Varsha Usgaonkar: Farooque Shaikh turned black words on white paper into meaningful dialogues

Actress Varsha Usgaonkar accepted the TV serial Alvida Darling with a slight fear that her romantic pairing opposite senior artiste Farooque Shaikh would appear odd. Not only did the serial run successfully for a year and a half, it also helped Varsha ji make the acquaintance of "a man who was as pure in thought, word and deed as his crisp white kurtas".
Farooque Shaikh's 67th birth anniversary was observed on Wednesday, March 25.
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Before she came to Mumbai, Varsha ji was the member of a film society in her native Goa which would screen meaningful films like Garm Hawa. "I was in awe of Farooque Sahab before I met him. I knew he was a studious actor who seldom did run-of-the-mill cinema. Unhonein koi airi-ghairi film nahin ki. He appeared to choose assignments very carefully, I gathered that by watching Garm Hawa and Chashme Buddoor.''
Alvida.. was a weekly serial directed by Ananth Mahadevan around 1999. It was almost like Tumhari Amrita with a twist. Here a married couple shares a love-hate relationship and cannot live with or without each other. They continuously try but fail to get a divorce, indeed even the woman judge at the family court tries to bring about a reconciliation time and again.
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She says, "Both do love each other very much, though. For instance, when a male cousin of Farooque Sahab tries to become friendly with me, he gets possessive. I turn and ask why it matters to him if we are indeed getting a divorce, and he retorts that until we do at 4.00 pm I remain his wife," she laughs. Apart from the main couple, Farooque Sahab tries to become friendly with me, he gets possessive. I turn and ask why it matters to him if we are indeed getting a divorce, and he retorts that until we do at 4.00 pm I remain his wife," she laughs. Apart from the main couple, Alvida.. featured Satyen Kappu and Bharati Achrekar.
Varsha ji says, "This was a comedy. I noticed that Farooque Shaikh had done several comedy films, each involving wit and class, not slapstick. His style of dialogue delivery was sehej, natural. Once we began working, I marvelled at his diction in both English or Urdu. The canvas of his vocabulary was vast. When I read the script of Alvida... it seemed to be merely black words on white paper. But when I saw Farooque Sahab speak those lines, they turned so meaningful and witty. Donon zameen aasmaan ka farq tha.''
She marvels how knowledgeable he was about every subject that came up during their conversation, be it food, books or poetry. "I remember him explaining to us about free verse, rhyme and alliteration. He could dwell on these at length. It is not as if I, or most educated people, do not know what these concepts are, but I cannot speak about alliteration with authority. He knew the meaning of difficult words in both English and Urdu. I remember I would ask him, Farooque ji, what does this word mean, and he would know.''
Varshaji was pleasantly surprised to find that Shaikh was interested in Marathi literature as well. This facet has rarely appeared in previous interviews. "Farooque Shaikh could sit among Urdu poets and share an in-depth conversation about shayri, and he could talk to me about Pu La Deshpande. Urdu was his subject so that was understandable, but when Pu La passed away, we spoke about him, and Farooque Sahab knew a lot about his writings. He was very well read and his subjects spanned fiction to philosophy. I believe he was reading all this at a young age which explains how he knew the latest titles that had arrived on the scene, or where you could find a particular book.''
A year and a half of shooting showed Varsha ji that Shaikh was a multi-dimensional person. Acting was a part of his life not the whole, she says. There was a certain "richness" about his personality.
"Around the same time I was shooting a serial called Jhansi Ki Rani so I had to learn pistol shooting and horse-riding. He told me that actor Satish Shah is an expert marksman. Not only that, he even manufactures pistols," she says. Shaikh himself was a skilled bareback horse-rider, as Shabana Azmi said upon his passing. He owns farmlands and stables in his native Gujarat and had promised to gift a horse to Muzaffar Ali's daughter should she learn horse-riding.
Varsha ji points to the conversation about pistols to say how a conversation with Farooque Shaikh always left her richer in some way. "He never indulged in idle gossip. Koi faaltu baat nahin karte the. Our industry is such that people love to make petty talk and criticise others. He would never criticise people. Each time we sat together I realised my knowledge increased. He would say, Varsha ji, aapne woh kitaab padhi hai? Ya aap Amrita Pritam ki us kavita se vaaqif hain? Ananth Mahadevan and he would have intelligent conversations and I enjoyed just sitting by and listening.''
Varsha ji weaves a colourful quilt of memories that shows Shaikh "liked to live life king size". She says, "I simply loved those crisp white Lucknowi kurtas he wore. I must say Farooque Shaikh was extremely handsome. I saw Garm Hawa, Chashme Buddoor and Noorie, and I always felt he was a chikna hero. When I met him I saw he had a fair complexion, very fair, so those embroidered white kurtas suited him very well. In all that time, I never saw him arrive on set in shirts and trousers, it was always Lucknowi kurta-pyjama. And what a variety he owned. Each day was something different, and each day we felt compelled to praise his clothes.''
Shaikh Sahab's neighbours at Highland Park were equally impressed. During the wake on December 30, 2013, they had put up a banner in the compound to say, "Our man in white joins the eternal celestial rainbow."
Varsha Usgaonkar laughs and says, "Do you know, he came to the shoot by rickshaw but the food he brought for the whole unit would follow in his car? He was a big man and could easily afford two or three cars if he chose. But he did not. During Ramzan in particular, he would bring a carload of biryani, kebabs and chicken dishes for the whole unit. I do not like mutton very much but I have sampled the chicken biryani and raita he brought from home. It was so delicious the flavour still rests on my tongue."
Varsha ji could scarcely overcome the shock of Shaikh Sahab's sudden passing on December 28, 2013. "We had not kept in touch but I felt I lost a real friend. Mujhe itna sadma laga. I remember the series he did called Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai and I saw what a knack he had for drawing out artistes who were reticent, how he deftly covered the flaws of his colleagues in the industry. Kitne sehej dhang se anchor karte the. Even during our conversations he was never judgemental about people. He would say, we never know the inside story of that person's life so it is best to not draw conclusions."
The only shortcoming of Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai is that they missed recording an episode with Farooque Shaikh whose life is his message.
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