Farooque Shaikh believed in God and the afterlife, and so do I, says Anita Raj

Several actors of the '70s and '80s who shared space with Farooque Shaikh during the prime of his career are hurting to think he is not around to relive those golden moments.
Shaikh Sahab's first Smriti Din will be observed Sunday, December 28. Actress Anita Raj has played two interesting offbeat roles opposite him. One was Pankuj Parashar's Ab Ayega Mazaa in 1984, the other Basu Chatterjee's Lakhon Ki Baat later that year.
Anitaji met TOI to discuss the life and times of the gentleman who left a strong impression on her and later her son Shivam, who is an upcoming director. She says, "Actors Alok Nath and Girija Shankar of Buniyaad had produced Ab Ayega Mazaa.
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Much of the cast was from the National School of Drama (NSD) except Farooque Sahab and me. We shot for 40 days in Delhi during the winter months of January-February. It was such fun, wearing warm woollens and going around the city, something one never gets to experience in Mumbai. We were never tired despite shooting long hours because the weather was so lovely.''
"We clicked, as they say, from the very first day. It was an honour for a newcomer like me to work with Farooque Sahab who had already done various films with Deepti Naval and Rekhaji. The plot and the lines were so crazy we would collapse in helpless laughter. Several shots would require 15-20 retakes. Once Pankujji actually stopped shooting and asked us to finish laughing first."
Shaikh's generosity of spirit was evident back then as well when he introduced the cast and crew to the best restaurants in Delhi. "Before Farooqueji, I had never seen an actor order food for the whole unit,'' Anitaji laughs.
The second film they did together was Lakhon Ki Baat. Farooque Shaikh plays a sports correspondent who is accidentally knocked out by a hockey ball flung by Anjali Sengupta while covering a match. Anitajiplays his former wife, an artful gold-digger who divorced him when he could not help sustain her ambition to become a singer. It was one of the rare films in which Shaikh Sahab played a divorced man. She returns to him when she learns he could be headed for a windfall.
"In this picture we were joined by another superb comedian, Sanjeev Kumar. His comic timing was so impressive, he kept a blank face and did the funniest things. Shaikh Sahab was confined to a wheelchair in the film because Sanjeevji was forcing him to feign illness so he could wheedle a large sum of insurance money from his Editor,'' Anitaji says.
The actors did not meet frequently after Lakhon Ki Baat was complete. "But he was so kind to visit when my mother passed away 17 years ago. Even recently, when my father (actor Jagdish Raj) departed in July 2012 he arrived for the prayer meeting," she says. "Fortunately my son Shivam did a movie with him, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, the one starring Ranbir Kapoor.
Shivam was the assistant director in that unit. He was so impressed, he would come home and say how Shaikh Sahab had made such an awesome impact despite having merely two scenes in the film. I told Shivam to approach him and introduce himself as my son, but he was too shy to do so."
Anitaji remembers that Shaikh was very particular about offering namaz five times a day. Indeed, in an interview to a magazine in 2002, he had said that he firmly believed in God and the afterlife. "Did he? Did he say he believes in the afterlife?
That is completely in sync with my personal belief as well. I believe karma never leaves you. I practice Buddhism which urges you to keep in mind that there is life after death, that what you are going through today is the result of karma accumulated from past lives. Cause evokes effect.
You cannot sow apple and reap mango, can you?'' she says. Like the rest of his friends and fans, Anitaji was shocked beyond words when she heard Shaikh Sahab was no more. "He did a lot of selfless charity and good deeds for people to remember him by other than just his films. God bless his soul," she says.
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