A Saeed Jaffrey Video Interview: One Man, Infinite Characters
by Ira Swasti
When I recently read the news about Saeed Jaffrey’s demise, I was heartbroken. Jaffrey was one of those character actors who even if they were onscreen for a few minutes, would inevitably leave a mark with their presence.
When I shared the sad news with the bigger fan in the house — my father, he told me that he would never forget the duet between Jaffrey and Naseeruddin Shah from the critically-acclaimed film Masoom. While my father was born in 1951 — around the same time Jaffrey began his career — I was born in 1989 — the time when Jaffrey was at the peak of his career in India. But we both will never forget that beautiful RD Burman composition that featured the two veteran actors dancing drunk at a party:
Jaffrey began his career as an announcer with the All India Radio. At the time, there were no drama schools in India, so he went to the US to study drama on a Fulbright scholarship in 1956. His first theatre tour in the US was as part of an American Shakespeare company where he played Friar Laurence, a friend and adviser to Romeo and Juliet.
However, I will always remember Jaffrey as the pleasant, charming man in Hindi cinema who had a perpetually-amused expression on his face. Enhanced by his training in drama and theatre, Jaffrey had an impeccable comic timing. I recently discovered that the jovial actor enjoyed making the audience laugh off-screen as well. In this interview from 2012, you can clearly spot Jaffrey’s love for mimicry — as he does expressions of Ingrid Bergman, Michael Caine and others — and he knew he did them well because before telling the stories, he sufficiently warned the host saying, “I’ll make you laugh”.
When Jaffrey moved to the UK in the 60s, he went through struggling times when he had no significant roles, no income and had to “sleep on [park] benches”. During that time, Jaffrey recalled meeting Ingrid Bergman at Harrods, London, where he was working as a sales assistant to eke out a living during Christmas. This wasn’t their first meeting though as he had already done a play with her. His theatrical expression of Bergman is worth-watching, “Oh darling Saeed, what are you doing here? Are you buying up Harrods?”
Jaffrey also remembers the time when he used to memorize “ten pages of dialogues for three different films” in a single day. When the interviewer expressed her disbelief at this versatile yet crazy schedule; and mentioned actors like Aamir Khan who release one film in one year, Jaffrey casually dismissed her comment and said, “Acting is about keeping many characters alive.”
It was probably this versatility that landed the marvelous actor only supporting roles, and not leading roles in Hindi cinema. As per the interview, it seems he never wanted that, anyway. My conjecture is that he was thrilled at the prospect of portraying such a wide variety of characters at the same time — something that a lead actor can never get the opportunity to do. While working with the All India Radio, he wrote a play that had 35 characters and he played all of them himself. Years later in 1997, he played all the 86 characters in his radio adaption of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. There was also a time when he shot five films in one day, starting at 4AM.
Jaffrey’s work spanned the cinema, theatre, radio and television in India, the US and Britain. When asked which medium he considered the best, Jaffrey said, “Cinema ki zindagi kaafi lambi hai, ek kaam ko aapne film me kiya wo hamesha ke liye rehta hai. Television mein kucch rehte hai, kucch nahi rehte. Stage mein jo kaam hai, wo ek dafah khatm ho gaya, to uski zindagi bhi khatm ho gayi.” Cinema for him was eternal.
The two roles that Jaffrey made eternal onscreen were: Lallan Miyan from Chashme Buddoor and Mir Ali from Shatranj ke Khiladi. But it was difficult for me to picture him in the role of Sardar Patel in the highly-acclaimed film Gandhi. I couldn’t see the relatively serious and stern-faced man, often known as the Iron Man of India, in Jaffrey’s soft, ever-smiling face. The heavy tan and well-built body that Jaffrey prepared for this role didn’t make much difference. This interview, however, has Jaffrey recounting the experience of meeting the spirit of Sardar Patel who he claimed came to bless him for that role.
If you miss watching Jaffrey as much as I do, I recommend watching the full interview to discover other interesting aspects of his life, including his acquaintance with Marilyn Monroe. Saeed Jaffrey’s rare recording of the Kama Sutra is also available here for purchase.