If you aren't on Twitter, you might have missed the inexplicable series of Alok Nath jokes that exploded toward the end of December, after the 1999 film 'Hum Saath Saath Hain' aired on television. As he does so often, Nath plays the patriarch of a family in the film and the jokes riffed on his numerous film and television roles as a ‘sanskari babu’, someone who is the very embodiment of cultural values and heritage.
While many of these were rather nasty, Nath was not remotely fazed. Within a few days, he began rattling off his favourite #AlokNath memes on interviews across television and print. A month later, Nath joined in the fun by starring as himself in a video spoofing Arvind Kejriwal by popular comedy group All India Bakchod. In the video he plays a spiritual and inspirational mentor to Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal. The video has garnered 1.6 million views in six days.
When Alok Nath moved from Delhi to Mumbai in 1981 for a role in Richard Attenborough’s iconic ‘Gandhi’, he did not think he would be typecast as a moral man. His first major role was as Haveli Ram in ‘Buniyaad’, a television serial about the Partition that aired on Doordarshan in 1986.
‘Buniyaad’, says Nath, is where he first began to be associated with playing older men. In the 30 years since then, Nath has acted in over 500 films and television shows -- frequently playing a gentle elderly guide representing Indian morality and values. “Ever since I was young, which goes back almost three decades, I started getting roles that were older than me,” the 57-year-old actor said. “In the last few episodes of 'Buniyaad', I played an old man in his 80s. That lasting image led me to other roles of older characters.”
Bollywood even then was an unforgiving industry eager to typecast actors and milk them for all their successful roles were worth. Nath attributed his pigeonholing into the ‘sanskari babu’ frame to difficult choices at the beginning of his career.
“I was a newcomer to Bombay, struggling to make ends meet," he said. "I was in a state of mind where I needed the money and recognition and roles and there was nobody to guide you, so I accepted those roles without really knowing where they would lead me.”
Nath is so closely associated with his screen persona in popular imagination that it is difficult to imagine him volunteering his services to a comedy group gently lampooning him. “My daughter works with the AIB gang,” he said, “and one day I noticed she was looking slightly morose.” When he asked what the problem was, she admitted that she was not certain whether she wanted to continue with the project because it made fun of him.
AIB was planning to get a lookalike to stand in for his scenes. Nath told his daughter to forget her personal relationship and to continue with to the shoot, but she was still reluctant. He then asked her, “Suppose I were to do the role?” She did a double-take and immediately called the AIB group. “They went ballistic,” he chuckled. “They told her to do it right then, the next day, before I changed my mind.”
The group finished the shoot for the entire video in one day. Post-production took another eight or nine days, and once it was released, it was an instant hit.
For all Nath’s ability to laugh at himself, he does retain a belief in certain core values. “What is sanskar?” he asked. “Sanskar is a part of our ethos. It’s not created by us. You simply pass on to the next generation what you have received from the previous one. And it’s not just Indians that have sanskar. It’s the whole human race.”
Sanskar, according to Shiv Visvanathan, a sociologist who studies social media among other things, is the ability not to take oneself seriously. “The slight irreverence extends from jokes about politicians to language to the way we think about ourselves," he said. "That’s the actual sanskar: a certain lightness of being. It is not, as Kundera says, unbearable. Without that, politics is kind of boring.”
Nath and Kejriwal make a perfect pair, thought Visvanathan. “I think it works because of the perceptions,” he said. “Whatever Alok Nath might be in real life, there is an impression of him being a good honest man, the perpetual victim, one whose goodness exceeds his grasp. And Kejriwal looks like anyone’s younger brother. He’s eminently adoptable.”
Visvanathan believes that the video also worked so well because of the medium it was broadcast on. “Social media has produced the ability for us to laugh at ourselves," he said. "There is a new kind of audience, new kind of reception, new modes of gossip.”
Nath said that he enjoyed working on the sketch but has no plans to continue acting for internet audiences. “AIB is a different league altogether,” he said. “It’s not my profession. This was a very impulsive choice with no strategy behind it.”
