One person who does not seem perturbed by all the bad press for the recently released, ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, is Naseeruddin Shah, the man who plays the long-bearded Captain Nemo in the movie.

“I wasn't looking at this film as my launch in Hollywood but as a great experience and a chance to work with the legendary Sean Connery,” he said recently about the legendary actor who reminded him of Dharmendra. The two struck up a good rapport and Naseer, who had grown up watching Connery, respectfully called him ‘Sir’ throughout the making of the film.

But then Naseer is that kind of contradiction.
On the one hand, he will do Captain Nemo in ‘LXG’ and ‘Jalwa’. On the other hand, he’ll do ‘Bazaar’ and ‘Mandi’ and ‘Paar’. He’ll refuse to audition for Hollywood directors and then he’ll lash out at the art house film makers and the commercial film makers until you suspect he’s going to paint himself into a corner.

Then along comes a ‘Monsoon Wedding’
or a ‘3 Deewaarein’ and you are reminded that he is a genius, one of the greatest actors that the country has ever produced and you know that he will be allowed to do his own thing, to take pot shots at everyone and get away with it because whatever else, the man can act.

The Big Leap
While the media has been going to town about Naseer acting alongside Sean Connery, the actor himself isn't hankering after Hollywood. In fact, he thinks that the typical cameos that Indian actors are regularly subjected to do in Hollywood are downright humiliating. No stranger to international admiration (his role in ‘Monsoon Wedding’ made people sit up and take note), he doesn't rule out the possibility of a 'League' sequel either.

Naseer, who has just finished Vishal Bhardwaj's Indian-adapation of ‘Macbeth’, ‘Miyan Maqbool’ and Rajiv Rai's ‘Asambhav’, doesn’t balk from saying that he doesn't find films challenging any more. True to his word, for the last three years, he has devoted almost all his time and energy to theatre and seems to be a happier person for it. At a recent staging of his family production, ‘Ismat Aapa Ke Naam’ in Delhi, he mentioned being “more prolific than ever before, bringing out three productions in a year.”

Forthright and honest, Naseeruddin Shah isn't a man to mince words. He loves cricket with a passion and has often said that if he were to pursue another profession, it would have to be cricket. What remains closest to his soul is theatre, but he has often commented in his deadpan straight manner that he wouldn't mind signing a film if he was offered a mountain of money for doing so. That glint in his eye does hide a trace of sharp humour and sardonic wit.

On screen, Naseer is a man of contrasts. He can be mellow, intense, serious, comic, dramatic, even devilish, like his evil turn in ‘Sarfarosh’. From the cacophonous ‘Hero Hiralal’ to ‘Bombay Boys’ — his diverse roles have always surprised and silenced critics. 1950-born Naseer is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Shyam Benegal, who cast him in ‘Nishant’ in 1975, followed by ‘Manthan’ and ‘Bhumika’, noticed him. Naseer, along with the likes of Om Puri, Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi, was one of the vanguards of the parallel cinema movement.

An Acting Misfit?
Some of his best performances have been with directors like Benegal, Saeed Mirza, Mrinal Sen, Ketan Mehta and Sai Paranjape. People still remember him as the intense Goan garage mechanic in ‘Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai’.

Along the way, Naseer has also acted in television (‘Mirza Ghalib’) and in mainstream Hindi movies with aplomb. Most of his roles have been comic, playing upon his natural penchant for comedy. But he’s always welcomed diversity by playing a tough-talking Parsi cop (‘Encounter’) to a regular filmi action man (‘Tridev’).

He does stand out in Bollywood, not just as an actor extraordinaire but also someone who doesn’t quite fit the scene. “Film makers here don’t know how to use me,” he says. “I don’t fall into any pre-meditated categories, I find myself chronically incapable of playing larger than life characters.”

In any case, this isn’t an actor who has looked at filmi roles to further his career. “I’m very happy doing my plays and the occasional movie in Mumbai,” he has said. In Bollywood however, Naseer has acquired quite an impenetrable aura. The actor himself is often quite amused that people consider him aloof and distant, something he insists he isn’t. This intensely private man has also at times been criticised for being an egoist. He isn’t someone who panders to the press.

"My ego comes to the fore when I'm offered a role which insults my intelligence," he once remarked. Off work, he is an indulgent father, who goes to drop his two sons in boarding school and does theatre with his equally talented wife Ratna Pathak Shah and daughter, Heeba.

Heeba, along with a clutch of young actors, is now part of Naseer’s theatre group Motley, rehearsing and touring for plays like ‘Safed Jhoot Kaali Shalwar’ and ‘Manto... Ismat Haazir Hain’. Naseer, for all that talk of aloof and rudeness about him, has taken quite a few of the young ‘uns under his wing. He wants to help young actors achieve their potential, because, as he says, “being a successful actor is not an achievement in itself!”

Theatre, above all, remains his first love. He is blunt enough to say that though he was praised for his earlier films, he doesn’t quite like them. “I feel I’m getting where I want to now — and that new innings maybe opening now at this age for me.”

“Film makers here don’t know how to use me. I don’t fall into any pre-meditated categories, I find myself chronically incapable of playing larger than life characters. I’m very happy doing my plays and the occasional movie in Mumbai.”