Bollywood woke up on Saturday to the death of Farooq Sheikh, an actor par excellence who peaked in the 1970s and the 1980s in delightful roles before branching off to parallel cinema and the small screen. The 65-year-old succumbed to a heart attack in Dubai.

Never a star in the Bollywood way, Farooq Sheikh was known and respected for his deep intelligence, simplicity and modern, liberal outlook.

This had always sent television anchors seeking out the man dressed in white kurta-pyjamas for panel discussions that ranged from “parallel cinema” to the fundamentalist shades of Islam.

Of all Farooq Sheikh’s performances, I remember most vividly his role as Nawab Sultan in Muzaffar Ali’s epic film Umrao Jaan , in which he is totally smitten by the courtesan’s charm.

As a stunningly beautiful Rekha, who essayed the title role, sings soulful ghazals such as In aankhon ki masti ke deewane hazaaron hei , Sheikh conveys his yearning and passion for her just through his eyes. At some moments by simply gaping at her wide-eyed, at others, through averted eyes and a half smile. You so struggle to hate him for breaking the courtesan’s heart by giving in to family pressure for a marriage of convenience. Very few spineless lovers have been excused in my scheme of things; Nawab Sultan was one!

Born in a zamindari family in a Gujarat village, Farooq Sheikh graduated from Mumbai’s St Xavier’s College and then studied law. Before getting into films he was active in theatre and is best known for his role in Tumhari Amrita .

His major break in films came in M. S. Sathyu’s Garam Hawa (1973), a poignant saga of the Partition, which also pioneered a new wave in the Hindi film industry.

Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj ke Khilari (1977), based on Munshi Premchand’s short story, had Sheikh rubbing shoulders with such big talents as Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Saeed Jaffrey and Shabana Azmi.

But apart from his serious roles, Farooq will be remembered for the often tongue-tied lover he played in romantic comedies such as Chashme Baddoor (1981) or the poor, hapless lover, Sanju, who doesn’t get the girl (the beautiful Supriya Pathak) in Bazaar , where he speaks the typical Hyderabadi Urdu of the aam admi to such perfection.

He played such roles with a seemingly effortless ease, which delivered to the viewers the quintessential character; the actor getting under the skin of the role he was playing.

And then, of course, we had him romancing his evergreen heroine in Saath Saath to Jagjit Singh’s immortal melody Tum ko dekha toh yeh khayal aaya.. .

In Sai Paranjpe’s Katha, too, he gave a sterling performance. I saw him last in Listen.. Amaya , and wondered why we were seeing more of Farooq Sheikh on the small, rather than the big, screen. It was so good to see him team up once again with Deepti Naval, with whom he enjoyed such a fine chemistry on screen in his movies of the 1970s and the 1980s.

The movie is about the two, with sufficient silver in their hair (he with what was left of it anyway!) getting attracted to each other, and Deepti’s daughter Amaya resenting the relationship. And Farooq Sheikh played Jayant’s role in the 2013 film to perfection.

Twitter started mourning Sheikh’s death right from the morning, with Bollywood stars right at the front of the queue.

Amitabh Bachchan got to the crux of the departed soul’s talent and persona when his tweets called him “a true gentleman, a wonderful colleague” who had a “quiet honesty about him... there was an absence of any kind of pretence in his demeanour, or towards his work!”

Bidding goodbye to him I watch on YouTube Is anjuman mei aap ko aana hei baar-baar; deewaro dar ko gaur se pehchan li jiye ( Umrao Jaan ) and, of course, Jagjit’s melody: Aaj phir dil ne ek tamanna ki... aaj phir dil ko hamne samjhaya ( Saath Saath ).

>rasheeda.bhagat@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW