An Uncommon Man

When we think of Amol Palekar, we fondly remember heart-warming romantic comedies like Chhoti Si Baat, Chitchor and Gol Maal.Hemchhaya De looks at the body of work that made him our favourite everyman.

Everyone’s favourite alternative hero from the Hindi cinema of the ’70s and ’80s was recently back in the news after having thrown down the gauntlet before censorship authorities. Amol Palekar wants systemic changes within the film certification process in India. The 72-year-old award-winning actor and filmmaker’s writ petition early this year, questioning the country’s film certification practices and seeking a complete revamp of the archaic Cinematograph Act, comes at a time when several films—Hindi and regional—have run into trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Take the ‘lady oriented’ (their words) film Lipstick Under My Burkha, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava. The censor body refused to certify it, thereby blocking its release in India. They objected primarily to its ‘sexual scenes’. Needless to say, Palekar’s petition has created quite a stir in the film and media circles. But it comes as no surprise to those who know him.

Principle of the thing 

“Amol uncle is soft-spoken, but if he wants something done in a particular way, he’ll make sure it’s done without being too forceful,” says Chaiti Ghoshal, acclaimed Bengali TV, theatre and film actor, who worked with Palekar for a TV series called Krishnakali (2006), commissioned by Doordarshan. But Ghoshal’s association with him goes back to the mid-80s when he played the lead in her father Shyamal Ghoshal’s Bengali film, Britto about jute mill workers. “I was just a child when I first met him and he was a big star. He was making blockbusters with filmmakers like Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee,” recalls Ghoshal. Although she was just a child at that time, Ghoshal remembers that Palekar worked like any other member of the film unit.