Page 54 - Seniors Today - May21 Issue

Hangal decide to go to Goa, and try to get he finds purpose in his life in protecting
laid. They all hit on a singer (Rati Agnihotri),
who happens to be the girlfriend of their
driver (Mithun Chakraborty). They make
complete fools of themselves and come to
the realisation that their carousing days are
over. (Abhishek Sharma remade this film in
2014 as The Shaukeens, and turned it into a
vulgar farce.)
Vidhaata (1982): In Subhash Ghai’s film,
Dilip Kumar plays an engine-driver, who
becomes a killer and gangster when his son
is murdered by the villain (Amrish Puri).
His power as a Mafia don is shaken when
his grandson (Sanjay Dutt) falls in love
with a poor girl (Padmini Kolhapure) and
stands up against him for her sake.
Saaransh (1984): Anupam Khar was
in his late twenties when he played BV
Pradhan, a father grieving over the death
of their son in Mahesh Bhatt’s film. He
and his wife Parvati (Rohini Hattangady)
are shattered by the senseless murder of
their son in a mugging in America, but
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his paying guest (Soni Razdan), from the
don-politician father (Nilu Phule) of her
boyfriend. The Pradhans are dragged
through hell by the villainous Chitre, but
his own tragedy gives Pradhan courage,
and finally, the ability to go on living
despite everything they have suffered.
Amrit (1986): Rajesh Khanna had played
an angry old man in Mohan Kumar’s
Avtaar (1983), who refuses to put up with
ill treatment by his sons, and along with his
wife (Shabana Azmi) leaves home to start
a garage and also a home for other elders
in a similar predicament, but in the same
director’s Amrit, the issue of loneliness and
lack of family support for elders was dealt
with. He is sympathetic towards an elderly
neighbour (Smita Patil), but their friendship
is frowned upon by their families, so the two
decide to leave their selfish kids and live by
themselves—a different kind of happily ever
after.
102 Not Out (2018): This film is quite
recent, but a rare film in which a character
is 102 and wants to break the record for the
longest living person. In Umesh Shukla’s
film, Amitabh Bachchan played the spry old
man, who teaches his stodgy old son (Rishi
Kapoor) how to stop worrying and enjoy life.
Bachchan is one of the few senior actors who
has roles written for him and has played the
old man in many forms—cheerful, vengeful,
evil, eccentric and powerful.