THE RELUCTANT ACTOR

There are very rare instances where someone has been reluctant to join a certain profession – and then when he is pushed into it, embraces it as if he belonged there all his life. Take professional rugby for example – now why would a person willingly gravitate to a sport where being pounded to pulp is its raison d’être?

Anyway, the discussion here is about the elegant art of acting – the profession that is regarded as far more cushy than say, coal mining or prawn sorting. So it is difficult to imagine anybody who would have an air of reluctance about facing the camera.

But we are talking about the forties here – a time when films were not really seen as a respectable profession. So though the protagonist of this story was interested in films, his interest only lay in making them. And the name of that person was – Ashok Kumar.

Born in the Bhagalpur district of Bengal on October 13^th, 1911, he was named Kumudlal Ganguly by his father Kunjalal Ganguly, a noted lawyer who set up a successful practice in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. Those were times when the mantle of the father’s profession was almost always handed down to the son – and naturally Ashok Kumar was also expected to graduate into a lawyer.

So when he enrolled himself in the Presidency College in Calcutta following the orders of his father, he suffered the law lectures like an obedient son for a couple of months. But when the maze of laws, their statutes and subsections addled his mind, he confided to one of his college professors – he was not cut out to be a lawyer; what he actually wanted was to make films.

Unsure whether this desire was one of those passing fancies that afflicts teenagers, the professor gave him some sagely advice. He told him that he should continue his law studies in the mornings, and devote the rest of the day to his passion of watching films and learning their craft. Ashok Kumar found this an amenable solution – one that would allow him to follow his heart without having to face the music at home.

While this pattern continued till the years he was in college, Ashok Kumar wondered how he would be able to make it to Bombay – the city that beckoned his ultimate dream of becoming a filmmaker. He got a really lucky break when one of his relatives, based in London and also interested in the film industry, decided to come to Bombay. When he invited Ashok Kumar to join him, he didn’t waste a moment and followed him to Bombay.

He joined Bombay Talkies as an assistant in the film laboratory, where his main task was to cart the huge film reels in for processing and take them out again after they were ready. A couple of weeks into the job, he was spotted by Himanshu Roy – the noted film director and studio head, who asked him what he was doing there. When Ashok Kumar explained that he was the laboratory assistant who had the charge of the film reels, Himanshu Roy cut him short with a wave of his hand.

Putting his arm around his shoulder, he led the young Ashok Kumar to the film sets where his film, “Acchut Kanya” was being shot. Apparently, Himanshu Roy was having a big crisis that morning. He had just sacked the hero of his film, Najam-Ul-Hussain and he wanted Ashok Kumar to step into his shoes. One can only imagine the surprise that must have been there on Ashok Kumar’s face. He was a rank newcomer, his only experience in films being the lugging of film cans…how could he act in a film, that too in the lead role?

He flatly refused and turned to go back to the laboratory. But Himanshu Roy would have none of it. He reassured Ashok Kumar that since he was directing the film, he would personally ensure that he would not face any anxious moments before the camera. Plus the heroine would be his own wife – Devika Rani, so what did he have to worry about?

Now if this news was supposed to comfort Ashok Kumar, it didn’t. How was he expected to romance his heroine before the camera with the knowledge that her husband was behind it? He made all sorts of excuses, but all to no avail. Himanshu Roy, now wearing his studio head hat, would not take no for an answer.

Even while the shooting for “Acchut Kanya” started, Ashok Kumar was signed on for another film, “Jeevan Naiyya” which in 1936 was officially his first-released film. But it was the film he signed first, “Acchut Kanya” that became an instant hit and which propelled him towards further success.

By the time the forties came in,  Ashok Kumar, the extremely reluctant actor, had a flourishing acting career – a career that would entertain audiences over the next sixty years. A time span that would also earn him the fond salutation of “Dadamoni” – an elder brother to a whole generation of actors.       

In this very rare clip from "Acchut Kanya," Ashok Kumar And Devika Rani set the precedent of romancing around trees in a duet that was also sung by them.

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