In Gajendra Ahire’s The Signature, Anupam Kher plays an elderly man, whose life is turned upside down when his wife goes into a coma and is put on a ventilator. The film follows his struggles to secure money for her treatment from friends and relatives.
The actor is not new to playing such roles. At the age of 29, he made his debut as an old man who comes to terms with the loss of his only son in Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaransh (1984).
He says that at that time, he approached the role with a different sensibility. “I had done a good job because I was a theatre actor and my life depended on that one role. I knew that if I didn’t do well, I won’t get more work in films. It was that desperation that helped me do it,” he says.
Now, 40 years later, he credits his life experiences as having taught him to better embody the emotions of an elderly person. “Life is more relatable now. I can understand how one must feel to have their wife on the ventilator as my wife Kiran is a cancer survivor,” says Anupam Kher, recounting how he also saw some of his friends overcome similar situations. “Because of that, I am able to understand the emotion better now.”
In the film, Anupam’s character makes some poignant observations about age and how society treats the elderly. However, the actor is not as conscious of his age. “I stopped thinking about how old I am ever since I turned 38,” he says. Mahima Chaudhry, who plays the role of Anupam’s friend in the film, feels that her younger days in school are the ones that she remembers the most.
“I feel as if it took over 40 years to finish school in terms of all the memories I made and what I recall while looking back. On the other hand, I have been in Mumbai for the past 25 years and I feel as if I have lived here just for over 10 years,” she says. Anupam seconds this as he recounts that his last 40 years in the film industry have gone by in a flash.
“It’s as if time has passed in an instant. I vaguely remember much of it. But, I know every detail from my childhood and even my first film.” Gajendra quips that he will start thinking of ‘getting old’ when veteran poet-lyricist Gulzar does. To this, Anupam adds a funny anecdote about Javed Akhtar. “Javed Saab was once asked by a person about the age of another poet. He replied, ‘Well, he is just a few years younger to God’”.
Released on ZEE5 on October 4, The Signature is the Hindi adaptation of the 2013 Marathi film Anumati, which was also written and directed by Gajendra. Interestingly, he initially thought of it as a comedy. “It was a satirical film that revolves around a man who finds that his wife has again met with an accident.
Then I felt that I was talking about a serious topic in a funny way and decided to give it a different flavour,” he says. The idea of the film came to him from an incident that happened to one of his assistants. “She was supposed to get married but her grandmother met with an accident. As a result, all the money that was collected for the wedding went into the operation. It struck me how so many people have to bear the consequences because of one person.”
Gajendra approached Anupam with the script, who got the other cast members on board. The film stars seasoned actors like Manoj Joshi, Annu Kapoor and Ranveer Shorey in pivotal roles. Anupam was closely involved in getting Mahima to be a part of the film too.
She was undergoing treatment for cancer when the film was being shot and had lost her hair. “I had the responsibility of making her agree to do this film in the state she was in,” says Anupam. When Mahima finished the first shot, she wanted to change it. “But Anupam and Gajendra told me that it’s fine,” she says. “I wish we could reshoot it because I looked at it and got frightened. But, they said that this is how they wanted it.”
Anupam has worked with many actors over the years and sometimes with people with whom he doesn’t necessarily share the same worldview. However, he says he doesn’t judge anyone. “People who judge others decide whether to like someone or not.
I like everybody unless someone is really unlikeable,” he says. When asked if ideological differences come in the middle of his work, he replies, “I don’t have ideological differences with anyone. I think life’s richness depends on how many people like you and how many people you like,” he concludes.
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