Pran's Birth Anniversary: The legend, at his best, was a force of nature

The way the mighty Pran transitioned from red-hot villainy to playing the gentle giant Malang Chacha in Manoj Kumar’s Upkar, is the stuff cinema folklore in made of.

Recalls Manoj Kumar, “Everyone advised me against casting Pran in a positive and that too a pivotal role. It was my first film as a director and all my well-wishers felt, ‘Beta, buri terah phasoge (dude, you are trapped)’. But I was sure I wanted no one else to play Malang Chacha.”

Manoj Kumar’s hunch paid off. Pran performance in Upkar (1967) is to this day considered among the finest by a character actor. Pran was legendary as the villain when Raj Kapoor tried to turn Pran into a good guy in Aah. The film and the effort to change Indian cinema’s biggest baddie into a good guy, failed. The credit for expanding Pran’s moral width on screen must go to Manoj Kumar.

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Upkar gave the legendary villain a new image and a new direction. Interestingly, Pran played the meanie to the hilt during the same year as Upkar, in the blockbusters Ram Aur Shyam, Patthar Ke Sanam, Milan and An Evening In Paris. This makeover happened during a time when an actor’s image was like his shadow. Inescapable.

In a little-known Mehmood-Kishore Kumar comedy Sadhu Aur Shaitan (1968) directed by A Bhim Singh, Pran played the triple role of Sardar Junail Singh, Dilawar Singh and Sher Khan. Great fun, and such versatility. Pran later played a double role with equal relish in Johnny Mera Naam.

Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer(1973) was a turning point, not only for Amitabh Bachchan but also Pran. The Pathan Sher Khan’s part in this career-making film of Amitabh Bachchan would not have worked were it not for Pran’s turn as the rough-talking but kind-hearted Sher Khan who fights for the truth. Most movie buffs including Mr Bachchan agree Zanjeer wouldn’t have been the powerful drama that it is if it wasn’t for Pran’s presence.

Another milestone in Pran’s career was Raj Kapoor’s Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai(1960). Raj Kapoor couldn’t turn Pran into a good guy successfully in Aah. But in Jis Desh Mein… Pran made an everlasting impact as the dacoit Raka who lusts after Padmini and fears death by hanging so much that he constantly keeps touching his neck nervously. The gesture was devised by Pran and happily incorporated by Raj Kapoor. Pran was a ceaseless innovator. He constantly kept adding accessories and quirks to his characters.

Adhikaar (1971) was one of Pran’s most celebrated good-guy roles. As Banne Khan Bhopali, Pran lorded over this little-known melodrama where director Ayan Mukerji’s father Deb Mukherjee plays a jerk who impregnates Nazima and quietly marries Nanda. Pran’s character fights for the unwed mother’s rights. The applause was deafening. Pran Saab was used to it. His Qawwali Jeena toh hai usskika jisne yeh raaz jaana brought the roof down.

In Gulzar’s Parichay (1972), Pran playing the stern grandfather Rai Saheb to a brood of uncontrollable orphans brought a steely but never-evil demeanour to his difficult role. When Asrani quips to Jeetendra, “When Rai Saheb is around we need to flee to the jungles if we want to laugh out loud” we completely believe it. This is the only film that Gulzar did with Pran. The director says no one else could play that role. Lots of directors said that.

Pran was incredibly touching as an honest police constable willing to give up his life for his principles in Sohanlal Kanwar’s Beimaan. When the actor won a popular award for his performance he turned down the award because he felt the music of Pakeezah had been shortchanged by the awards jury.

Speaking of principles, Pran had to decline his good friend Manoj Kumar’s offer to play a Pathan in Shor as the actor was playing another Pathan in Zanjeer. In 1972, Pran gave another superlative as a decadent zamindar in Aan Baan.

But the seriously game-changing role for Pran was in Brij Sadanah’s blockbuster Victoria 203 (1972). Together with Ashok Kumar, Pran created a kind of comic kinship on screen that re-defined the filmy dosti and also showed us how heroes could be above the age 60 even if they were not blessed with the Bachchan name. The film had a young romantic hero Navin Nishchol. But everyone remembers only Pran and Ashok Kumar.

In Majboor (1974), Pran again did a Zanjeer with Bachchan. Pranophiles believe the actor’s companionship with the Bachchan in this underrated Salim-Javed thriller was superior to Zanjeer. Pran played the the ebullient aggressive Michael d’Souza who loved the hit the bottle as vigorously as the baddies, and with a relish that scoffed at his advancing years. Pran was again in splendid form with the Big B in Kasauti released the same year.

The legendary Waheeda Rehman who did quite a number of films with Pran shares a little-known fact about Pran. “He was very ticklish. Any hint of being tickled, and he would start giggling. Every time I met him I’d put my fingers out pretending to tickle him and he would go. ‘No! No! Don’t you do that.’ He couldn’t bear the thought of being tickled.”

The man who scared the hell out of audiences, so much so that in the 1950s, 60s and 70s there was a not a single new-born child named Pran, was scared of being tickled.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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