mumbai the first time farooque shaikh decided to direct a play in urdu he chose an actress whose native tongue is marathi smita jayakar cherishes this compliment like a precious gift his absence has left the actress bereft of a dear friend who she knows was fond of her shaikh sahabs first smriti din will be observed sunday december 28 aazar ka khwab directed by farooque shaikh in 2002 was based on george bernard shaws pygmalion shaikhs adaptation showed a bhojpuri girl transform into an urduspeaking lady and this was the part assigned to smitaji she met toi to share fond memories of a friend who was also a colleague farooqueji had selected a younger actress to do the role but after a couple of rehearsals he found her wanting in linguistic skills i was assigned another part in the play but then he asked me to take the lead i insisted i would not suit the role because the audiences know i am too old to play that character but he simply would not listen he said urdu toh aapko aati hi hai bas bhojpuri bol dijiye smitaji worked hard to perfect her diction i trained under a language expert i also used to listen to dilip kumar sahabs dialogues in mughaleazam with my eyes closed in order to concentrate on the way he enunciates urdu words likewise with amitabh bachchans movies i am particular about the way i speak there was a time a sound recordist interrupted me midsentence insisting i say fir instead of phir i stopped recording until he got his facts correct in any case maharashtrian artistes are believed to come with a marathi accent and take pauses in the wrong places i was not going to let someone else tarnish my reputation when i have overcome that hurdle even as rehearsals for aazar were under way midmonsoon smitajis car happened to be at the service station during a heavy spell of rain i live at pedder road in south mumbai and we would rehearse at bhaidas hall in juhu which is quite a distance so i requested him to cancel practice the following day he asked why when i said my car was unavailable he actually sent his car all the way from lokhandwala complex to pick me up and drop me back afterwards i said i would come by taxi but he declined i must tell you that he had no hang ups about travelling by autorickshaw or taxi if the family car was not available he would never think how will farooque shaikh travel in a rickshaw i am like that myself i have no qualms about taking public transport if the car is not there through the years i have always used large suvs sometimes during rehearsal he would say chalo aaj smitaji ki truck mein baithke kahin ghoom aate hain around eight or nine of us would pile into my truck and drive all the way to tony ka dhaba