Asked whether he would like to do comedic roles in film and television, he said, “As actors, we are like plasticine. We are moulded into our roles and cannot get out. I would kill to do comedy, but it is for people to offer me those roles.”
While many of these were rather nasty, Nath was not remotely fazed. Within a few days, he began rattling off his favourite #AlokNath memes on interviews across television and print. A month later, Nath joined in the fun by starring as himself in a video spoofing Arvind Kejriwal by popular comedy group All India Bakchod. In the video he plays a spiritual and inspirational mentor to Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal. The video has garnered 1.6 million views in six days.
When Alok Nath moved from Delhi to Mumbai in 1981 for a role in Richard Attenborough’s iconic ‘Gandhi’, he did not think he would be typecast as a moral man. His first major role was as Haveli Ram in ‘Buniyaad’, a television serial about the Partition that aired on Doordarshan in 1986.
‘Buniyaad’, says Nath, is where he first began to be associated with playing older men. In the 30 years since then, Nath has acted in over 500 films and television shows -- frequently playing a gentle elderly guide representing Indian morality and values. “Ever since I was young, which goes back almost three decades, I started getting roles that were older than me,” the 57-year-old actor said. “In the last few episodes of 'Buniyaad', I played an old man in his 80s. That lasting image led me to other roles of older characters.”
Bollywood even then was an unforgiving industry eager to typecast actors and milk them for all their successful roles were worth. Nath attributed his pigeonholing into the ‘sanskari babu’ frame to difficult choices at the beginning of his career.
“I was a newcomer to Bombay, struggling to make ends meet," he said. "I was in a state of mind where I needed the money and recognition and roles and there was nobody to guide you, so I accepted those roles without really knowing where they would lead me.”
Nath is so closely associated with his screen persona in popular imagination that it is difficult to imagine him volunteering his services to a comedy group gently lampooning him. “My daughter works with the AIB gang,” he said, “and one day I noticed she was looking slightly morose.” When he asked what the problem was, she admitted that she was not certain whether she wanted to continue with the project because it made fun of him.
AIB was planning to get a lookalike to stand in for his scenes. Nath told his daughter to forget her personal relationship and to continue with to the shoot, but she was still reluctant. He then asked her, “Suppose I were to do the role?” She did a double-take and immediately called the AIB group. “They went ballistic,” he chuckled. “They told her to do it right then, the next day, before I changed my mind.”
The group finished the shoot for the entire video in one day. Post-production took another eight or nine days, and once it was released, it was an instant hit.
For all Nath’s ability to laugh at himself, he does retain a belief in certain core values. “What is sanskar?” he asked. “Sanskar is a part of our ethos. It’s not created by us. You simply pass on to the next generation what you have received from the previous one. And it’s not just Indians that have sanskar. It’s the whole human race.”
Sanskar, according to Shiv Visvanathan, a sociologist who studies social media among other things, is the ability not to take oneself seriously. “The slight irreverence extends from jokes about politicians to language to the way we think about ourselves," he said. "That’s the actual sanskar: a certain lightness of being. It is not, as Kundera says, unbearable. Without that, politics is kind of boring.”
Nath and Kejriwal make a perfect pair, thought Visvanathan. “I think it works because of the perceptions,” he said. “Whatever Alok Nath might be in real life, there is an impression of him being a good honest man, the perpetual victim, one whose goodness exceeds his grasp. And Kejriwal looks like anyone’s younger brother. He’s eminently adoptable.”
Visvanathan believes that the video also worked so well because of the medium it was broadcast on. “Social media has produced the ability for us to laugh at ourselves," he said. "There is a new kind of audience, new kind of reception, new modes of gossip.”
Nath said that he enjoyed working on the sketch but has no plans to continue acting for internet audiences. “AIB is a different league altogether,” he said. “It’s not my profession. This was a very impulsive choice with no strategy behind it.”
Asked whether he would like to do comedic roles in film and television, he said, “As actors, we are like plasticine. We are moulded into our roles and cannot get out. I would kill to do comedy, but it is for people to offer me those roles.”
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!