Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre: Being Shyam: Total recall

At 75 Madhav Vaze is bound by one assignment mdash to be honest in his recall of experiences associated with the making of the iconic 1953 Marathi film Shyamchi Aai where he played the protagonist Shyam Vaze now working on his memoir feels an lsquoifnotnowthenwhenrsquo urgency to speak on behalf of his 12yearold self who became an overnight superstar in a bargain that was elevating but not entirely fair While acknowledging the lifealtering exposure the film offered Vaze has candidly shared the small and big jolts that Shyamchi Aai gave to a shy underexposed schoolgoing child artiste from Pune who had never faced the camera never lived in a big city and never dealt with mavericks like film director Pralhad Keshav AtreMadhav Vaze with wife Shailaja at Karve Road in Pune PicManda TannuIn his words ldquoI was a Puneri karata brought up on toop ghee metkoot a powdered mixture of lentils and spices and bhat rice served with the attention and love of a welltodo joint family My father a teacher at the Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya Appa Balwant Chowk was unimaginably proud to lend his son for a film based on Sane Gurujirsquos moral precepts he did not even think of the honorarium just happy that I was allowed to attend school intermittently and that I was not put up in a hotel but in Acharya Atrersquos home at Shivaji Parkrdquo It is another story that life was far from idyllic at the Atre residence where a bedroom gallery became little Madhavrsquos rest stop with practically no one to talk toA photograph of a younger Madhav and ShailajaVazersquos is not a recollection of harshness inflicted by Atre or actress Vanmala who played the mother but it is a truetolife representation of some revered figures of Maharashtra ldquoBoth Saheb he called Atre by that name and Vanmalabai have passed away I have digested the past and risen above the unpleasantness of my situation So I can capture lsquoShyamrsquos moodrsquo objectively without mincing words These revelations are as much a part of the film as is its celebrated onscreen depiction of a child coming to terms with liferdquoA still from Shyamchi Aai in which actress Vanmala played mother to Madhav Vazersquos characterVazersquos observations are amusing because Shyamchi Aai is a veneration of a motherrsquos positive upbringing which instills the best of human values to survive the worst of adversities It required a performer to render a povertystricken precocious kid belonging to a debtridden Konkan household where the father falls on bad days while the mother battles on courageously The child artiste essaying the lead role needed emotional warmth to overcome his homesickness While it was his ldquoextreme good luckrdquo to be chosen as Shyam at an age where he did not fully realise what had come his way he sulked and wished for friendlier company ldquoAtre was a busy person with little time and inclination for a chat Making a movie was one part of his social life His flat was abuzz with interesting people of various callings They enjoyed drinks ate fish and purred politics I was the outsider mdash uncomfortable unused to westernised ways I had not lived in a house with a dining table a refrigerator and a commoderdquoHad there been some offline motherson chemistry between the reallife Shyam and actress Vanmala it could have compensated for Atres indifference ldquoBut she was my mother only on screen and I wanted more someone to hold me tight before I sleptrdquoldquoThe only time when she really cared for me was when the unit went to Delhi for the Presidentrsquos award We were invited to the award party night but she left the scene along with me She felt it was not meant for a childrdquoVaze gives credit to the coproducer Dattatray Sathe who sensed the young Madhavrsquos suffocation and invited him to mingle with his four children at the Gangaram Khatri Wadi in Girgaum ldquoAs I played cricket with the four siblings and saw some papadlonache on my plate I felt normal I told Sathe Nana that I will stay with themrdquo With the Jyoti Studio Kennedy Bridge just a few tram stations away life seemed sorted out mdash a budding Mumbaikar had begun to commute on his ownThe memoir honours Shyamrsquos popularity which has lasted Vaze a lifetime unknown people have showered him with love because he was lsquotheirrsquo Shyam The fan club transcends geographical boundaries mdash embracing Maharashtrians settled in the US UK and Europe students of other nationalities studying in Pune film and theatre buffs who are familiar with Vazersquos writings and spread all over the world Most notable is the instance 1983 at the Indian High Commission office in London where a Gujarati gentleman official convinced the French Embassy to grant Vaze a visa stating ldquoYou have made us cry at one point What can I do for you If the French donrsquot give you a visa I will ban their entry into Indiardquo Shyamchi Aai had come to Vazersquos rescue in an alien land 30 years after its release ldquoSaras Baug to San Francisco supermarkets to airport lounges bank counters to criticsrsquo symposiums Shyam follows me like a mobile networkrdquoVaze prides himself on his postShyamchi Aai achievements mdash as an English professor a promoter of 300odd childrenrsquos plays Nandanvan the most notable the founder of the Jagar theatre group the director of plays like Tughlak Oedipus and Hamlet as late as 2014 the writer of Rangmudra 14 theatre veteransrsquo interviews and a vocal member of the International Association of Theatre Critics representing India in several fests including Festival drsquoAvignon and Sterijino PozorjeDespite the phenomenal adulation Vaze has not failed in his objective analysis of the factors that triggered Shyamrsquos success Much before the memoir took shape Vaze has been candid in stating that Shyamchi Aai is a heavily sentimental movie which Atre intentionally and successfully premised on the sureshot saleable theme of the motherson bond ldquoHis gamble just worked naturally because of the outstanding empathy that the actors could evokerdquo Vaze has a bagful of anecdotes that relate to the period when the movie did not do well after its release Atre lsquoengineeredrsquo several felicitation ceremonies for Shyam in order to evoke public interestShyamchi Aai is a construct that stands for the wellbehaved conscientious gentle child brought up on nationalist ideals of a newly Independent IndiaHe is a product of a religious joint family steeped in ideals that were true to its timesWhile going about his daily business of life Vaze is often told by parents that they want to inculcate a Shyamlike moral code in their children He wonders what that means in todayrsquos contextSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext