Man(jrekar) vs Cancer

I used to love smoking But you can either love life or love smokingrdquo says Mahesh Manjrekar The directorscreenwriteractor was diagnosed with urinary bladder cancer last year ldquoI would go to the loo a lotrdquo says the 63yearold ldquoFirst I would get up twice at night and then every hour It was horrible Initially I was medicated for an overactive bladder characterised by frequent and sudden urge to urinate Then I saw bloodrdquo A cystoscopy revealed a high grade cancer Just two years ago he was celebrated for being at his fittest losing 30 kgldquoFitness is more important than successrdquo he had said thenCut to todayldquoThe diagnosis didnrsquot surprise me I wasnrsquot optimistic when I was told to undergo cystoscopy I was prepared for the worstrdquo says the director who has worked in Marathi Hindi Telugu and Bhojpuri films Among the remedial options was removal of the bladder ldquoOne alternative was wearing a pouch under my clothes which would store the urine an Ileal conduit but I opted for the neobladderrdquo he says Manjrekar had to undergo four gruelling cycles of chemotherapy before the bladder could be removed Not one to rest he shot Antim The Final Truth in between the chemo sessionsA visibly frail Manjrekar made his first public appearance after surgery in October last year for the trailer launch of Antim PicShadab KhanldquoThey removed the bladder and created a new bladder using a part of the intestine It was a major surgery but to be honest I was finerdquo he says candidly ldquoI lost my hair but its grown back thicker so thatrsquos a positivehelliprdquoIn his movies Manjrekarrsquos lens has never shied away from looking at the unpalatable bites of reality and hersquos not about to blink now Whether his humour is a coping mechanism or a zen response is up for debate ldquoI treated it like any other minor illness and nobody in the house also made a fuss We hardly mentioned itrdquo he shrugs The recovery process was a challenge ldquoI have never been bedriddenrdquo he says You can hear the impatience in his voice even at the memory of it ldquoAnd here I had to be confined to one room for two monthsrdquoOn his first public appearance post surgery for the trailer launch of Antim he looked visibly thin ldquoI lost my appetite due to which I lost a lot of weight but I slowly got it back again In fact today I am a little worried about the excess kilosrdquo he says ldquoTwo years ago I would exercise a lot I was a healthy 74 kg I gained weight before the surgery because it was needed but post it I suddenly went from 84 kg to 70 kg Today I am 86hellip I think this worry never goes earlier I was worried about losing weight now I am worried about gaining weightrdquo he says Therersquos that chuckle again But why the delay in diagnosisldquoI was just being complacent thinking nothing will happen to merdquo he says ldquoI should have tested for cancer long ago but assuming it to be an overactive bladder the cancer grew for almost two years Perhaps if I had gone then we would have caught it at a nascent stage and wouldnrsquot need to remove my bladder But as they say donrsquot cry over spilt milkhelliprdquoManjrekar has the selfawareness of a lifelong smoker and the regret that comes with it later in life ldquoI used to smoke a lot and it does affect your bladderrdquo he says ldquoI advise people to not smoke The minute you face any difficulty in your elimination habits go see a doctor Donrsquot diagnose yourself with Googlerdquo Itrsquos been a year since his surgery but he doesnrsquot bring the cancer up in interviews ldquoI feel actors with cancer receive a lot of attention and sympathy from the public even though there are many ordinary people who are undergoing similar challenges I didnrsquot want any of that sympathy I didnrsquot want to glorify cancerrdquo he says matteroffactlyAfter Swatantra Veer Savarkar Manjrekarrsquos next Veer Daudale Saat is based on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajrsquos military commander Prataprao Gurjar Itrsquos slated for release in multiple languagesDoes he have any plans to come back to politics ldquoI would love to but I donrsquot have timerdquo says Manjrekar who fought the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Mumbai North West as an MNS candidate but lost ldquoI have my own ideas but in politics once you join a party you have to abide by their thinking even if you donrsquot agree with it which I canrsquot do I would have to start my own party which is a bit difficult so I will just stay away from itrdquoThere are a few niggling complaints which a biannual scan looks into and then there is cystoscopy every three months to see whether everything is in order And it mostly is ldquoI need a small corrective surgery but wersquoll decide about it in July when I complete a year since the bladder removalrdquo he says ldquoNobody is immortal A young boy died of a heart attack the other day so what do I have to complain aboutrdquo Recently actor Mahima Chaudhry who starred alongside Sanjay Dutt in Manjrekarrsquos Kurukshetra observed that all three of them had cancer ldquoI should have spelled Kurukshetra with a lsquoCrsquo and not a lsquoKrsquordquo he laughs