A nervous director Kundan Shah (Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro) gave the script of the first episode of Wagle Ki Duniya to actor Aanjjan Srivastav, and said he would have to perform the screen test in the presence of cartoonist RK Laxman who was extremely fastidious about detailing.
As Google celebrates Laxman's 94th birth anniversary with a doodle, many Indians might remember the master cartoonist through the TV series Wagle Ki Duniya.
Aanjjan recollects the casting incident: "Every episode, scene and dialogue had to pass through his meticulous scrutiny, before and after production. And the casting. RK Laxman, he was very a very critical person. I said 'Yaar, Kundan, what is this?' He said, 'Zor se mat bol yaar, main bhi test de raha hoon!'"
Later, when Srivastav met Laxman for the role of the Common Man based on Laxman’s comic strip, which was being developed into a television serial for Doordarshan, he was convinced that no one could play the part better than Laxman himself.
But that was not to be.
Laxman spoke to Srivastav, explaining to him the role of Wagle in Wagle Ki Duniya (1988) and Srivastav could identify with the middle-class milieu it was set in. At the time of filming, Srivastav lived in a co-operative society, had a job with a bank, and had two children just like the fictional character. He said, "I lived in a co-operative society with all its daily problems like water and electricity and maid servants."
All this added to his performance eliciting instant empathy from the audience. The daily struggles of the nervous clerk Srinivas Wagle began to resonate.
Laxman’s ‘common man’ Wagle is a simpleton in the city whose life choices are about crossing the road, cooking up a plausible excuse for arriving late at work, fixing an alarm clock and choosing the right fabric at a shop – things that never occur to heroes. His bumbling little tragedies where his victories are often bitter-sweet lessons in life-management engaged viewers.
The show was initially planned for six episodes, but the tremendous response led to its being extended to 13. Actor Shah Rukh Khan featured in one of the episodes as a rash-driving youth who runs into Wagle, and they spend time at a police station trying to find a way to wriggle out of the sticky situation of complaints and court hearings.
Another show – R K Laxman Ki Duniya – based on the common man was produced and ran for 200 episodes in 2011. Aanjjan returned with Detective Wagle in 2012 reprising his role, but it didn’t have the charm of the original common man. Perhaps being a sleuth didn’t suit Wagle. After all, he was supposed to be Everyman, not a cunning man.