Anupam Kher: “I Am Voluntarily Unemployed After One Day: Justice Delivered”
Director Ashok Nanda’s One Day: Justice Delivered is actor Anupam Kher’s final assignment until he signs some more films.
“But for now I am unemployed , and happily so.After doing over 500 films I need to sit back and look at what I’ve done. This is the interval of my career,” says the indefatigable Anupam who started his career as a movie actor with a bit role in Muzaffar Ali’s Aagaman, and has never looked back.
Glows Anupam, “I am proud of every single film that I’ve done, and that includes those films for which I was severely pulled up . I won’t name them. But we all know which films I’ve been reprimanded for. But they all mean something important to me. Every film of mine.”
Anupam feels One Day: Justice Delivered makes an important statement on the political situation of the country. “It’s important for cinema to reflect on the issues that occupy the nation’s mind. Cinema can’t be all entertainment. It must also serve the purpose of holding up a mirror to the country’s socio-political reality. One Day : Justice Delivered does that.”
Anupam sees it as part of a movement in Indian cinema towards a more authentic political statement. The route that was taken decades ago by Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and Ketan Mehta is now being taken by filmmakers like Neeraj Pandey, Anubhav Sinha and now Ashok Nanda.
The film, I feel, reminds us of another important film in Anupam career. Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday.
Anupam shoots down the parallel, “Would you say my Saaransh is anything like Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara?Or is my Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge like Haseena Maan Jayegi? One Day: Justice Delivered has its own narrative, its own destiny. I am curious to know how audiences will react to it. This film is not like anything I’ve done in the past.”
The motivational actor has recently been inducted as an honorary member of the Oscars committee. Speaking of the singular honour he says, “Every time I am invited to be a part of a group that includes the world’s most accomplished names, I feel reassured. I’ve made the right choices in life.”
