It was  both unsettling and reassuring to meet Naseeruddin Shah post the premier of  Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota. Unsettling because one stumbled for words trying to tell him just how much he had given one to remember. And how vividly you recall his blind gaze in Sai Paranjpay’s Sparsh. How fondly you remember his drunken slob turned messiah in Iqbal. How convincingly desperate he was in Paar when he swam through a swollen river with his pregnant wife. How you rooted for his lawyer in Aakrosh. How you laughed at him in Mandi, laughed with him in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, cried with him in Masoom, pitied him in Nishant, felt for him in Ijazat, were swept away by his anger in Bazaar, sang poetry with him in Ghalib, grew lonely with him in Pestonjee and boisterous with him in Tridev. How do you say all this in the rationed five minutes ? But a twinkle in those piercing eyes and the  smiling creases of that unforgettable face tell you that he values your respect for his work.
And no, the awards do not matter. So what if his brilliant coach in Iqbal was ignored by the juries? “Who gives a damn about these awards? It makes little difference to me whether gutka makers and makers of cleansing creams  acknowledge my work or not !’’ he sways his salt and pepper crop to convey his disdain and adds, “When a child who has seen Iqbal smiles in recognition, believe me,  that is reward enough.’’
He continues, “This strange bond with children has developed over the years. First with Masoom, then with Tridev, with Karadi Tales (that he narrated) and now with Iqbal.’’
His many faces and roles, he says, came from filmmakers who wanted to explore him as an actor, saw his potential and gave him an entire  gamut to play.  He says, “The  role of an actor is to deliver and to serve the script. I hear a lot of actors say that they are trying to be different but I want them to know, there is no sense in being different for the sake of being different.’’
And yes, just for the record, Yun Jota To Kya Hota (named after a Ghalib ghazal) delivers too. It is original. Fearless. Emotionally naked. Complex. Interesting. It  is everything that you would expect  from  Naseeruddin Shah. Like the recent Oscar winning Crash, it brings together a few unrelated characters in a moment of climactic heat when a hidden pattern both unites and fragments human lives. He says, “ I wanted to tell an original story and to not give in to the temptation of paying a tribute to someone or be inspired by my favourite films. I was very tempted to  remake the Dirty Dozen but I didn’t! I did not want my film to pander to distributors who think they know what the audience wants. I know that no one knows for sure  what the audience wants. Not even Hollywood. That is why they have gone back to making fairy tales now.’’
Shah rediscovered for the Indian theatre, the forgotten stories of  Ismat Chughtai and Sadat Hassan Manto. He staged these stories because he was tired of emoting in a language not his own and believes it is time we stopped ignoring our own literary traditions. “Shakespeare is compulsory in our schools, not Rabindra Nath Tagore or Ghalib or Kalidas,’’ he says and quotes Satyajit Ray who once wrote just how surprising it was that a country surrounded by thousands of years of literary, music and theatre  traditions could not find in its own milieu, original stories to film. 
Shah’s  film has no cinematic refrences and instead sums up the poverty and aspirations of Mumbai, its many languages and most importantly, tells the stories of people who are real and whose messy, hard and yet compelling lives are neither idealized nor airbrushed. “Cinema is not art and I don’t believe it can change the world,’’  says Shah. He believes however that a filmmaker should react to the world around him as honestly as possible. He says, “Unlike  what they show in our films, love is not always pretty. It can be a messy business. My characters  are vulnerable. They get ugly. But I was seriously tempted to show two flowers touching in the love scene between Ratna (Pathak Shah) and Paresh Rawal!’’
He showers praise on Rawal and the rest of the cast. “I wanted to bring out a caring, tender side of Paresh. Irrfan Khan, I wanted to cast because I find him immensely interesting. Konkana cast herself because she can do anything. She is the most gifted actress we have had for a long time. Ratna screen-tested for her part! I wanted Jimmy Shergill because I wanted a wholesome, desirable young man who the audience would long for as much as Konkana does in the movie. I love working with young actors because the  hope in their eyes rejuvenates me.’’
There is angst still in that voice but Naseeruddin Shah is no longer sitting on the fence and saying, “What If?’’ He is right where he belongs. Behind the megaphone. On stage. On celluloid. Creating a world that makes sense to him.