Less than three months after receiving the Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind, actor Dinyar Contractor, one of the torchbearers of Parsi Gujarati comedy, passed away on Wednesday morning, at the age of 79. He was cremated at the Worli Prayer Hall for the Parsi community.
Contractor was a versatile actor of the stage, cutting his teeth in professional theatre with stalwarts like Adi Marzban. He enjoyed an acting career of more than 50 years, continuing to work in theatre even as films ( Such A Long Journey , 36 China Town , Khiladi ) and advertising (the iconic Rasna ad) took notice of his formidable comedic talent. “You need to know your lines on stage — theatre gives you just one take, unlike films. My efficiency increases with every show,” he said, in an interview with the Parsi Times weekly earlier this year.
When the local Doordarshan channel in Mumbai was launched in 1972, Contractor came on board Aao Marvao Meri Saathe , a Gujarati variety entertainment programme. All this, while holding down a sideline at Rallis India Limited, a crop care chemicals producer, for almost two decades. His own Dinyar Contractor Productions continued in the same vein of the laugh riots that made him a household name in Parsi homes.
“As a showman, I know the pulse of my audience, so my plays became hits,” he said. In later years, he was part of popular TV shows like Khichdi and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah .
Recently, a ‘meeting of generations’ took place with Sam Kerawalla’s Laughter in the House , a Parsi revue that has seen two editions over the last eight years. Alongside a slew of formidable stage veterans and a host of younger talent, Contractor held his own and demonstrated how those in the ‘old guard’ were still in their element, and not yet ready to pass on the baton.
In the second edition, he nimbly shuffled in and out of the show in a wheelchair as if it were a magic carpet, and provided the evening its pièce de résistance — a wonderfully rambling rigmarole full of the kind of pithy, observational humour that the septuagenarian still had a perfect hold on. Many of his turns were wonderfully ad-libbed and improvised on the spot.
Among his popular plays was the Gujarati comedy Maro Line Toh Tabiyet Fine , with Contractor holding fort even in its English and Hindi versions ( No Sex Please Hum Hindustani and Hungama Ho Gaya ). A 1990 edition of Bombay Magazine spoke of how Contractor “has made a career of (this) play” while dubbing him the Dada Kondke of theatre, a backhanded compliment perhaps, which was nonetheless a testament to his appeal to mass audiences. Shows of the play featuring Contractor were staged as recently as 2017 at the Sophia Bhabha Auditorium.
Other plays like Aadoshi V/s Padoshi was performed 168 times in 210 days in 2013. His passing leaves a huge void in the world of theatre.
