Arth could have been the mistress' story as well: Kulbhushan Kharbanda

Thespian Kulbhushan Kharbanda on Arth, his Kolkata connect and the beauty of the films being made today
Kulbhushan Kharbanda is back on stage after a hiatus of 20 years. The thespian, best known for films like Shaanand Arth, is part of Kolkata group Padatik’s current production Atmakatha. Directed by Vinay Jain, the play is an adaptation of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Marathi classic by the same name.
“Baatein to hoti rahengi. Pehlecoffee pee lete hai,” said the actor, before he opened up to CT and relived his life, career and childhood. Excerpts:
Why such a long gap of 20 years?
You’ve got to enjoy life’s luxuries. One of those is laziness. I am basically a very lazy person. Until somebody forces me into something, I don’t do anything. My whole life has been like that. I have never planned anything. Aise hi Mumbai chala gaya, aise hi Kolkata aa gaya.... Shyamanand (Jalan) baandh ke le aaya. Naukri se bhi nikaal diya gaya. I was actually happy with that. I kept doing theatre.
Suddenly, one day, I got a call from Shyam Benegal. I thought, why would he call me!? Shyamanand said we would get round trip flight fares. I thought, ‘Chalo ghum ke aate hai.’ And I landed a role for his film. It has always been like that! Vinay (director of Atmakatha) told me, let’s do the play. I had had an accident. I fell off a horse and was bed-ridden. Vinay sent me the script. I didn’t know if I could do it. But he wouldn’t let me off. So here I am! Enjoying every bit of it!
You keep doing the same plays for a long time. Do you bring variations to the characters?
You see, theatre is a very close part of an actor’s life. But there’s no stability. Aaj haath me hai, kal nikal gaya. The immediacy keeps you grounded. When you are acting, you instantly know whether or not you’ve got your audience hooked. But sometimes, playing the same role over and over again makes it stale. Fortunately, I keep finding ways to improve when I play a character, but of course, within the boundaries specified by the director.
How do you identify with the character of Rajadhyaksh in Atmakatha?
My character’s relationship with the student, Prajnya, proceeds on a very thin line. People can very well assume that there’s something brewing between them. There’s this flirtatious undertone weaved in with care and a feeling of haq. Just the other day, Buddhadeb (Dasgupta) was telling me, how carefully I had handled the character. Thoda yahan se wahan hota to galat interpretation nikal sakta tha. So I told him that my inspiration came from my daughter. I have one daughter, with whom I flirt, whom I admonish, whom I take care of, with whom I share everything — right from her projects to her boyfriends and to my girlfriends (laughs). I pull her leg; she gets angry and doesn’t talk to me for days. While rehearsing for the play, I was thinking how I could connect to this character. And then it hit me! It was right in front of me! I just placed my daughter in Prajnya’s character!
You have worked with greats like Shyam Benegal and Deepa Mehta and also with younger directors. How do you compare them?
Every director has his own sensibility. I like to be a part of that sensibility. One generation is followed by another. The newer generation brings in newer aspects to be explored. We actors tend to go slack over time. When young directors come up with that raw energy, it charges us up. This idea doing the rounds among older people ki, aajkal ke bacche.... hamare zamaane me ye hota tha, wo hota tha. I don’t agree with that at all! I think, people just say that because they can no longer do what young people are doing. Such good films these young people are making! Take for example, patriotic films. So many patriotic films have been made by big names. Kya hota hai? People scream slogans, fly flags, sing patriotic songs and go all emotional in the name of patriotism. Kya deshbhakti hai ye yaar? Full of jingoism! I just couldn’t take these films and would slip out of the theatres. The first patriotic film that touched me was Rang De Basanti. I thought, “Yaar, is aadmi ne ek baar bhi naare nahin lagaya, fir bhi kamaal kar gaya!”
Some recent films that you liked?
Rang De Basanti, Vicky Donor, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Kahaani ... They are such amazing films!
Which film director would you like to work with?
There are so many! Kahenge to main kar lunga. But the young people, I don’t know why they don’t approach us. Once I asked somebody the reason and he said, “Dar lagta hai sir, kabhi kaam ke waqt hamare munh se koi gandi baat nikal jaye...”. I said, “Main bhi chaar gaaliya de dunga, yaar...”
What do you have to say about Arth being remade?
You see, the film was made long back, but it’s still relevant and will always remain so. Right after doing Arth, I met this famous personality... I can’t name him...who told me, “Yaar, Kulbhushan, teri to shaadi bhi nahin hui hai. So how did you enact this feeling of being sandwiched between two women with such credibility? I can understand because this is exactly what is happening in my life, yaar. Neend udh gayi hai, pareshaan ho gaya hoon...” So what I mean to say here is that, when we hear it from somebody else, it sounds like a story. But when it happens to us, it’s not a story anymore. Life lies shattered.
When Mahesh came to me with the story, he told me, “I have these three characters and they are entangled in this situation, which is not in their control. They are not bad people. Now tell me, what can we do with them?” We took the easiest way out: The wife’s point of view. It could have been developed from the other woman’s point of view as well because she was as much a victim of fate. But I don’t know if that would have been as successful as Arth.
Whose plays have you acted in that will forever stay with you?
Purani batein karta hoon to bolte hi raha jaata hoon (laughs). When we started with Abhiyaan, it was the time that theatre was spreading its wings. Marathi plays were being staged in Bengal and Bengali plays were being staged in Maharashtra. That was the time we decided not to ever do foreign adaptations again. Jawaan khun tha after all. We came to know of Badal Sircar. We asked our Bengali friends to read his play out to us. Then we staged it in Hindi. Vijay Tendulkar’s Marathi play was then translated in Hindi and in Bengali. Girish Karnad! Penning that amazing play Tughlaq just at the age of 23. Now the world knows him. But at that point of time, it was us who bridged the gap between regional productions. That experience, is what will stay with me forever.
A few pages from Kulbhushan’s diary (memories of Pakistan and the partition)...
Pakistan zindabad!
My father was in the aviation department and wore a military uniform. People respected him, thinking he was in the army. Pakistan was born. Father took us to a speech by some leader, probably Jinnah. On the way, we saw these military trucks with people weilding swords, screaming Pakistan zindabad! We kids, sitting on the car’s backseat, also shouted, “Pakistan zindabad!”. Barely two or three, what did we know of Pakistan or its creation?
The scapegoat
My father once gifted me a goat and I got really attached to it. It would come to me in the morning and scratch at my bed to wake me up. We would go for a walk. Now, there used to be this Muslim man staying near us who was my father's friend. He’d give my father a skull cap and they’d go away somewhere in the evening. One day my father returned and locked me inside the home. And then I realized, they had taken my goat away. Everybody knew that my goat was taken away, but nobody told me. Baad me pata chala, bakri meri kaat di gayi. Maybe, they thought that it had grown old... Mere liyePakistan banna, meri bakri ka marna tha. Meri bakri kat gayi.
The moment of truth
When we left Karachi and flew to Jodhpur in India, we realized we were refugees. Nobody gave us a place to stay. We stayed in a slum right outside the airport. At last, a Christian man gave us shelter. The same happened in Dehradun. Now I realize that it was the Christians who took us in; Hindus never helped us. It’s not that I have anything against Hindus or Muslims, but a minor incident alters your life forever. Wo ek shayari hai na...Khataa lamha ne ki thi, saza sadiyon ne paayi.