Daily Times

On April 12, 2013, veteran actor Pran was awarded (though hugely belatedly) the most coveted Indian cinema prize: the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. For us Lahorites this is an occasion for special joy and pride because more than 70 years ago it was in our city that he cut his teeth as an actor. This is, therefore, a special tribute to that great artiste. Pre-partition Lahore was a cosmopolitan city thriving with artists, music bands, clubs, actors, and indeed, a huge variety of popular culture that prospered inside the walled city as well as in the new localities that had sprung up in the 20th century.

Pran Krishen Sikand (born February 12, 1920) shifted to Lahore from Delhi to learn the art of photography. One day, Wali Muhammad Wali, better known as Wali Sahib, spotted him at a pan-shop in Hira Mandi and offered him a role in films. Initially, Pran was reluctant but Wali Sahib urged him to visit the Pancholi Art Studio. He did not, but later they met again at the Plaza cinema. This time Pran complied and that earned him the lead role in a Punjabi film, Yamla Jatt (1940). He acted in another 23 movies in Lahore, but like thousands of other Hindus and Sikhs he had to leave Lahore in 1947, never to return. Some of his Lahore films were released after the partition.

In Bombay his closest friends included Manto and Shyam (died 1951). In his biography And Pran (by Bunny Reuben, HarperCollins, 2005) he fondly remembers Manto: “The great Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto, a dear friend of mine who was employed at Bombay Talkies, then one of the leading film companies in the country, took me to Malad in effort to get me some work. However, at that time nothing happened.”

Although his reputation had reached Bombay before his arrival in 1947, it took quite some time before he got a break. From the beginning Pran was not comfortable with song-studded romantic scenes. Therefore, it was partly his own disinclination, and partly the perception of people who cast him in films that despite his dashing looks he clicked as a villain, and that became his trademark though Raj Kapoor cast him in a sympathetic role in Aah (1953). Later, he began taking up diverse character roles.

Among his closest friends have been Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor. A Lahori friend of mine who lives in Washington DC told me that some years ago a friend of his called upon Pran at his Bombay residence. The warmth and hospitality he received was remarkable. However, on a number of occasions when Pran has been invited to visit Pakistan he has politely declined the invitation. Pran explained his reluctance to visit Lahore as an emotional matter: he found it difficult to return to a place from where he was once forced to leave because of his religion.

Yet that has not affected Pran’s love for Lahore. In many ways the Lahore connection kept coming back in his life one way or the other. His co-stars and associates from Lahore too had not forgotten him. Pran and Noorjahan acted together in Yamla Jatt but in that film Noorjahan played a minor role as a child artiste. Later they paired in Khandaan (1942). Many years later, Noorjahan met Pran’s son Arvind in London and told him bluntly, “You know, when I look at you, you could have been my child.”

Noorjahan’s proverbial amorous proclivities had obviously at one time included Pran in its ambit, but to tell this point blank to Pran’s son required some guts and madam, we know, had plenty of them. Anyway, it resulted in Pran and Noorjahan talking to each other on the phone after many years. They finally met when Noorjahan attended the Golden Jubilee of the Indian talkie at Bombay in 1982. Pran recalls: “Noorjahan was so nervous about the trip, she called me at least eight-ten times before she boarded the plane, just to be reassured that I’d be waiting for her at the airport with a special bus. It was an evening to remember and she was so thrilled that she’d let herself be persuaded to make that visit to Bombay. I also threw a party in her honour where she could meet many more of her old colleagues and friends.”

Pran the man in real life was quite the opposite of many of his famous roles as a bad man. A thorough gentleman and a great host he has always been known for being a man of principles and integrity. I have counted at least 60 awards that he has won as an actor during a career that started in Lahore in 1940 and continued in Bombay till 2007, but the award that he refused to accept is the one that will always signify his stature as a great human being. In 1972, Pran won the Best Supporting Actor award for Beimaan. The same film also won the best music award. He, however, felt that the best music award should have gone to music-director Ghulam Mohammad for Pakeezah. Therefore, he refused the award given to him. Surely such men of integrity and substance are not easy to find.

Pran-ji is now 93. I have not had the privilege to meet him, but the last time I saw him was on YouTube in 2011 when he celebrated his 90th birthday. Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor were among the well-wishers who were at his place on that occasion. Kapoor is no more. Only Dilip and Pran now remain from the old guard that made Bollywood so famous.

The writer is a PhD (Stockholm University); Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; and Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Latest publications: Pakistan: The Garrison State, Origins, Evolution, Consequences (1947-2011), Karachi: Oxford Unversity Press, 2013; The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012; New Delhi: Rupa Books, 2011). He can be reached at billumian@gmail.com