Baap re Baap

Fathers have a place in our hearts just as much as our mothers do. With reel reflecting real, and vice versa, scriptwriters wove their stories around this relationship too; however, the on-screen father never quite evoked the same emotions as the on-screen Maa. I cannot, off-hand, think of a catchphrase that cut through generations the way Mere paas maa hain did. Yet, there have been on-screen fathers around for just as long; and there have been many stereotypes that have plagued that role. Or perhaps, that has been the curse of our cinema all along - that every character eventually becomes a 'type' rather than letting them remain human with varying shades of good and bad.

And because there have been so few important 'fathers' in Hindi films, the ones that were there came to be slotted more or less into straitjackets. Unlike the mothers, the role of the father became particularly egregious - they were 'types' and particular actors became typecast as 'this' type or 'that'.

1. The comic father 

Who else? Even when he did not mean to be. Especially when he did not mean to be. With that characteristic dialogue delivery, and excellent comic timing (watch him in Pyar Kiye Jaa, for instance), Om Prakash delighted audiences just by his presence. Even when he was playing the henpecked husband who would support his children on the sly, he managed to keep his droll wit intact. In later years, Kader Khan would run him a close second; it helped that the latter was also a dashed good script writer, and wrote his own lines.

2. The I'll have a heart attack father 

Two contenders, both interchangeable. Usually the father of the heroine. Usually rich. (Corollary: If he is poor, then he turns into the suffering father, who also looks like he will soon have a heart attack, and quite often, does.)

He is benevolent, avuncular and spoils his daughter (usually Asha Parekh) silly. Until, that is, the daughter has the temerity to fall in love with a hero from the wrong side of the tracks. In which case, Nasir Hussain (Raj Mehra) either a) has a heart attack or b) looks like he is going to have one.

He will have one scene (at least) where he is togged up in a silk dressing gown (and is giving his offspring a dressing down). If he smokes, it will usually be a pipe.

If Raj Mehra (Nasir Hussain)  is the father of the hero, he will hide his love for his son under a rough exterior, and excoriate his wife for spoiling 'her' laadla, who, in his view is a wastrel, running around singing songs instead of joining the family business. He will also insist on sending said son to a hill station (where he can sing more songs) on business, and where the son will promptly fall in love with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. 

3. The Oops, I have an illegitimate son father 

There was no competition. If Nirupa Roy always lost her children, then Naseeruddin Shah always found some extra ones (and always sons) - though I'm sure he wished he didn't. Poor Naseer was always learning that old sins cast long shadows. He didn't seem to be a good student, though. I have lost count of the films in which his happy family is destroyed by an illegitimate son popping out of the woodwork. Off hand? Masoom, Najayaz, Main Hoon Na...any more? Even if there aren't, he is the 'face' I see every time I see a 'son searching for biological father' theme on screen.

4. The saintly father (alias the self-sacrificing father) 

He is the male equivalent of the poor mother slaving over her sewing machine to eke a living. This father will always have the weight of the world on his shoulders. He will be upright, honest, principled, with a personal integrity that cannot be compromised. And therefore, his family, more importantly, his poor wife already crumpling under the weight of her husband's sainthood, will suffer the consequences of his halo slipping down her neck and choking her.

Either his eldest offspring, or the eldest of his two younger brothers (did I mention there would always be two?) will leave to worship Mammon; the corollary is that it will always be the son / brother who leaves; not his daughter / sister, who is a true follower of Saint Balraj. Until the final reel, where the prodigal will be bludgeoned to death with the father / elder brother's sacrifice, and will fall at Balraj Sahni's feet in repentance. Cue saintly music, and a newly-minted halo around his head.

Ah, the cruel fate of true talent.

(Sanjeev Kumar was his modern counterpart, playing father or older brother to actors who were his contemporaries.)

5. The OCD father 

Ah, genius. He is usually the heroine's father. He insists on everyone reciting their full names, marks a moustache as the mark of a true man, insists that educated girls do not make good wives, will not allow his son to spend time with his daughter-in-law until his exams are done... you get the picture?

