A young journalist goes looking for a hero’s home and legacy
By Ammad Ali
I t was March, 1947. Rawalpindi was burning. The callous manipulation of religious sentiment had led to attacks in which many lost their lives and property. In that a time of intense turmoil, a group of enthusiastic young men on bicycles would set off daily on their bicycles to try and stop the violence. They would travel for miles every day, from early morning till late at night, singing Prem Dhavan’s patriotic songs to get public attention and gather crowds.
They were members of the Communist Party of India (CPI), part of CPI’s “peace movement” that was in full swing in the riot-torn city. They tried hard to unite the working class against the imperialists and bore the burnt of every obstacle in the way of peace.
Throwing himself into this work, the young man leading this rally of comrades forgot his personal sorrow, the sudden death of his wife barely a couple of weeks earlier, leaving him with a little son. The young man’s name was Balraj Sahni and he was an artist, a writer and a Ravian – a graduate of the prestigious Government College of Lahore.
Later a glittering star of Indian cinema, Balraj Sahni was born into a staunch Arya Samaj (Hindu reformist) family in 1913. Growing up, he lived under the diktat of a strict father, a cloth merchant who refused to allow his son to go to the cinema, a newly emerging form of entertainment. Little did he know his strictness would trigger off a rebellion in his son that would one day make him a film star.
The Sahnis’ ancestral home was in Behra, a town near Sargodha district. When Balraj was four years old, his family shifted to their newly built house in Chachi Mohalla, today known as Parindon Wali Market, Bird Market, in Rawalpindi.
Rawalpindi was a cantonment town of the British Indian Army. There were no cinema houses in town but there was one, in good condition, in the cantonment. The fare was English movies, patronised mostly by the British. The first commercial film company of Rawalpindi was Hariram Sethi’s Punjab Film Company with its first film Abala.
In the year 1930, Balraj Sahni entered a brand new phase of his life when he enrolled in Government College Lahore for a B.A degree. His classfellows included notable poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sardar Shaukat Hayat. Their teachers included the legendary Imtiaz Ali Taj and Ahmed “Patras” Shah Bukhari.
It was while doing his M.A at Government College that Balraj Sahni developed a taste for literature and started to write short stories and poems. He also started acting in plays produced by the Government College Dramatic Society (GCDC), which was then presided over by Patras Bokhari.
He developed into a fine actor, his skills refined by acting in these plays with guidance from Patras Bokhari whom he credits with teaching him the rudiments of acting and the ideals an artist should strive to achieve.
After completing his M.A in English Literature, he returned to ‘Pindi where he was forced to join the family’s cloth business as his father wanted. That same year, he married Damayanti Sahni. Soon afterwards, Balraj Sahni secured a job at Shantiniketan in West Bengal, teaching Hindi and English. The remuneration was a mere fifty rupees, but being a lecturer at Shantiniketan was a highly respected position.
When Second World War started Balraj Sahni joined the BBC London’s Hindi service as a radio announcer. In London, he had the opportunity to make friends with eminent English men of letters like John Gielgud, T.S Elliot, George Orwell and Harold Laski.
Watching Russian movies introduced Sahni to the Soviet Union and Marxism. In 1944, he returned to India where he had an opportunity to work with All India Radio. However, he preferred acting as a career. Balraj Sahni acted in and directed many plays produced by the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA).
IPTA highlighted the problems of the proletariat through its plays. Balraj Sahni later became General Secretary of IPTA, Bombay Unit. Working with IPTA brought him closer to Marxist ideology. He was now regarded among the famous progressive artists of India.
The first movie Balraj Sahni acted in was Dharti ke Laal, produced by IPTA and directed by Khawaja Ahmed Abbas. He played the lead role in Zia Sarhadi’s Hum Log (1951), which was a big hit. In Bimal Roy’s 1953 masterpiece, Do Bigha Zameen, Balraj Sahni played role of a farmer, a role that critics and film-lovers largely agree was his best performance. The film, inspired by Vittorio De Sica’s ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948), won the International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He also played a host of other leading roles opposite top actresses like Nargis, Meena Kumari, Vyjayanthimala, and Nutan.
In October 1962, Balraj Sahni visited Pakistan at the invitation of Dr. Nazir Ahmed, Principal of his alma mater Government College Lahore and met with old class-fellows and neighbours like Imtiaz Ali Taj, Ahmed Rahi and Abdullah Malik. He also visited Behra, his ancestral home, as well as his old house in Rawalpindi, and reported that much was as his family had left it, even furniture. He visited the shrine of Bari Imam, Company Bagh (now Liaqat Bagh), Topi Rakh Part (Ayub Park), and Government Gordon College. He has recorded his memories and emotions in his travelogue Mera Pakistani Safar Nama.
Balraj Sahni was only 59 when breathed his last on April 13, 1973 following a cardiac arrest. He will be always remembered as not only an artist but also a pacifist who left no stone unturned for peace and harmony.
The writer is a freelance journalist with a Masters in Mass Communication. He has worked as a Research Assistant at the Rawalpindi Historic Urban Landscape Project, a project of UNESCO and theNational College of Arts. For this article he referenced local residents, newspaper articles and Balraj Sahni’s writings. Email: [email protected]
