Shatrughan Sinha’s biography looks at the actor-politician’s life with blinkers off, and makes you see why he is so likeable

A BADDIE who evoked sympathy as he fell to a bullet, a social jaywalker in need of reigning in, and later, a politician whose booming voice and witty repartee caused crowds to cheer loudly at rallies — that is the Shatrughan Sinha we know. What most, perhaps, did not notice was that this prodigal son, youngest and the most pampered in a family of academicians and doctors where four sons were named after the four brothers of the Ramayana, with no known surname or family to power his entry, set a record as the first film star from India to be sworn-in as a Cabinet minister. What we also don’t know is that the biggest regret this actor turned-politician has is contesting elections from Delhi in 1991, against Bollywood star Rajesh Khanna. “Under no circumstances should I have started my active political career with a byelection. But I couldn’t say no to (LK) Advani ji, who was my guide, guru and ultimate leader,” Sinha says, in the book Anything But Khamosh.

As a proof of Sinha’s bridges that extend beyond the boundaries set up by his own party, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has written a foreword to the biography, which is as explosive as it is candid. Another illustration of Sinha’s appeal lies in the comments his political opponents make in the book. “Irrespective of his political affiliations, we are his himayati, prashanshak, his admirers. He will be welcome anywhere irrespective of the party. Unka swagat hoga,” Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, whom Sinha described as a toprated CM in the midst of a pre-poll war of words with the BJP, says. “If he needs our support, we are there for him. Samarthan denge. He is a good man. Our doors are open for him, twenty four hours, bilkul swagat karenge, openly bola hai (We will definitely welcome him, I am saying this openly),” RJD chief Lalu Prasad adds.

Politics, of course, is just one part of the book, which also deals with Sinha’s early years in the Mumbai film industry, how he first saw his now wife Poonam as a school girl on a train and fell for her, as well as his close ties with top Pakistan leaders.

The man who stole khamosh from Prithviraj Kapoor (in Mughal-e-azam) and made it his own is, like the book announces, anything but khamosh on his life, its struggles, the quirkiness, the ironies and losses. Sinha is as frank in narrating his relationship with Reena Roy as he is candid about the misunderstandings and family squabbles with his siblings.

For the veteran actor, studies were anathema. The defiantly different Bihari babu was born for the limelight. In the face of firm resistance from his disciplinarian father Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha and indulgence of older brother Lakhan, who initiated Sinha to the fantasy world of Hindi cinema, mother Shyama Devi’s chhutka bauwa (little one) set foot in the film industry without the then-in-demand good looks of the Kapoors or any connection with the Hindi film industry. In fact, the tall, lanky and dark scar-face from Patna, whose diction had a Bhojpuri twang in his early years, went on to create history on celluloid.

It is paradoxes such as these — the style, or the lack of it, the polish in the ruggedness, irreverence in the midst of reverence, and the signature scars that added to his good looks — that the book celebrates.

The book, which was seven years in the making, is a fascinating account of a rich and chequered life. The hurrahs and the heartaches are there in equal measure. Celebrity-studded, exciting, engrossing, dramatic and forthright, the book is not just one man’s soliloquy. It has comments, and observations about Sinha, the man and the star, from colleagues as well as supposed adversaries. Right from Amitabh Bachchan to Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, and even Nawaz Sharif, everyone has something to say about Sinha and mostly it is words of genuine admiration.