The turn of the year brings a pang of loss for Farooque Shaikh’s longtime friend Shabana Azmi as vignettes spanning a 45-year relationship unfold before the mind’s eye. He filled ink in her pen during exam time, accompanied her on taxi rides on days they felt rich, worked with her for four decades yet remained the exact opposite of her “hyper” temperament through it all.
Shaikh Sahab’s first Smriti Din will be observed on Sunday, December 28. Shaikh and Shabanaji acted together in films like Lorie, Anjuman andEk Pal but the stamp of their play Tumhari Amrita is etched in stone. In the aftermath of his passing, Shabanaji had said it was curtains for the 21-year-old play but later generously suggested that a new set of actors carry the script forward
She met TOI and managed to condense a lifelong association into a span of 15 minutes. “I did suggest to director Feroz Abbas Khan that Amrita is so strong, the script is the hero. I could never imagine doing it myself with any other actor except Farooque, but it is important to keep it alive. And what you call generosity of spirit is a given. That is the way things should be, you hand over the legacy to the next generation. Yeh na ho ki aapke saath ek achhi cheez khatm ho jaye.”
All of the past year has been difficult for Shabanaji, after all, theirs was a friendship spanning 45 years, from the time they studied together at St Xavier’s College. But even in this, the pain peaked during Eid ul’ Fitr. “Both households would compete to see who prepares the best sheerkorma. I felt mine was better, he said his was best. This year Roopa, his wife, texted me to say is saal toh sheerkorma bana hi nahin,” Shabanaji says.
Each time she performs a play at the venues where they did Amrita, the same feeling of loss surfaces all over again. “I found it difficult while performing Happy Birthday Sunita at Dubai’s DUCTUC in November, and in Delhi at India Habitat Center. It is painful to sit in the same green room and drink tea alone. In fact Farooque has been so much a part of my growing up, we have travelled together, been in such crazy situations over the 21 years we did this play that the wealth of memories is enormous. Travelling helps you get to know people best of all. Amrita would be impossible if we had not got along so well.”
Through it all, she says, Amrita’s director Feroz Khan and she were the ones who were “hyper and tense” while Shaikh Sahab was the calming factor. “He was cool and collected always. Na iska asar na uska asar. If I made one mistake during the show I would agonise over it for hours. And he would explain to me that it is no big deal.”
“Once during a show in the US our driver lost his way for two hours and the show timing passed. I began to scream at him, so he threw up his hands and refused to drive us further. Farooque calmed me down saying already we are late, how will your screaming help matters? It will only aggravate the issue. We finally reached two-and-a-half hours late. The audience was livid. Farooque took the microphone and explained to them what had happened. He said they were free to take a refund right away, or they could choose to see the show and then decide. Every single spectator sat back quietly in his seat. In the end, we got a standing ovation which resounded for long minutes.”
Another time Shabana was hauled off to Colaba police station just before a show of Amrita at NCPA, this time for her activist leanings. “Then again, Farooque came to the police station with my mother. I was defiant and willing to stay in the lock-up but he explained to the police that our audience had assembled, that could they please release me for a while and haul me back after the show if they liked. So that show went ahead late but smoothly. Again, we received such applause.”
Feroz Khan in fact joked that Shaikh and Shabanaji were an ideally suited couple given their cultural grounding, their common interests and their age of course. Shaikh Sahab was born in 1948, Shabanaji in 1950. She laughs and recalls the time the two were walking down the road. Shaikh held out a few coins to a poor woman sitting by the pavement. “She uttered the blessingtum dono ki jodi sada salamat rahe. He looked at her horrified and said, mere paise waapas kar do agar aisi bad-dua’a deni hai toh.”
Shabana remained with Shaikh through his career graph and his personal milestones as well. “His wife Roopa was my classmate in St Xavier’s. So I have seen their friendship blossom into marriage, I have seen them make the journey from being a couple to becoming parents of two beautiful daughters. I must say he was such a doting father. The children had him wrapped around the little finger.”
She recalls the manner in which he indulged them. “When his elder daughter Shaaista was a baby, he would cradle her and kiss her several times mid-sentence. So he could barely finish one line without interrupting it with a kiss. We would laugh and say bachchi ke sar mein suraagh ho jayega. Itna pyar nahin karte. Now Shaaista is getting married in January. He would be so happy to see that.”
On December 30 last year, as the last rites were taking place at Four Bungalows Kabrastan, Shabanaji was stunned to hear that Shaikh Sahab was being laid to rest in the plot right next to her father Kaifi Azmi. “You know, Farooque was a great admirer of Kaifi Sahab not just as a writer but as a human being. I was stunned when Shaaista informed me that their graves are next to each other. Nobody designed it that way. Nobody even knew.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Entertainment> Hindi> Bollywood / by Bella Jaisinghani, TNN / December 23rd, 2014