Life has many shades and it keeps on changing like weather, today I am going to share life of one of my brother, who is also a very famous and reputed actor in Bollywood; a first generation actor with no godfather. He has built his stature playing the beautiful and powerful characters in the last four decades of his journey. His journey started in the early 80s, which was an era when one take artists or character artists were not given the respect they deserved. It was because of artists like him this myth was broken and such artists got appreciation which they always were denied of.
Sanjai Mishra is not a name which today needs any introduction, as we say ‘Naam hi kafi hai’
I recollect my memories with Sanjai Bhaiya since 1980s when I was still in school and he was pursuing his matriculation at Mahua, a small place in Hajipur, Bihar (constituency of our Cabinet Minister Ram Bilas Paswan).
Our eldest uncle, a government employee had a small two rooms quarter located in Mithapur, Patna where all our family functions used to take place, such as weddings, receptions, thread ceremony. The said quarter had even seen death of our beloved Dada and Dadi. This two room quarter had a huge lawn and that lawn used to be our paradise where we from different districts of Bihar used to assemble in any function and my fond memory goes to late 80s when Sanjai Bhaiya had been coming in most of the functions with his uncle Dr Arun Kumar Mishra, who used to run a clinic in Mahua .
Sanjai Bhaiya’s father, Fufaji as we called him, was a great writer and worked with Press Information Bureau. He was a very strong and principled character, come what may he never had his principles compromised at any cost. While he was holding a very high position in the government department, but he would never ask for any favour from his superiors be it the case of his brothers, sisters or his sons.
Sanjai Bhaiya out of the four siblings was the eldest, and like every father reposes faith and confidence in his eldest son, my Fufaji was not someone different and he wanted his son to establish himself, set example in the family. However, Sanjai Bhaiya, was a person of a different swing, was not very keen towards his studies as he believed in his own talent, which he had showcased in many social functions and was not convinced with the idea of his father to dance on the tune he used to set for him. This was the reason of conflict between Sanjai Bhaiya and his father, not to blame anyone they both were right in their thinking.
Fufaji who always had a lot of expectation from his eldest son, took a very tough decision in his life and separated himself from his son and put his son in exile, let’s not confuse with the exile which we see in Ramayana, but it was an exile where Sanjai Bhaiya was separated from his siblings and his parents. As Fufaji in his wisdom thought that this is the only way his son will improve and will become sincere towards his studies. He was asked stay with his uncle, a doctor by profession, so that he will at least pick up something good in studies and fulfil his father’s expectations. Here Fufaji was proven completely wrong as this instead of motivating Sanjai Bhaiya towards studies, this exile gave rather an opportunity to write his own script. Finally, his dream came true when he got admission to the prestigious National School of Drama, New Delhi.
Sanjai Bhaiya had to struggles building his carrier; life was not easy for him as he saw break up in his marital life. Thereafter he had serious health issues, lost his father when he started gathering some roles, and the worst was when he lost his younger brother Sumit, Guddu Bhaiya, as we called him, who was a very upright journalist associated with Jansatta and Aaj Tak. Both Fufaji and Guddu Bhaiya were the two pillars in his life, however, both suffered premature death.
The two mentors in Sanjai Bhaiya’s life Fufaji and Guddu Bhaiya are unfortunately not with him when he has reached a level in his career, when he has now become ‘Kaamyaab’ in the industry.
Interestingly this happens to be the name of his latest movie, where he has displayed his excellent artistic skill and proven all his critics wrong, that goes like ‘her hisse ke kisse kamyaab nahi hote’. His maverick acting skill speaks volume about his character. The film appears to be one of the finest films I have ever seen of Sanjai Bhaiya and I can say with confidence without being biased about his acting skill, in this character Sanjai Bhaiya has given his soul (ruh).
Today we all watched this movie and the kind of exemplary talent Sanjai Bhaiya showcased is a true tribute to all ‘one take artist’ whom we have forgotten. This shade of life is a tribute to Sanjai Bhaiya’s film, his director, writer, co-artists and everyone associated with the movie ‘Kaamyaab’.
Friends you all have watched the movie from your glasses but there are few things which I saw and I thought I must share with you post watching the movie:
The movie focuses and starts with a tribute to the character artist/one take artists who have been forgotten and it ends with a beautiful tribute to all those who have now left us leaving deep impression on us as to how important were they in each roles they played which cannot be forgotten as the dialogue spoken by them remains in our fond memories.
The movie is a beautiful portrayal of a fact that no matter how talented are you if you are one take artist you have no respect and you will not be in demand. While the movie revolves on a factual story, it is full of emotions.
The movie has shown a beautiful and a very touching relation between a father and a daughter, whom the father loves and treats as his little angel, even though she has grown up and is a mother of a daughter. One such touching moment in the movie is when the father visits his daughter and offers her the same chocolate which the daughter was fond of in her childhood days.
Another aspect of the story is where character artist who despite having acted in more than 499 films faces humiliation yet doesn’t give up his passion to act and does all silly things to acquire his 500th benchmark.
While the character is looking for the work, and when asked to do dubbing his passion is again reflected as every expression given and the narration of the dialogue is impeccable.
The movie also portrays excellent self-respect of the character as shown where he doesn’t stay or becomes a burden to his daughter and despite having lost his beloved wife chooses to stay alone and leads a very modest and simple life without the hang-ups of having acted in 499 films.
There are several scenes which leaves deep impact but to talk of the few other scenes which will carry you, is when the girl who is the next door neighbour while leaving for her hometown leaves her pet to be handed over to animals shelter home when the character offers to keep the pet with him.
The last part of the movie is most powerful when every audience will feel their eyes wet, where the character goes to attend the annual function of his maternal granddaughter’s school, who is most beloved to him, and since the chief guest of the function could not come on time, the principal of the school recognising this character as One take artist having acted in various films, approaches him to keep the audience engaged announces the name of the character as ‘surprise’, the character justifies the word with his excellence and brilliance portrayal of his past characters when audiences narrates each and every single dialogue spoken in his films, when her daughter feels proud of his father’s exceptional acting skill.
My son who is 14 years old, and as we say is a next generation kid who is glued more to Hollywood movies today watched the entire movie in one go without even once blinking his eyes. When I looked at him his emotions were flowing from his eyes which were full of tears. After the movie he said Sanjai Chachu is a great artist we are proud of him. Friends this movie maybe a movie for the viewers but this is a true display of Sanjai Bhaiya’s success and while we are proud of this moment we are equally sad as we miss our beloveds Fufaji and Guddu Bhaiya who both had once predicted ‘Sanjai’ as fufaji used to call and ‘Bhaiya’ as dada (Guddu) used to call him, he will be definitely one day an actor who will be known for his Kamayabi.