Few things on our man Manoj!

Back in Bettiah Bihar while growing up actor Manoj Bajpayee knew of a smalltime gangster a Jeetendra fan who would ride around on a Rajdoot motorcycle This bloke was fond of ldquofreeflowing bobbyprintrdquo polkadotted shirts with white trousers white shoesThatrsquos what Manoj felt Bhikhu Mhatre must wear in Ram Gopal VarmaRamursquos Satya 1998 Given that Manoj was also the uncredited costume designer for his character that hersquod been mentallyphysically preparing for six months before shootWith around Rs 25000 for costume budget in his regular shirt jeans Manoj ldquobarged into a shop in Parlerdquo His adopted swagger was already realHe was oblivious of a girl walking out the same door She interjected ldquoExcuse merdquo He casually stared back She instantly freaked and rushed out ldquoI was so Bhikhu Mhatre in my headrdquo Manoj recalls This was in the late rsquo90s of courseAs a movie critic Irsquom so tired of having to name my ldquofavourite filmrdquo that I donrsquot give it fresh thought anymore Just say Satya Of course there are far too many favourites But movies are experiential memories firstAnd nothing matches totally staggering out of a theatre when yoursquore just around 18 noJoy Bag in Despatch 2024 Both films explore Mumbai as a crime sceneThat was all the more with Bandit Queen 1994 actuallymdashalthough I was underage then and shouldnrsquot have been in that frightful theatre at allDirector Shekhar Kapur had come down to Delhi to cast for all characters of Bandit Queen from the Capitalrsquos thriving theatre scene Manoj was in it Bandit Queen shoot wrapped up around December 1992Soon after writeractor Saurabh Shukla and Manoj were on a train to Bombay As were several others from the filmrsquos castcrewShekhar had drilled a hole in their heads They just had to stop chasing idealism and appreciationcritiques from local theatre He warned them ldquoYoursquoll have kids family to feedraisehelliprdquoWhere will you go Bombay where else Thatrsquos how Manoj amp co arrived at the city freshly deeply wounded by 1993 blastsmdashthe event that truly changed Bombay including its name Not so much its films though until a pointBollywood equaled herovillain movies Producers told Manoj he could pass off for neither ldquoThere could be the odd henchman herorsquos friend roles of courserdquoNotice Manoj in his only scene from Droh Kaal 1994 with Naseeruddin Shah Om Puri and Milind Gunaji hero Camera pans from Manoj to Milind Next scene Manoj is deadHe did play a henchman in Ramursquos Daud 1997 But Daud doesnrsquot count Because Ramu was the disruptor choosing to make movies his own way ldquoHersquod already made Shiva in Telugu Hindi Kshana Kshanam Rangeelahelliprdquo Hence SatyaPost the success of which Manoj picked up no new part offered for months They were all lsquovillainrsquo roles He says backpages of filmtrade magazines would regularly publish lsquoblind itemsrsquo on him gone deluluThe phrase lsquoblind itemrsquo inevitably remind me of the late Sushant Singh Rajput who like Manoj moved from Bihar to Bombay through Delhimdashgoing from stage TV to lead roles in films They were also coactors in Sonchiriya 2019Many wondered once Sushant passed away if showbizcity the pressurespolitics of which he couldnrsquot handle eventually got to himManoj says ldquoNobody knows what happened to Sushant behind closed doors in his home Neither does CBI investigating the case As a senior colleague I would advise him to grow a thicker skin like merdquoOn screen you see Manoj hit by the cruelty of Bombay the worst as crime reporter Joy Bag in Despatch 2024 Zee5mdashwith a life totally screwed up whether to do with love family professionItrsquos Manojrsquos last release that like his first hit Satya surveys the city as a crime scene 26 years hence Also it mirrors the transition of the medium for edgy powerful cinema from theatres to OTTmdashthat Manoj 55 says hersquos somehow managed to ride inevitably being on the right pageplacetimeBhikhu Mhatre is of course way more joyous than Joy Bag That apart what separates the two films is the obsessive nature of the latterrsquos director Kanu Behl who would drive Manoj nuts exploring thus his fresh side as an actor through the characterrsquos backstory improvisations workshops strenuous shootshellipRamursquos a chiller in comparison Consider the scene when Bhikhu first meets Bhau Thakurdas Jhawle Govind Namdeo in SatyaHe touches his feet Ramu asked ldquoWhy did you do thatrdquo While Manoj merely had a oneliner for a script he didnrsquot tell Ramu hersquod written a full backstory to Bhikhu ldquoRamu would hate thatrdquoWhatrsquos that backstory Manoj says ldquoBhikhu moved with his family as a child to Bombay from around Kolhapur Bhikhursquos father worked for Bhau Upon his death Bhau took complete care of Bhikhursquos family Which is why even when Bhau yells at him for bumping off Guru Narayan he doesnrsquot look him in the eyes The respect is supremehelliprdquoWe could be looking at a prequel of Satya scripted by Manoj Or maybe not Great films should be left untouched to be rewatched instead Satya rereleases in theatres on January 17 Canrsquot waitMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper