Saeed Jaffrey Passes Away Reel Life Success
Remember Mir Raushan Ali, the nobleman of Awadh kingdom, obsessed with playing chess, forgetting governance and his family in Satyajit Ray's “Shatranj ke Khilkadi”? Or the large-hearted paanwala in “Chashme Buddoor” or Suri, the friend of protagonist Naseeruddin Shah dancing to the song of 'Huzoor is kadar na itra ke chalieye” in Shekhar Kapur's “Masoom?” That is quintessentially fine actor Saeed Jaffrey for you.
Alas, the actor is no more. He died at the age of 86 in London on November 16. Jaffrey's death was announced by his niece Shaheen Agarwal on Facebook on Sunday. He passed away in a hospital in London early on Saturday. A statement from Jaffrey Associates said the actor had collapsed at his London residence after a brain haemorrhage and never regained consciousness.
Whether it is “Shatranj ke Khiladi” or “Masoom” or that of Lallan Miyan in Sai Paranjape's 1981 comedy “Chashme Buddoor” set in Delhi in which he played the role of paanwala to whom the film's three protagonists were always in debt, Jaffrey could essay any role-meaty or non-meaty in parallel cinema or Bollywood formula films with equal competence.
The other qualities of Jaffrey, the actor were his pronunciation of Hindi, English or Urdu which were always perfect and the delivery of dialogues and emotions effortless.
Born in 1929 in Malerkotla, the Indian part of Punjab, Jaffrey, after his education at Aligarh and Allahabad, studied at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and The Catholic University of America and won the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to theatre.
“He came with the training and discipline of British theatre and was really professional. There was never a time when he came to the sets unprepared,” says film-maker Shyam Benegal who directed him in the film “Mandi”(1983).
Not many actors had worked with as much competence as Jaffrey in British and American films and Indian movies: Sir Richard Attenborough's “Gandhi” (1982) where he played Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Stephen Frears' “My Beautiful Laundrette” (1985), John Huston's “The Man Who Would be King”(1975), David Lean's adaptation of E. M. Forster's “A Passage to India”(1984), HBO mini series “Far Pavilions”(1984) and British TV show “Jewel in the Crown” (1984).
Jaffrey was just as endearing in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's “Kisi se Na Kehna” (1983), Raj Kapoor's “Ram Teri Ganga Maili” (1985), in Randhir Kapoor's “Henna” (1991) and Ramesh Sippy's “Saagar” (1985).
Jaffrey, who was the first truly recognisable face of Asian actors on British television and in Broadway in the 1960s and 70s, became the first from Asia to be given the Order of British Empire award.
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