Death of an actor
B-4, Flat 48, Greenfields, Andheri East, a pokey little flat in a nondescript society was the address of international award winning actor 
On February 19, an ambulance (bedecked with red roses) bearing the registration MH-10 2530 carried the dead actor to the crematorium in Oshiwara. A cloth banner that said ‘Nirmal Pandey Amar Rahe’ attempted to show reverence to his fame. With the exception of his immediate family; and two lesser-known actors Girija Prasad and Ramesh Goyal, a handful of anonymous B-town types followed the body on bikes.
A lone cameraman captured the actor’s last journey; and even the two policemen on duty at Cooper Hospital, seemed indifferent. They had no crowds to man, no road to cordon off. No paparazzi turned up to capture this funeral; nor were there any grieving crowds to suggest that a famous actor had just breathed his last. A bunch of street kids who were playing cricket on the grounds behind the hospital, stood with folded hands and chanted —‘Ram naam satya hai’.
BEAUTIFUL INSIDE
When actor Manoj Bajpai saw his colleague’s body at the morgue, he broke down. “We started out together in Bandit Queen and were roommates through the Chambal shoot. I can’t believe he was lying dead in front of me,” he choked. Bajpai was supposed to enact the part of Vikram Mallah in Shekhar Kapur’s BQ, which was immortalised by Pandey. “Nirmal was so handsome; I knew if Shekhar lay his eyes on him, he would choose him to play Vikram,’’ says the actor without any malice. “He felt Nirmal had a Jesus Christ kind of look.”
Pandey was a softie. While shooting in Chambal, he liked spending time by himself on the balcony of the hotel they were staying in and would talk to birds. “He was also a trained singer and when he sang, I was mesmerised,” says Bajpai.
Just a couple of days back, Seema Biswas came across an empty picture frame in her house in which she casually put a working still of Pandey from BQ. The picture shows the two of them making mud houses. “Nirmal had an innocence about him that belied his six feet frame. He was gentle and very chivalrous towards women. I wonder now if it was a premonition. Why on earth would I have pulled out this particular photo from my box just a day before he passed away?’’ she says. Seema fondly remembers her co-actor being mobbed by a bunch of girls in London when BQ premiered there.
The two had lost touch with each other over the last decade and she had no clue about what he was up to. “Someone said he had shifted base to Lucknow. But as luck would have it, just 10 days ago I was approached by a producer who said he wished to cast the two of us together,” she says. “When I heard the news, I felt so alone. Staying on your own in Mumbai can be very depressing.”
LIFE OF ANONYMITY
Why did the actor die a broken man? In the last decade he had virtually cut himself away from everyone. Neighbours say he spent more time in Lucknow, hometown of his second wife Archana. His house is symbolic of the apathy he felt towards Mumbai. Strewn across the flat are his musical instruments, his photographs and trophies, but the actor himself preferred the life of anonymity at his in-laws’ home.
Sudhir Mishra who directed him in Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahin says, “We had not met in over eight years. He was a painfully shy chap but a wonderful actor.” Mita Vashist, also from NSD, and two years his senior, says that every time the batch met they enquired after him. “He was barely 48; and he’s gone. This is a bizarre end and gives you a kind of reality check. You ask yourself ‘hey what are we doing here?""
Bollywood gossip suggests that actor took to the bottle to cope with depression. A journalist who had followed his life closely says, “He was a very self-respecting man. He hated having to go out to producers asking for work. His argument was, ‘I’ve done Bandit Queen and Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’. After this do I really need to beg for work?’’’ It is learnt that Pandey’s love for a good drink resulted in the death of his first marriage to writer Kausar Munir. He had promised dates for an outdoor schedule of Lahoo Bane Angaare from March 2010, which now stands altered.
The Holy Spirit Hospital, where Pandey’s body was first taken, dismisses talk of his having died because of an alleged drug overdose. “He had suffered a massive cardiac arrest,” says a staffer.
Fellow actors point to Pandey’s disillusionment with the industry; he felt deprived in the mom and pop shop that is the industry where pedigree is given more importance than merit. Says a fellow actor, “I don’t know if Bollywood’s indifference killed him. Nirmal couldn’t adjust to the big city. A sensitive Nainital boy, he was a misfit in Mumbai.”
Shekhar Kapur echoes similar sentiments: “Nirmal was a beautiful, giving person with malice to no one, just love and yearning for spirituality. He was a genius actor that was willing to bare his soul. Such people are destined to leave early.”
