New Delhi: From playing a 65-year-old grieving father in Mahesh Bhatt’s 1984 film, Saaransh, at the age of 28 to lending his voice to Jatayu in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, Anupam Kher’s journey has left the filmmaker reflecting on how far the actor has come.
“The rise and the rise of you. I am so happy for you,” Bhatt wrote in a letter to Kher.
Kher shared the letter on Instagram, saying it had made him the “happiest man on earth”. He described it as a certificate acknowledging 42 years of work from the person who first opened the doors of cinema for him.
“It was like receiving the most beautiful certificate for 42 years of work and the warmest acknowledgement from the person who first opened the door of cinema for me,” he wrote in the caption.
‘You have never looked so sure of yourself’
In his letter, Bhatt also recalled watching Kher’s performance in Sweden. He wrote that the experience seemed to have entered the actor’s body somehow, changing the way he carried himself.
“I saw the way you shook hands with people — your whole hand, your whole attention given to the person in front of you. You have never looked so sure of yourself and so free of yourself,” Bhatt wrote.
He said the experience reminded him of a scene from Saaransh, in which Kher’s character, B.V. Pradhan, sits with his wife in a park after coming to terms with the loss of their only son, Ajay.
“Ajay’s ashes, and there she is, playing with the children. The way you looked at her. That was your Buddha moment. Life had struck you, and something of that moment has stayed in your eyes, your body, your heart. I saw it again in Sweden,” he wrote.
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From B.V. Pradhan to Jatayu
Released on 25 May 1984, Saaransh was Kher’s debut film. He was 28 when he played B.V. Pradhan, a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher whose life is shattered after his only son is murdered in a mugging in New York.
His wife, Parvati, was played by Rohini Hattangadi. The film follows the couple as they struggle to come to terms with their son’s death.
More than four decades after Saaransh, Kher has now lent his voice to Jatayu in Ramayana: Part One, directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Namit Malhotra. The film, which stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana, was released in theatres on 5 November.
Bhatt also wrote that seeing Kher reach places he could never have taken him to filled him with happiness. He added that the actor’s journey would inspire a boy from the hinterland to dare to dream and work towards making those dreams come true.
“What more can I ask for, Anupam? What more can I ask for?” he wrote.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)