Picture Courtesy: cinestaan.com
His first brush with acting happened as a standard five
student of Pune’s Bhave High School. The annual gathering play featured him as
the freedom fighter Gopal Krishna Gokhale, but when he sensed the packed house
from the podium, he craved for a different type of freedom, far away from the
maddening crowds, and the glitz and glitter of theatre. A Bhishma Pratigya of ‘no
more stepping on the stage’ followed soon after. But what was to follow was
undoubtedly preordained: an acting career of 50 years that began at the ripe
age of 42. His rationalist mind would have never agreed, but it was certainly
the pull of destiny that brought the man back on stage, following a long hiatus
as a widely travelled ENT surgeon. In what was a honied marker of the celestial
arrangement, he played Gopal Krishna Gokhale yet again, this time round in
Richard Attenborough’s epic film
Gandhi.
Given his zest and zeal for theatre which defied the
conventional norms of age and vocation, it is no surprise that Dr. Shreeram
Lagoo became a theatre institution, not just a maverick practitioner. Although
undue credit for this feat invariably goes to ‘Rangayan’, it was Dr. Lagoo’s
studious nature and unassuming ways that made him what he became. If a
theatre group could motivate an individual to bring about such disruptive
innovation, many of his comrades would have surpassed some of their theatrical
limitations instead of playing God’s Greatest Gifts to Humankind on stage, as
also in reel and real life.
Watching Dr. Lagoo as Socrates in Makarand Sathe's highly
insightful 'Surya Pahilela Manus' is a sumptuous treat, a practitioner's manual
on how to defy age and ailment, as also a mediocre support cast and deficient
direction, to give a stellar performance in what's essentially a thought
provoking and wordy affair, a proposition that most audiences hate but never
admit. More about the play in a post to follow.
Dr. Lagoo was a keen student all his life, unlike most of
his predecessors, peers and followers. It was not just his medical background
that helped him probe lyrical truths with clinical precision; his acute
observation of legends and contemporaries and voracious reading of books and
plays also had a huge role to play in triggering his geometric progression. His
autobiography Lamaan (Porter) is undoubtedly the best available resource on
him. It tells us all about his formative years, theatre and film voyage, and
his committed activism. He strikes a candid conversation with us in book form.
In stark contrast, many of the perfunctory obituaries (by
so-called admirers) are both dull and deceptive. One of these conceited
characters goes at length to describe Dr. Lagoo’s humility only to highlight how
he directed Dr. Lagoo and helped enhance his performance in an adapted play.
This mediocre actor briefly rode an overtly glorified wave of new cinema based
on his oddly refreshing mannerisms. Mr. Golmaal, we have no problem with
the role of luck in your life, but please spare Dr. Lagoo. We don’t need your
certificate to validate his greatness. So spare us too!