White actors have been used in Hindi cinema as objects on which over two centuries of colonial subjugation of India has to be avenged. No white actor accepted that role with as much eagerness as Bob Christo, the Australian who died last week. He “acted” in over 200 films never rising higher than a glorified extra, and yet within the world of bit players he must have felt like Al Pacino.
Christo’s career requires more academic explanation than just Hindi filmmakers’ penchant to typecast actors. His roles, if you can call them that in a fit of generosity, were contrived for the sole purpose of capturing the worst caricature of the white colonizer. Not that he played a Raj era Englishman much but whatever he got was a derivative of that image of an oppressive colonizer. His tragedy was that he was not even the main oppressive colonizer, but one third from left. It is possible that in some films he had to play a third fiddle to an Indian actor pretending to be a villain from the West. It cannot get more belittling.
Once you look at his body of work you discover that he was asked to stick to just two expressions: buffoonery and cruelty, preferably both in a span of a few seconds. It was not as if Bob Christo would have stayed awake all night preparing for his roles and nailing his lines and accent. I can sum up the brief given to him by his directors throughout his career in one line: ‘Go humiliate yourself.’ For a qualified civil engineer I am sure it took him some effort to live up to such specific direction film after film.
Somewhere beneath those two trademark expressions, it is quite possible that given half a chance Christo would have developed into a decent enough actor. If Shah Rukh Khan can learn the tricks of the trade, I suppose a civil engineer with his structured thinking sure could. I am not suggesting that he would have blossomed into a thespian, but Hindi cinema is littered with examples of actors having learned on the job. Pradeep Kumar, for instance, or even Bharat Bhushan.
Christo’s face and physique had a severity about them that made him a perfect casting for a legion of sidekick goon roles that he went on to notch up with ferocity in the 1980s. In a career spanning nearly 30 years, Christo accepted just about anything that came his way.
I can imagine that his conversations with producers and directors would have gone something like this.
Producer-director “Would you mind standing in the third position to the left of the main villain’s sidekick?”
Christo: “Yeah, why not?”
Producer-director: ‘You know your role—just grind your teeth and clench your fist.’
Christo: ‘Roger that. (In his mind he is thinking, ‘Like Sylvester Stallone’)
It is possible to say that Christo brought complete integrity to his work even when those who assigned him may not have intended for him to do so. “Arey set pe aa jaao. Kuchch kar lenge (Come to set. We will improvise something),” would have been what his director of the day may have told him.
If for nothing else, for dwelling the world of extras with such grace Bob Christo deserves reminiscence.
Note: The video above is from a movie ‘Farz ki Jung’, possibly his longest role. If you cannot tell who Bob Christo is in the scene, there is no point for you to read this post.