One of the very frank autobiographies I have read in the recent times.
Naseeruddin shah talks bout his life at National School of Drama (NSD), Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and his love and passion for acting, his disinterest in studies, his constant cold war with his father and much more. The frankness and the humorous way in which its written makes the reading much enjoyable.
In one of the class 9th Maths paper he submitted blank answer sheet writing only few lines addressing the teacher on why the hell should you ask us questions you yourself do not know answers to. Fun fact: He failed twice in this class!
What I loved the most in the book was his early stint at Mumbai when he went there as a teenager and struggled to earn his living (looking for making a killing at the movies, which he didn’t, atleast during those few months), how he slept in a dorm, along with other struggling actors, no money to eat, worked in a few movies as an extra, also applied for a doorman at the Taj. Thank god for Taj did not hire him, things would have been quite different for the Indian film industry then!
I was kind of saddened by the fact that ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaron’ was not mentioned in his book at all. It’s one of my favourite films of all times and I had hoped he would throw some light on the making of this one film more than others.
Having said that, the book is written in a humorous way and would make you smile all the way with his frankness and choices of things he mentioned in the book.
Its interesting to note how he fell in love with a much elder lady (Parveen) while he was only 20 years old and even had a child – Heeba Shah (who now plays an important role in the TV serial – Balika Vadhu). He later married Ratna Pathak. Another interesting story that he talks about is his failed love story with someone he refers as ‘R’, this story runs for quite sometime and is interesting to note the fluctuations of his emotions for her, from time to time. His relationship with his father is another interesting character in here.
I found this book a good read. If you like his work (not sure I can find a person who does not love his work) then you should give this book a read. Best thing about the book is his frankness.