“MATRU KA BIJLI KA MANDOLA” as Harphool Singh Mandola.

“The film is a topical and contemporary film and I play this rich, flamboyant, gregarious and ambitious alcoholic, who flirts with politics literally too since he flirts unabashedly with a lady politician. He is also bent upon converting a poor farmer’s lands into malls by conniving with politicians. He is an “in the face” character whose two weaknesses are his daughter Bijlee played by Anushka Sharma and alcohol”, Pankaj sets the ball rolling by describing his character at length.

Pankaj says that he has always believed in the script as an actor, since he feels that it is the script which alone serves as a Bible for an actor, by providing him with his inputs for his craft. “The more you understand your script, the more shades you can see in your character which will help you interpret your role in a better way. It helped me while discussing the film with director Vishal Bharadwaj, since he is also the writer of the film. Both of us came to a mutual ground and worked on the language. Vishal arranged for a consultant who gave me tips to speak my lines with a Haryanvi accent”, Pankaj said.

The reason Pankaj has not been seen in any film for the last three years is that he was totally involved in the making of his own film “MAUSAM” with his son Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. “There has been a gap also because I try to choose the best out of the offers that land in my lap. Ideally I’d love to be part of even four different films with different kinds of directors. I reject a film not just because I do not like the script. I may reject it because I do not feel comfortable with the director or the producer. At times I select one out of the 50 offers that I get and at times I may end up selecting one of the three that I get. If you care to remember, I did films like DHARAM, BLUE UMBRELLA, SEHAR and DUS in just a span of a year and a half.”

Pankaj is frank when he confesses that MAUSAM did not click at the box office because on a technical level, he feels that it should have been slickly edited by weeding out at least 15 to 20 minutes. “Each project has its own destiny. Though the audience loved the first half and the writing was fantastic, I felt that the story writing did not attract them in the second half and I too had reservations about the second half and feel that we should have released it after three months by looking properly at the edit. Not every film becomes successful and one should try to learn from one’s failure. The fact that my directorial debut film did not click at the box office has not at all deterred me from trying my hand at directing once again in the near future”

I try to choose the best out of the offers that land in my lap. Ideally I’d love to be part of even four different films with different kinds of directors.At times I select one out of the 50 offers that I get and at times I may end up selecting one of the three that I get.

Pankaj confesses that frankly speaking, he does not at all know what his potential is as an actor. “I am waiting for my next film HAPPY. I would love to do a film with my son Shahid if we get the right script but till date we have not eben approached by any one with the right script. I do not have any other film on my hands. I want to explore a variety of roles as an actor to allow myself to discover what my range as an actor is and enhance my personality as an actor. I cannot evaluate myself as an actor and talk about my growth from the time I had made my debut as an actor in a small role in Richard Attenborough’s GANDHI as Mahatma Gandhi’s secretary Pyarelal to MATRU KA BIJLEE KA MANDOLA.I do not want to judge myself, because I feel that it is my producers and directors who should tell me about my growth.”

However, Pankaj does not hesitate to state that he has learnt from  whatever experience he has had as an actor to improve himself and has tried to be as honest as possible with every project that has  come his way, because it helps an actor to mature properly or else there is the danger of him becoming repetitive or predictable . “It is the way my mind  has been trained for the last 30 years and this kind of conditioning has certainly helped me as an actor and prevented me from  becoming  complacent at any stage”.

Jyothi Venkatesh