Memoirs by film actors can be either revealing or disappointing. Good ones are those that offer us more than what nuggets online can collectively offer us, while the disappointing ones are those that are cautious, often barely scratching the surface of the public personality that we are familiar with. The questions triggered by memoirs are: Can the actor provide revelations rather than mere rhetoric? Do her reflections give us a better understanding of her craft?
Reading Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow , I was curious to find out how a shy Pathan from Peshawar transformed himself into an acting institution. How did he develop his ‘method’ and evolve a style distinct from the theatricality that most of our actors had inherited from Parsi drama?
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Kumar’s contemporary Balraj Sahni was an activist and short story writer before he got into acting. In
The need for a scientific approach is what Naseeruddin Shah, in And Then One Day , calls the search for “psychological truth”, a concept he borrows from Konstantin Stanislavski. Like the Russian actor-director, Shah wanted to develop a system for himself that did not rely too much on the mood of the actor at the moment. He also wanted to prove that looks and lineage were not necessarily deterrents to becoming successful in acting. And so his focus on “psychological truth”, which required him to empathise with the character and create multiple reference points around him.