“Yaari hai imaan mera, yaar meri zindagi…”

The lines that define friendship are also the lines that are synonymous with Pran, who passed away last week in Mumbai. Declared as the ‘villain of the millennium’, the Dada Saheb Phalke award winner was battling an eight-month-old illness when he breathed his last at Lilavati Hospital. And the man that the actor was was authenticated in the way the film fraternity come out to pay their tribute to the legend.

I belong to a generation that may not have grown up with Pran but it did surely grow up on Pran.  And ironically enough, I have the fondest memories of the actor in his positive roles. For me, Pran was, and will remain, Sher Khan – the red-haired Pathan without whom Amitabh Bachchan would not have been able to say, “Yeh tumhare baap ka ghar nahi.” 

‘Zanjeer’ without Pran would not have been ‘Zanjeer’ at all.

Then there is ‘Don’. Bachchcan played the eponymous lead role at the peak of his career, and the film, which has become a cult movie since, had Pran playing the doting father. A trapeze art gone wrong, Jasjeet, the character Pran enacted in the movie, walked with a stick and was willing to do anything for his two children, and was as big an icon as the Don himself.

And then came ‘Victoria No 203’, a role that was probably unique for the multifaceted actor himself. As the lecherous but lovable crook Rana, the actor’s chemistry with the late Ashok Kumar was the backbone of the film. Somehow two 50-plus actors were THE heroes again. “Do bechare, bina sahare” was a song that pictured the balance and their chemistry to a tilt.

There is no way I can deny that Pran was one of the greatest Bollywood ‘villains’ of our times. But for me his most memorable roles stood on the pillars of friendship, virtue and love. And from all accounts that is the person he was in real life: a man known as the ultimate gentleman, a good friend, and a great mentor.  

In an interview telecast last week, Kapil Dev mentions Pran’s heart of gold. The actor, Kapil recounted, had offered to bear all expenses for his medical visit abroad – and this was before the historic World Cup win in 1983 that made Kapil Dev a household name.

Pran Krishan Sikand is part of the pool of legendary villains who were probably the most gentle human beings in the Indian film fraternity. Pran, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra, Amjad Khan – all legendary villains, yet all known for their great personality. Our legendary villains are legendary heroes in real life, and Pran was the biggest proof of that.

Sometimes the best way to remember a legend is through the songs that survive them. And Pran survives in many songs – from “Hum bolega toh bolege ki bolt a hai” to “Micheal daru pee ke...” It is in these lyrics that you find a Pyarelal, who travels with Bachchan to Kolkata to find his love. And it is in these lyrics that the real Pran survives.