ghai’s Karma, which was released much before Hero Hiralal.
July 2, 2004 — 10:53 pm
jayasankarvs says:
He was excellent in ‘Monsoon Wedding’and quite dashing in ‘Drohkaal.’ He acted along with Mammootty in ‘Ponthan Maada’ and showed our man who is the better actor.
July 2, 2004 — 7:53 pm
arunshanbhag says:
second that, excellent performance in Monsoon Wedding!
July 2, 2004 — 8:32 pm
arunshanbhag says:
I thought his acting was brilliant in “Sarfarosh.” Thats the way the role was, its not his fault.
July 2, 2004 — 8:31 pm
madhav says:
Nishant, too.
July 2, 2004 — 10:52 pm
radhika74 says:
Naseer is GOD!:)
July 3, 2004 — 7:14 pm
rileen says:
Party
What about ‘Party’?
It was the most boring movie i ever did see – perhaps i was just too young?
Nice post, though – and of course Naseer is great, i’m sure if i thought a little i could name a few more great performances of his.
As for Pinch, does he never mention any celebrity by first name?
July 5, 2004 — 8:26 am
hemya says:
i thought he was at his best in bombay boys…its difficult to imagine anyone else play mastana
July 7, 2004 — 11:35 am
Lakshmi says:
Hmmm, I agree.. He is GOD!
July 8, 2004 — 9:47 am