Balraj sahni birth anniversary: What is acting? There can be many answers to this question. It can be said that acting is getting into a character in such a way that the actor becomes that character. For a time his existence should be absorbed in that character. it happens. A talented actor has always been able to do this. No matter which country’s cinema it is. This world has seen very capable actors. Today there is a group of capable actors in Bollywood. It was started by Balraj Sahni. No claim is made on this but it has been heard from people that Dadamuni i.e. Ashok Kumar and Balraj Sahni were the first phenomenal actors of the industry. When Bollywood got wind of this, the directors of the industry also gave the right direction to Balraj Sahni’s acting and made him do many roles. In one film, Balraj Sahni even learned rickshaw driving to get into his role.
Learned to drive a rickshaw from a rickshaw puller in Calcutta for a role.
It is about 1953. A film named Do Bigha Zameen came out. In the film, Balraj Sahni played the role of a poor farmer named Shambhu. But when it became difficult to feed the family through farming, Shambhu started rickshaw driving. Balraj Sahni rolled a lot of papad for the role of Shambhu. From this film, not only India but people all over the world recognized his acting prowess. For the role of Shambhu, he hired a rickshaw puller from Calcutta and learned how to drive a rickshaw. He used to drive rickshaw barefoot on the busy afternoon road. He did this for several days to get into his role. The situation was such that while driving a rickshaw in the sun, he got blisters on his feet. He had told in an interview that he did not study much for this role and left aside all the theories of acting. He simply met a middle-aged rickshaw puller and tried to understand him intimately. That’s all the work was done.
Picture of Balraj Sahni driving a rickshaw from the film Do Bigha Zameen
were influenced by left ideology
It is about 1951. Dilip Kumar’s film Hulchul was being made. Balraj Sahni was also cast in this film. His role in the film was that of a jailer. In such a situation, to understand his role in the film closely, he also went to a jail with the film’s producer K Asif and met the jailer there. His objective was to observe the jailer’s routine and understand his body language. But the twist in the case came when Balraj Sahni himself had to go to jail. Balraj Sahni was inspired by left ideology and was also a part of many movements. During one such movement, the police lathicharged and arrested the agitators. Balraj Sahni was also involved in this.
When he used to take leave from jail to play the role of jailer
Now look at the coincidence that Balraj Sahni has signed a film in which he is a jailer. And during the movement, the police themselves arrested him and put him in jail. When K Asif came to know about this, he was very disappointed. He said that Balraj has prepared so much for this role in the film. No one else will play this role except him. K Asif was amazing. He had made films like Mughal-e-Azam. He also had acquaintances. He set up the jugaad. Coincidentally, his acquaintance also happened in the jail where Balraj was imprisoned. He recommended him to the jailer of that jail and got permission for Balraj to take leave from the jail and shoot the film. In this way, Balraj used to come to the sets for shooting after being released from jail. Then after shooting he would go back to jail with the constables. This happened until he completed the shooting of his film.
These stories of Balraj Saheb in themselves show how filmy his own life was. But it becomes sad when you know that such a great artist was not given any special respect by the government. Today many Padma Bhushan-Bharat Ratna are being given posthumously. Art connoisseurs would hope that perhaps Balraj Saheb’s name would also appear in such an announcement and once again this lamp of acting would be illuminated.
