Old man

I recently met Alok Nath for a story in which he played an important role. He had been sick a day before, and was sitting by himself, smoking, on a large sofa by a window with a view of Lokhandwala, when I introduced myself. What should have taken fifteen minutes took close to three hours. He did most of the talking, about his work, about past times, about the kind of roles he received, about his compulsions, and also, interestingly, about a potential career move. Now all this may not sound too interesting, and it may even sound like standard material, but when I asked him specific questions, his answers and his manner of answering fascinated me. When he spoke about how his entire life's roles were similar to his first role, he seemed to have accepted his fate. But imagine. Doing the same thing repeatedly. One day you play a grandfather, the next you play a dad, then you play a good cop (a father, of course), and then it just goes on and on. It would drive me mad. More on this soon.