He is also prone to throwing tantrums in excellent English, insists that pure Hindi is the national language and woe to anyone who uses colloquial slang, and is usually a pain in the butt to the other characters in his films. 

But oh, what a joy to the viewer! They broke the mould when they made Utpal Dutt.

(Utpal Dutt could speak 8 languages, had directed more than a hundred plays, was one of the founding members of IPTA, and one of the greatest dramatists of progressive Bengali theatre.)

6. The benign father 

He behaved more like an affectionate dadaji than a father (same difference). He is nominal head of the household, ruled over by a usually-affectionate-but-domineering wife, and only wants to be left alone to his hobbies (usually gardening) or his petty foibles (smoking). He is not averse to a little mischief himself, or to spoiling his children a little bit.

Khatta Meetha, Khubsoorat, Mili... and then, Ashok Kumar segued effortlessly into playing grandfather - an extension of his earlier role. 

7. The I'm your buddy, yaar father 

It must be an irony of sorts that a young Anupam Kher made his first successful appearance as an old man devastated by his son's death, and fighting an uncaring bureaucracy. Of course he got typed into 'father' roles. Hindi cinema truly has no imagination. And so, he played father to a succession of actors who were his age or just a few years younger. He was always the young-at-heart father, the one who understood his sons, poured out a drink (or two) with them, didn't mind if they didn't graduate as long as they had fun; he was the one who told them to follow their heart, and supported them through any endeavour, even if it were as stupid as to follow a girl across a continent with hardly any idea where he was going to find her. 

8. The Rajshri father

Like Reema Lagoo, a staple in 'family' films as the kind, benevolent, progressive-traditional (and if that is an oxymoron, pardon me) father who delights in being provider, while his wife is the nurturing hand and his main support. I suppose there is a tinge of envy about living in such an uncomplicated world, where everyone and everything is 'nice' (for want of a better word). I cannot imagine any other reason for the thumping success of these films. Fact is that Alok Nath is a very talented actor, and anyone who has seen him in Buniyaad, a television serial from Doordarshan's golden years will not forget a certain Masterji.

9. The How I wish he wouldn't play father father 

 

True confession, I hate Amitabh Bachchan in these roles. Oh, I know the story of how he went to Yash Chopra to ask him for a role after the debacle of ABCL, and how Chopra gave him Mohabattein (in which I actually agreed with him that students should come to school to (gasp!) study, but that's a rant for another day). And of course Karan Johar chipped in to give him Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham - where Amitabh, SRK and Hrithik individually cried more tears than Jaya, Rani, Kaajol and Kareena combined. And then we were stuck with Amitabh as (grave) paterfamilias! Over and over and over again. 

Give me a Nishabd  or a Cheeni Kum (excluding 'Sweety' who, as AKM put it so succinctly, was so diabetically sweet that I yearned to commit murder) or Dev, or Khakee or even an Aankhein,  which for all its flaws still had flashes of the actor whom I adore. But, no! We were to be hit on the head with Babul, Aetbaar, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (though I must admit he was a hoot as Sexy Sam), Waqt, Kyun, Ho Gaya Na...   

The imperious father 

Talk about being the heavy-handed father, and the one person who comes to mind is old Papaji.  I often wondered if Prithviraj Kapoor was the same in real life, because he seemed to delight in playing the father whom his sons (or daughters) dared not cross. Or if they did, they ended up (at best) being thrown out of the house, or (at worst) being sentenced to execution for sedition. 

Awara, Jaanwar, Ghazal, Jahan Ara, Rajkumar, Kal Aaj aur Kal... the list is endless. But like Nargis in Mother India, there is one definitive film that crowned him the baap of them all -  Mughal-e-Azam, where he played Akbar, the emperor who puts his duty to his kingdom above his love for the son for whom he had prayed so many years ago.

Yves, if it wasn't for you, I would have dropped this post. (And he had Lalita and Bombaynoir to back him up.) Note to readers: Any complaints may be directed in that general direction.