In last several weeks, I finished reading three memorable books:
1. "Stalingrad" by Antony Beevor
2. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
3. "Palkhi" (पालखी) by D B Mokashi (दि. बा. मोकाशी)
If I have to choose the most interesting character from each of them, they would be Friedrich Paulus, the Father and Mokashi respectively.
And if I were to make feature films based on these books, to play all those- seemingly disparate- roles, I would choose Gene Hackman or Balraj Sahni.
These two gentleman make me watch their film- on second viewing because I am simply awestruck first time- the way I would read good poetry: I want to dissect every word, I want to pause, I want to go back, I want to focus on what they do with their whole body....
In their hands, cinema as an art scales the heights reached by written word and music.
Cinema is primarily a director's medium but there are always exceptions.
Hackman has dabbled in writing. According to Wikipedia "Sahni was a gifted writer, his early writings were in English, though later in life he switched to Punjabi, and became a writer of repute in Punjabi literature."
I did not need Wiki info because Sahni's worth was proven when he wrote dialogues, screenplay and story of my favourite Hindi film Baazi(1951).
Hackman is a child of a broken home while Sahni had to suffer early death of his beloved daughter after her marriage.
Mr. Sahni never turned even 60.
p.s.
Soumitra Chatterjee, when asked "You have been a model to more than two generations of aspiring actors. Who has been your model?":
"One person who really inspired me was Balraj Sahani. I think he is the best cinema actor that India has ever seen. He could carry on a big role, a hero's role with the nuances of a character actor."
(Frontline, May 4 2012)