memory remains: It is necessary for an artist to wear the character’s dress on his soul. Character after character, the soul and dress kept changing, the same character appeared in the body. Satish Kaushik knew this very well.
Satish Kaushik. (Photo Credits: Twitter/@satishkaushik2)
(scene one)
Date 9 March 2023
The Filmi Calendar Show Season 2 Episode 38
Title Song Chalta Hai-(Voice is familiar)
RJ’s voice comes (singing) – Chadti Jawaani Meri Chaal Mastani, Tune Kadar Na Jani Rama
(show title)
Yes, this is your own Satish Kaushik who keeps the world on his toes!! The Show Has Started, The Filmy Calendar Show Season – 2
Yes, digital calendar brother, at least find out today’s date. The sound of a wheel spinning is heard and the date comes out as 22nd of January 1982. The film Satte Pe Satta was released on this date.
The host of the show Satish Kaushik talks about the film’s trivia, songs and interesting anecdotes, laughing and singing in his usual style. Theater and film actor, producer, director, dialogue writer as well as the style of Satish Kaushik that you became aware of was that of the show host. Not only this, he himself sang the title song of the show.
Satish Kaushik was hosting the show on HT Smartcast, a podcast of Hindustan Times since 2019. Combining both the seasons, this was his 145th podcast. Moreover, the day he said goodbye to this world, it was broadcast on that day also. As if you have given the philosophy of life – show must go on!
(give a look)
year 1979
Location- Mumbai
monsoon day
A simple boy of twenty-three-twenty-four years old, who has only eight hundred rupees in his pocket and has eight hundred fold self-confidence, alights from the Paschim Express from Delhi at Mumbai station. The big city is a little nervous seeing the crowd and the stormy waves of the sea. What to do, where to go?
Prithvi walks towards the theatre. Where big theater actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Ompuri are rehearsing the play. There is a strong desire in the mind that he should also get a small role, just… he knows how to play the characters. He speaks there, shows his theater experience, then a small role is given to him because the artist who was to play that role suddenly had to go to Lucknow. That role was given to that boy because the show must go on.
(scene three)
year 1972
The Players Theater Group
Kirori Mal College, New Delhi
inter class play competition
The hall is packed with students, there is tremendous booing on every play. The actors get frustrated and the curtain is brought down again and again. Now it is the turn of another play – Chess.
All the actors are on the stage.
Everyone has decided that no matter what happens, the curtain will not come down midway. The drama will be staged till the last scene. Students are throwing tomatoes, flying paper planes. In the middle, some artists start getting frustrated, one of them says that the show should not be stopped. This artist was none other than Satish Kaushik.
The play ends, all the actors hug each other and learn this one lesson, no matter what the show must go on.
(scene four)
Location- Nai Wali Gali, Karol Bagh Delhi
Year- 1965-66
A nine to ten year old boy sneaks into his mother’s room, takes out five rupees and reaches the cinema hall running. The guide buys the movie ticket. When he returns home after watching the film, the elder brother is seen standing at the door with a cane in his hand. In the other hand of the elder brother, there is a newspaper, in which there are cross marks on the names of all those films which have been screened in cinema halls and have been seen. The child is scolded with a cane for secretly withdrawing money from his mother’s wallet and watching a movie.
On the other hand, there is a smile on the child’s face even after being beaten, another show of the mind guide is going on.
Come what may – the show must go on
This child plays the role of funny Pandit ji in a play of his school who is telling the story. Catches the character so strongly that people burst out laughing. After this, in a family wedding, he watches the mono act of his cousin’s brother very carefully and plays it himself in the school’s farewell.
This child has been infected by the virus of acting and to such an extent that the child has decided that he will become an actor. This child became famous actor Satish Kaushik.
Satish Kaushik was born in a lower middle class family but dreams are high… that I will do something big and someday remove the sufferings of this house. Used to live in a small house in Karol Bagh, New Delhi with five siblings and parents. There were no books, literature or reading and writing environment in the house. Only one English paper used to come on Sunday. If Satish had read it, his father would have lovingly called him Shastriji. And they were able to feel the helplessness of the father, the financial burden and the pain of the shoulders bowed down by the weight of that bag of locks.
Take that pain and character with you for the rest of your life. Father was a salesman of locks.
Childhood drama reached theater in college. When did the step move from science to theatrical science, it is not known. Joined The Players Theater Society of Kirori Mal College. Whenever he used to participate in any play, a person used to watch him very carefully. He was Professor Frank Thakurdas, the younger brother of Veda Thakurdas, the first principal of Miranda House College.
Within a year or two of the establishment of Kirori Mal College, Professor Frank Thakurdas had formed the college’s theater society in the year 1957 – The Players Theatre. He used to teach Dramatics and English as well as Political Science there. He was so popular that most of the students used to call him uncle.
One day this same uncle called Satish Kaushik and said that you don’t do anything, just act. When Satish Kaushik said that how can a simple looking boy like me act?
Professor said – When you are acting, you look very good, it is difficult to take your eyes off.
Taking inspiration from his saying, Satish Kaushik came to the National School of Drama. Here he started digging himself. Spent hours in the library, read European and American plays, Sartre, Ibsen, Chekhov, Shakespeare and drama. Satish Kaushik staged many plays in NSD and left his mark. Some of which are Men Without Shadow, Nautanki Laila Majnu, Danton’s Death, Bhagavadzukiyam and Chief Minister.
With a belief, he first moved to Film Institute, Pune and then to Mayanagari. After reaching Mumbai, he joined Prithvi Theater and started acting there. To earn, he used to work in a textile mill and spend the rest of his time in Prithvi Theatre. From there he found his way to films, where he acted, produced and directed more than 150 films.
It is easy to say that a path has been found and walk on it. But it is necessary for an artist to wear the character’s dress on his soul. Character by character, the soul and dress kept changing. The body appeared to be the same character. Satish Kaushik knew this very well.
He brought alive the character of his father through a play. His role in this drama was highly appreciated. Satish Kaushik played the role of a salesman Ramlal in this play directed by famous theater and film director Feroz Abbas Khan. The name of the play was ‘Death of a Salesman’.
Another play in which his role was highly discussed was the play Mr. and Mrs. Murarilal directed by Saif Haider Hasan. It was staged in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh. Apart from this, he also directed a play in NSD itself, he got hold of the role of a film director from here. Worked in more than 150 films. Also appeared in series on OTT platforms but it is sad that now the calendar has worn Mr. India’s watch and he will no longer be seen with red glasses.
Film Mr. Satish Kaushik in the role of calendar in India. (Screengrab Credit: YouTube)
This is the sorrow of the hearts of all those children who went to watch Mr. India with their father sitting on the pole in front of the cycle. from where parody Returned after remembering a line of- My name is Calender, I have gone inside the kitchen, ask for a ball, brother, with folded hands.
It is a different matter that now no matter how loudly one sings, that ball cannot be asked for. Even by threatening Pappu pager in Mumbai style.
In the beginning, I want to show you two dates through the film calendar show that we talked about, they are-
First- Satish Kaushik was born a year before the year in which The Players Theater Society was formed i.e. in the year 1957.
Second- Prithvi Theater opened in Juhu, Mumbai in the year 1978 (before that it was a traveling theater company) Satish Kaushik came to Mumbai in the very next year in 1979. The Players and Prithvi Theater will be there, Satish Kaushik will also be there.
This is also how the date calendar came out brother… that we do not have our own calendar anymore.
(Madhuri is a news reader at All India Radio, Jaipur.)
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Categories: India, Special, Society
