The good side of the bad guy

As a baddie, he was good. Very good. In the fifties and sixties Pran was one of the most despised men in the country.

People hurled invective as his car drove past, women refused to name their children Pran and when he was beaten up, the applause was resounding. And all because he was good at his job.

For someone who came into films by accident""and somewhat reluctantly""Pran Krishen Sikand went on to gain a reputation for being one of the few "thinking actors" in an industry known more for flash and trash.

A photographer's assistant in pre-Partition Lahore, the 19-year-old Pran was "discovered" at a paan shop by writer Wali Mohammed Wali who offered him a role in a film by Dalsukh M Pancholi, one of the best-known cinema producers of the time.

A sceptical Pran promptly refused the offer ""not least because as an actor he would earn a meagre Rs 50 a month, while he was already making Rs 200 at the photography studio.

Later, though, he accepted""on condition that he could continue work at the studio""and donned greasepaint for the first time for Yamla Jat, a Punjabi film where he played""what else?""the villain.

A spate of roles followed""and not all of them as the bad man. In 1942, Pran acted as the hero for the first time, opposite Baby Noorjehan in Khandaan. He went on to play the romantic lead in several films after that""Hindi as well as Punjabi.

He cut a romantic figure in real life as well. Always flawlessly turned out, complete with silk tie and handkerchief and a neatly waxed, Errol Flynn-ish moustache, Pran was easily recognised in Lahore, stylishly driving his tonga.

Partition changed all that. Pran arrived in Bombay in August 1947 with his young wife and infant son""and little else. No job, no money and very few prospects.

After several months of futilely pounding the streets, he finally came full circle with Ziddi, where he played the villain once again. After that, though, there was no looking back.

Pran may have been villain extraordinaire in 300-odd movies, but for Bunny Reuben he's clearly the hero. Nay, superstar. Reuben gushes, he fawns and he exclaims!

Oh, does he exclaim! Pran would have been an outstanding hero! He was even better as a villain! He is an exemplary husband! A devoted father! The perfect citizen! (He doesn't walk on water""but that's probably only because he hasn't tried it yet.)

Where is the distance that is so critical for an unbiased biography? Reuben has been a film journalist for several decades now""surely he should stopped being so starry-eyed. But no. He's as star-struck as an adolescent in the throes of her first, painful crush. The result is a portrait of a man larger-than-life""the way Reuben writes it, Pran is too good to be true.

Which is a pity, because a frank, honest review of Pran's life would have served as a potted history of Indian cinema. Here was a man whose career in the industry spanned six decades, who worked with stalwarts such as Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, helped give a struggling actor like Amitabh Bachchan his first real break (incidentally, Bachchan has written the foreword to the book), refused a Filmfare award on a matter of principle.

Written well, ... and Pran could have been an entertaining and educative account of not just Pran's life, but Bollywood over the years. Instead, it's an unabashed plug.

Still, Reuben has infused some colour into the narrative (although unnecessary italics and footnotes explaining the meaning of every non-English word, from paan to dholak, take away from the tempo).

His long association with the film world shows in the interesting anecdotes of how Pran used to meticulously research the characters he played""paying close attention to the wigs and costumes, and adding accents and mannerisms that lent a certain cachet to the role""and behind-the-scenes accounts of film shootings.

Reuben has also put to good use his access to long-forgotten records and archives""he quotes extensively from film reviews of the fifties and sixties (all of which unfailingly praise Pran's performances).

Pran's transition from villain to character actor in the sixties marked the end of an era. Gone was the gentleman villain, puffing away at his pipe even as a sardonic smile played around his lips.

Now Pran played a dacoit who has a change of heart in Shaheed and a lame cynic in Upkar (a role that won him his first Filmfare award, for best supporting actor, in 1967).

But it was Pran's role in 1972's Be-imaan that generated the most controversy he encountered in his professional life.

Not only did he refuse the Filmfare award for this film (since he felt the awards committee was being unfair by not giving the best music director award to the late Ghulam Mohammed for Pakeezah), he was also embroiled in a criminal case for hurting religious sentiments by breaking the head of an idol in the film.

Still, Pran proved to be as good with dialogue-delivery in real life as he was in his reel life. In court he argued passionately that in his screen career he had "murdered over 200 people and committed more than 40 rapes", but had never been hauled up before a court of law.

"Surely this 'criminal record' of mine is far more serious than the breaking of a plaster of Paris statue!" Pran remarked. The case was dismissed.

However amusing anecdotes such as this may be, they can't disguise the fact that this is a badly-presented book. The photographs ""some of them clearly rare""should have been more prominently displayed and the captions should have been more imaginative.

But it is the editor who is most at fault. ...and Pran is a slow, rambling account. It could have been more tidily told in half the length.

... and Pran

Bunny Reuben
HarperCollins
Price: Rs 500
Pages: 446