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Kishor Kadam belongs to the second generation of
non-chocolate heroes of Indian theatre and
cinema. Following in the footsteps of
Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, this new tribe
enjoys a happier double life — in terms of
full-time careers straddling screen and stage,
and art-house and mainstream productions.
Incidentally, Kishor is also an acclaimed
Marathi poet and writes under the nom de plume,
Soumitra. But things were not as happy for
Kishor, in his early days, at the modest
fisherman’s cove of Khar Danda in Mumbai. He was
a wild-card entry, in every sense of the word,
into Marathi’s highly competitive college
theatre scene. Theatre guru Satyadev Dubey
noticed him and groomed him in his acting
school, where Olympian efforts on voice and
diction (at least in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and
English) are de norm. Countless hours of
practice and dedication helped him shine on
Mumbai’s ‘art’ circuit, with productions like
Bambai ke Kowwe. But his ticket to national fame
was the role of Devdas Gandhi, the Mahatma’s
son, in Gandhi v/s Gandhi..., and more recently
Dhyasparva, Amol Palekar’s biopic on India’s
family planning pioneer R.D. Karve. One is
tempted to compare Kishor's earthy appeal and
intensity to Denzel Washington’s, though it
might be a tad early to do so. |
