Down Melody Lane..::..Article on Films, Personalities, Music Reviews and More..

Character actors, at times, endear themselves to the audience much more than the swashbuckling, romancing and all-virtue-no-vice heroes do. Since supporting roles need not be accompanied by a tinsel halo, these roles relatively have an edge of credibility. Ine actor who made a successful transition from the hero to the character player was Premnath, who passed away at the age of 65, on November 3 1992.

His last years were spent in retirement in his apartment on Bombay's Mount Pleasant Road. But the audience always missed his strong, commanding presence, complete with a booming voice, fiery eyes and a complete lack of self-consciousness before the camera. Indeed, his personality of the extrovert was in direct contrast to the demeanour of his leading lady and wife, Bina Rai, who was exuded a quiet grace both on and off the screen. The pair had acted in a number of films and had even played Samson and Delilah in Aurat.

There was something of the Hemingwaesque adventurer about Premnath, an outdoor, physical man who nearly became an army man when he was a youth. His father, a police officer, no doubt would have liked to see him in uniform rather than as a performer in show business, a calling that was considered frivolous in the 1940s when Premnath was bitten by the acting bug. In several interviews, Premnath acknowledged his debt to his cousin, Prithviraj Kapoor, who gave him support and shelter when he quit the army after nine months of training in Indore.

The adventurous young man acted on stage and found that acting came to him naturally. After several plays, he received a break in films, winning the audience's affections, particularly withhis portrayal of Raj Kapoor's footloose and fancy free friend in Barsaat. This was in 1949. In the '70s, Raj Kapoor was to give Premnath yet another memorable role - that of the Goan fisherman dancing with abandons a bottle of hooch in hand, in Bobby.

Premnath's films as a hero are less well remembered today than the ones in which he essayed the screen heavy, be it in Johnny Mera Naam or Kalicharan. When a certain role is ably performed, the inevitable result is typecasting. This happened to Premnath, although he did occasionally portray the sympathetic man of the street and slums in Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and Desh Premi.

A number of apocryphal stories abound about Premnath - of how he would like to be addressed as 'General' and how he would often break into song. K. L. Saigal was one of his favourite singers. He was interested in philosophy, poetry, literature and politics. Although he did not get several opportunities to play a variety of characters, finally cinema was just not enough to truly capture his larger-than-life personality.