Kishore Kadam, the actor

Kishore Kadam belongs to the second generation of non-chocolate heroes of Indian theatre and cinema. Following in the footsteps of Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, this new tribe enjoys a happier double life — in terms of full-time careers straddling screen and stage, and art-house and mainstream productions. Incidentally, Kishore is also an acclaimed Marathi poet and writes under the nom de plume, Soumitra. But things were not as happy for Kishore, in his early days, at the modest fisherman’s cove of Khar Danda in Mumbai. He was a wild-card entry, in every sense of the word, into Marathi’s highly competitive college theatre scene. Theatre guru Satyadev Dubey noticed him and groomed him in his acting school, where olympian efforts on voice and diction (at least in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and English) are de norm. Countless hours of practice and dedication helped him shine on Mumbai’s ‘art’ circuit, with productions like Bambai ke Kowwe. But his ticket to national fame was the role of Devdas Gandhi, the Mahatma’s son, in Gandhi v/s Gandhi..., and more recently Dhyasparva, Amol Palekar’s biopic on India’s family planning pioneer R.D. Karve. One is tempted to compare Kishore’s earthy appeal and intensity to Denzel Washington’s, though it might be a tad early to do so. - Sanjay Pendse