Roomaniyat (romanticism, romantic nature) is an unlikely term to refer to a Nana Patekar character. He began his Hindi film career in the roles that typically portrayed him as a disoriented, disillusioned youngster who takes up arms against the society, and self-destructs.
Ravi, his character in Ankush , along with his friends, resorts to killing the anti-social elements after losing faith in the justice system. In Parinda , Angaar and Ghulam-e-Mustafa , Patekar’s character is an anti-social element himself. In Tirangaa and Yeshwant , he is a pessimistic policeman. The apotheosis of the vigilantism of his characters was in Krantiveer where he electrified the screen through rabble rousing and histrionics. Amidst these, Nana did one role that diverged from this.
The film, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaayen ( Let’s Get A Little Romantic ), was Amol Palekar’s take on the Joseph Anthony-directed The Rainmaker (1956) where a trickster claims to have the ability to bring rain to a drought-stricken village. The gloom-driven locality is forced to trust him, clinging to a ray of hope — even if it is one it knows to be untrue — in an era of economic depression.
Nana played the role of a romantic who brings cheer to the lives of those in the parched village. His name, Dhrushtadyumna Padmanabh Prajapati Neelkant Dhoomketu Barishkar, was reflective of the poetic mood of the movie and his personality traits alike.
The Hindi version has a parable-like feel. Reminiscent of Chetan Anand’s Kaifi Azmi-scripted Heer Ranjha , the film’s dialogues are majorly in verse form. The characters don’t just emote; they ‘lyricise’ their state of mind. This is not limited to the words in their conversation, it extends to their sensibilities, which are poetic, and, to justify the title, romantic.
This is best visible in the scene where the patriarch of the lead family expresses the need to celebrate little moments of joy — like a wedding — even when desperation in the form of a natural calamity is seeped into the town’s consciousness. Hence, when a smiling Santa Claus-like figure, with a simple sack clung to his shoulders, enters their household and claims to bring rain through his quackery, the family has little difficulty in internalising his miracle claims, even though they believe it to be untrue.
To add a metaphorical dimension to Dhoomketu’s entry into their lives, the director introduces a power-cut. One of its members, Binni (Anita Kanwar), a 30-year-old lady who has chosen to flout the dictates of the society by choosing not to marry, has just admonished the members of the town for their chauvinism. Amidst this darkness and anger, the rainmaker claims to be someone who can take away their worries and give them hope. He says he has the ability to conjure up the rain clouds, for the welfare of the town, not just the family.
The narrative takes an interesting turn when we realise that, unlike the original movie, the efforts of the ‘rainmaker’ here are directed more at fighting his own inner demons, building his own self-esteem, rather than bringing the mythical rain, for which he neither has the knowledge nor the expertise. His ‘god complex’ is borne out of this self-image - him wanting to eradicate drought from the town and, in the process, getting a sense of achievement.
Like Raju (Rajesh Khanna) of Bawarchi, he has unshakable belief in his emancipatory abilities, a confidence that is contagious. As he sings in the title song: Dard ko baansuri banaayein (Let’s make our pains the food for flute music), it feels as if the Nana Patekar of Ankush and Krantiveer is dreaming of a utopian future.
At the end of the movie, it does rain, but Dhoomketu doesn’t have a role to play in that. However, the hope he instils in an unconventional Bina and her family makes them look toward their future with positivity. In the process, the lead himself gets a feeling of accomplishment, giving him the succour for his future journeys.
