Raj Babbar, the improvisor

Raj Babbar aka Mahandraji aka Mahanthji

Raj Babbar, as you know, plays a pivotal character in the movie and he was very keen to do the role as he comes from UP. In the original script he was referred to as Mahanthji ( head priest ) but to keep away from any trouble we changed it to similar sounding name Mahendraji.

Raj is very comfortable with the lingo of Banaras and also, as I would learn later, he is a master improviser.

Being a veteran actor, Raj Babbar, I would believe, had glanced the script and was worried that there were not many actions which were giving him some discomfort. Therefore as he came to the Ramnagar palace (the location of Mahanthji’s bungalow), he asked for Pankuj parashar to come and discuss the script with him. Our executive producer, however called me instead and there I was sitting in front of Raj ready to explain him the intricacies of the character.

To him, I decided to tell the story from his perspective:
“This is a story of relationship of a daughter with her father. For what he had done to her a long time back, he suffered for long 17 years without even having a glimpse of his beloved daughter. The movie begins with his cries and whispers…Shwetambari…and the same is heard by the daughter sitting thousands of miles away. Such is the bond between the two and yet….”

I narrated the script for an hour.
At the end of it, there was a smile on his face as he asked me to stop. He called the executive producer and told him to tell Pankuj that he was ready for the shot.

He is one of most brilliant actors I have come across. He improvises at will and with spontaneity.

Remember the scene where inspector comes to tell him the news of Soham’s murder.
Mahanthji (Raj) is busy in directing the servants to expedite the decorations as the marriage was only a few hours away. There were the usual dialogues about firing the servants. Instead he murmured…Kahna gaya wo nalayak Rati Shankar..Kuchh kaam nanhi kiya…We all laughed because Rati Shanker was the name of the local production manager.

There were several instances where he improvised the dialogues to some beautiful effects.

Mahanthji’s (Mahendraji’s) role was one of the most complicated ones and he made it look so easy. All credit goes to Raj for his outstanding performance in the movie.