In the late 70's (when I was averaging a film every alternate day) I came across Naseeruddin Shahs debut filmNishant I had grown up on a steady dose of mainstream cinema since early childhood. My appetite for sitting (alone) in the first row of a darkened hall and losing myself in the incredible kaleidoscope world unfolding on the big screen was insatiable. As a child my loneliness found resonance in Taxi Driver, the powerful Martin Scorsese film. It ran for a week at Rivoli, Simla (single screening in the evening) and I watched it on all 7 days. Robert De Niro became my hero and You talking to me? became a constant refrain in my head for many days.
Shyam Benegal's second film was my first introduction to what was then being referred to as "parallel cinema". An introduction which opened the door to the cinema of Satyajit Ray and Adoor Gopalkrishnan, which in turn opened the door to the cinema of Eisenstein, Vertov, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, De Sica, Pasolini, Bunuel, Fassbinder, Truffaut, Bresson, Chabrol, Godard, Resnais, Dreyer, Huszarik, Wajda, Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Imamura, Hitchcock, Chaplin, Fritz Lang, Elia Kazan, Kusturica and many other film makers.
Nishant was my introduction to an actor whose work (both in film and theatre) has constantly fascinated me since the first viewing on that distant day in the 70s. I don't watch many films now (when I do, it is normally to re-watch my favourite film maker | Emir Kusturica) but I still make the annual pilgrimage to see a new Naseer film when it comes to a local multiplex. My memories of exhilarating cinematic performances by male actors come from some of the screen personas of Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Marlon Brando, Gerard Depardieu, Marcello Mastroianni, Max Von Sydow and Tatsuya Nakadai. I came across a mention that Naseer's memoirs "And Then One Day" are going to be released soon, which started a reverie going back to the day I watched his first film - Nishant.