I saw my dad kill my mum, says Kamal Sadanah

Those three gun-shots changed former Bollywood actor Kamal Sadanah’s life forever. It was 20 years back (October 21, 1990) when filmmaker Brij Sadanah apparently barged into the hallway of his bungalow on 28th Road of Bandra where his son Kamal was celebrating his  20th birthday. He first fired at his wife Saeeda Khan,  then daughter Namrata. Kamal watched haplessly as his inebriated father took a shot at him from his licensed .32 bore Smith and Wesson revolver. His dad then walked into the bedroom and shot himself through his mouth.

Twenty years later, Kamal has lived to tell the tale after the bullet pierced his neck.  “Everybody kept asking me what happened the night that wiped my entire family away, but somehow I couldn’t muster the courage to tell it to the whole world. But when I was asked to make a short film, the only thing I could think of was that fateful night,” says the actor, who made his debut opposite actor Kajol in Bekhudi and has been a hero in several Bollywood movies till 2007.

Kamal took part in a workshop organised by the New York Film Academy, which required him to make a short film which made him shoot the seven-minute long A Moment Of Pause, a recollection of events that happened on that fateful night. Those  seven minutes that could have taken his life away have now received a standing ovation from his teachers. He says that veteran actor, Prem Chopra (who knew his dad personally) graciously decided to play the role of his dad in the short film.
“It was an extremely painful experience recollecting the chain of events, but I had to get it off my chest somehow. It was a kind of catharsis for me. When I was making the film, I didn’t know that people will like it so much. So I decided to put it up on the internet,” says Kamal.

And yes, this marks his re-entry into Bollywood as a filmmaker as he says that he is already back in Goa scripting for his first full-length feature film.