Gentle Dharmendra, a people’s man

Contrary to his image as garam Dharam, Dharmendra — who has turned 85 today — is among the gentlest actors I have come across in my numerous interactions with Bollywood stars. Based in Pune, I often visit Lonavala, where he has a sprawling farmhouse and spends his time relaxing and farming. The best thing about him is his disarming simplicity and child-like innocence. I met him a couple of times to interview him for Pakistani Urdu dailies Jung and Nawa-e-Waqt. Urdu fascinates him. He writes poetry in Urdu and follows the Persian script like a native speaker. Full of gratitude, he never forgot to tell me that his Urdu was refined by Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Iftikhar, among others. Whenever a visitor (anyone can visit him any time) asks him why he spends time in solitude either at Lonavala or his farmhouse in Punjab, he’d say, ‘Don’t ever slam a door. You might want to go back.’ Always ready to pose for selfies for people, one wonders how he’s so chilled out.

Dharmendra quotes Bashir Badr, ‘Shohrat ki balandi bhi ek pal ka tamasha hai/Jis shaakh pe baithe ho woh toot bhi sakti hai.’ What endears him to all is his rootedness. Despite achieving name, fame and wealth, he’s not forgotten his roots. To quote his own couplet, ‘Zameen se juda hoon, zameen se raghbat hai/Meri jadein iss zameen mein hi paivast hain’ (I’m attached to the soil, I’m drawn to it/ Because my roots are deeply entrenched in the soil). An emotional person, he often breaks down when one reminds him of the people he worked with. He dislikes to be called a ‘hero’. ‘Faqat ek adna-sa adakaar hoon’ (I’m but an ordinary actor), is his refrain. When I asked him, ‘Zindagi mein koi malaal (regret) hai?’ he wistfully says, ‘Dene wale ne apni marzi se sab kuchh diya mujhe, bas woh na diya jo maine chaha’ (The Almighty gave me all that he wanted to give, but didn’t give me what I asked for).

Meeting him is always an exhilarating and ennobling experience. He often breaks into songs filmed on him. His favourite ones are, ‘Jaane kya dhoondhti rahati hain ye aankhein mujh mein’ and ‘Mujhe dard-e-dil ka pata na tha’.

Whenever he talks about Mohammad Rafi, he starts crying like a child… ‘Unki aawaaz ki vajah se main iss maqaam tak pahuncha hoon.’ Dharmendra is a grateful man. He has not forgotten those who helped him even remotely, saying, ‘Har uss shakhs ka ahsaanmand hoon jiss-se zindagi mein ek martaba bhi mila hoon’.