Balraj, My Brother - By Bhisham Sahni (Book Review By Bobby Sing)

After going through an enriching experience of reading Balraj Sahni’s autobiography written like an honest seeker on the path, it was really a pleasure looking at the same life experiences through a different perspective of his younger brother, the renowned (Hindi) writer Bhisham Sahni. And the reputed author very affectionately remembers ‘the most natural actor of Hindi Cinema’ having a rare, multi-talented and socially aware personality as his personal source of strength in the book “Balraj, My Brother”.

Beginning from their early childhood Bhisham Sahni talks all about Balraj’s learning days in Lahore, at Sevagram with Mahatma Gandhi and then his return from England, entering the World of Cinema in Bombay. The last few chapters of the book take you into the veteran’s insightful final years, his unexpected personal losses, the respect & recognition earned not only in the film world but in the intellectual circles too after he gave his unexpectedly enlightening speech at the Jawaharlal Nehru University of Delhi in November 1972. And then it ends, remembering the most generous, warm hearted, rebellious yet responsible family man post his sudden, sad demise on 13th April 1973. The festival day, which is widely celebrated as “Visaakhi / Baisaakhi” by the Punjabi community all over Punjab and which also had a deep connection with the thinking actor and his future plans about how he wished to spend his remaining years.