Jimmy awaits challenging roles

He plays a mute in Tom, Dick and Harry. Hiren Kotwani has the details.

Though shooting in sync sound is gaining popularity in Bollywood films, many actors prefer to dub their lines for better effect. And on the subject of dubbing, a joke on the same is doing the rounds of the Tom, Dick and Harry unit at the expense of Jimmy Shergill.

The actor had apparently just entered the dubbing theatre for the film, when he promptly turned around and left. For that's when the penny dropped that since he's playing a mute guy, he had no lines to dub! Jokes apart, in his own words, Shergill is "as enthusiastic about the film today, as I was when I signed the film. I'm the mute Harry while Dino Morea is the deaf Tom. I can hear and he can talk. We are paying guests at Rakesh Bedi's house."

Dino Morea is his voice in the film, informs Shergill. "To portray that kind of chemistry we had to rehearse for a couple of days. He was so fast it's amazing. One moment I gesture something and the next moment he's reached for it." His other onscreen handicapped friend is Anuj Sawhney. "Anuj plays the blind Deepak, but we nick name him Dick. He joins us as a paying guest later. He added to the fun of working together," says Shergill.

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Jimmy Shergill plays a mute in Tom, Dick and Harry.

Known to prepare for his characters, Shergill said that he had seen a play by Paritosh Painter where the two guys are deaf and mute while the girl is blind. "But since it's a comedy we stuck to the basics, not going overboard in portraying the characters' handicaps."

And then there are the two girls, Celina Jaitley and Kim Sharma. "It only got better," says Shergill. "We indulged in a lot of pranks on the sets that made the working atmosphere lively and wonderful. Celina, who was the victim of a lot of our pranks, took it in the sporting spirit. As for Kim, I have known her since her debut in Mohabbatein, though we weren't paired together."

Right now, Shergill is looking forward to Naseeruddin Shah's directorial debut Yun Hota To Kaisa Hota. "It's an honour and pleasure to work under the direction of an actor like Naseersaab. I do usually think of a couple of ways to enact a scene, but Naseersaab would give a totally different perspective to it. It would come as a surprise when he would want me to do something that I didn't think of at all. After a couple of days, I began to go to his sets with a blank and fresh mind to portray the character as he had visualised."

That's something that reminds him of the experi ence of working with his favourite director, Tigmanshu Dhulia with whom he's done Haasil and Charas and for whom he will be working with again on his new story. For someone whose debut was Gulzar's Maachis, Shergill prefers "to do an issue-based film once in a while. Yahaan was one such film. After the film released, it was difficult to say exactly why it worked or pinpoint reasons why it failed to connect with the majority of the audience."

Other films in line are Vinod Chopra's Eklavya The Royal Guard, Anirban's Bas Ek Pal and a thriller, Khaffa. A true Punjabi at heart, he's also done a couple of films in his mother tongue, Mannat being his next release. "It's based on a true story, which all Punjabis will relate to."

And what the one thing in his career that would excite him the most? "I'd like to work with Gulzarsaab again," is the answer.