I Am No Messiah

Excerpt from Sonu Sood' memoir

Recall Maqsood Bhai, the hospital staffer who gets a jadoo ki jhappi from Sanjay Dutt, in Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.? That's Surendra.

Have you ever worked amicably with a senior without ever getting to know him? And then one day he re-enters your life poignantly? I got this experience on this trek of service to others that I have undertaken.

Surendra's hometown is in Madhya Pradesh. Whenever he had an assignment, he'd come and stay in a matchbox- sized rented apartment in a distant Mumbai suburb. He came to Mumbai for a web series in early 2020, when the unsparing pandemic and ensuing lockdown threw him off balance. Life had hit him in the head with a brick.

Grey-haired Surendra-ji was stuck in that tiny apartment all by himself. His family and friends were back home in Madhya Pradesh, and he was here on his own. Two months into the lockdown, it was like he'd been put in solitary confinement. For a man who was eighty-plus, this must have been unbearable.

There was no work happening, his money was running out and worst of all, he had no one for company. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to go back to Madhya Pradesh. He had made several aborted attempts to leave Mumbai by train or bus. But he couldn't manage to find transport that could take him to Panna district, where his hometown was located.

Two months into the lockdown, Surendra-ji had started to fear that he may lose his mind. He felt constricted and claustrophobic, and loneliness is a hard cross to carry at any age. More so in one's eighties, during a social lockdown.

With the money dwindling, there was the additional worry of how he'd pay his monthly rent. He told me his landlord was kind and was ready to give him a waiver for a couple of months. But for all of us, our dignity is the armour we wear. We don't want pity beyond a point. Whichever way he turned, he saw only an impregnable wall.

Finally, he reached out to me through common acquaintances and introduced himself as my co-actor in R. . . Rajkumar. Of course, that wasn't necessary. I knew who he was; I knew him as a well-known senior actor.

The pandemic had truly spared no one. When I heard Surendra-ji's story, I told him almost immediately that I would do my utmost to get him to his home in Madhya Pradesh.

Soon, we were able to put together a vehicle that would drive him from his apartment in Mumbai to his doorstep in Madhya Pradesh. We could top it off with additional funds required for his journey.

Surendra-ji was ecstatic.

In Mumbai, he'd spent long weeks of dependence on the kindness of his neighbours and acquaintances. Since he lived alone, he desperately sought the company of others to come and chat with him. He also needed the occasional hot meal.

It was a new kind of hardship for him, because when life was normal, in the pre-coronavirus days, he would have been out of his house and among colleagues on a bustling film set. He had company, he had food, work and money in his pocket. He was well cared for in normal times.

After reaching a friend's farmhouse in Panna, he felt exhilarated and could finally breathe freely. It was as if the shackles had come off. He could move around unhindered and unfettered. He called me up from there to inform me that he had got into a wonderful routine of going on long walks in the wilderness around his friend's farmhouse. Wherever he looked, he saw greenery, he said over a phone call. This made me happy. I was genuinely relieved, because I worried about his physical and mental well-being.

He also spoke passionately about how he was able to do some sketching. Surendra-ji is one of those rare talents who is both an artiste and an artist.

It was only when I heard the happiness in his voice during that phone call, and sensed the freedom he felt once he was out of that apartment in Mumbai, that I understood how important space was for a human being, especially for elders. He absolutely loved the open spaces that welcomed him back home in Madhya Pradesh. From fearing that he was getting unhinged to chuckling with delight, Surendra-ji was a changed man.

It touched me when I got to know that he'd told many people, 'I've seen many caped heroes—Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc. But believe me, Sonu is the first real hero I have encountered in my life. What he did for me during this pandemic is something I can't thank him enough for. It's odd. He is so much younger than I am, yet in my eyes, he showed more maturity than I myself would have. I will even go to the extent of saying that he came like an angel into my world and literally rescued me from going downhill mentally and physically. God bless him.'

I do feel blessed, every single day.

I cannot express the immense joy I felt at being able to provide timely help to such a senior colleague. In our recent conversations, Surendra-ji has often reminded me of how little we'd interacted while shooting R...Rajkumar. And he has repeated many a time that he had never imagined that this was how our paths would cross. But that's life.