There are few people that can make you feel good in the shortest of encounters. The Maha Jodi are two such souls that manage this in everything they do. The haughty, show biz attitude is just not their thing. And it is precisely this candidness that makes them a matter of national interest.But our little chit-chit with them involved something other than their work. We wanted to unravel the mystery behind their companionship. Hari Bansha Acharya answered this with such astuteness, “Yo bhagwan le gari khau bhanera banayeko jodi ho, it couldn’t have happened any other way”. And we are glad it didn’t.

Here, the duo share some thoughts about each other.
An excerpt:

First impressions:
MKS: I saw him first in a stage show some 35 years back. Back in those days, he was a scrawny little boy pedaling a Hercules cycle.
HBA: I first remember him from a Gaijatra show we were both in.

As a person:
MKS: In short, he is a smart guy. One of the quickest decision makers I know.
HBA: Very cool. He sorts things out with such patience, it’s like he has folders for everything, in this head.

Favourite memory:
MKS: A significant one would be the Jana Andolan 2, we collected a huge amount of money to treat the wounded. There is something about joining hands to help other people, it makes you feel good.
HBA: My marriage. Madan ji was the only guest present. It still means such a lot to me and my wife.

Something about the other that nobody knows:
MKS: Hari Bansha is an open book. There aren’t any secrets I can let you in on. (laughs)
HBA: Well, for one I know he doesn’t brush his hair, ever. And oh, he doesn’t put on inner-wear. He’s always running away to some corner when he has to change his clothes. (laughs)

Personality:
MKS: He is affectionate, very helpful. By the time most of us decide to take a wounded person to hospital, Hari Bansha will have them plastered and healed.
HBA: Like I said, he is serene. I tend to be a bit aggressive, but Madan ji can keep his cool all the time.

Minor grudge:
MKS: No, nothing that I can think of.
HBA: He always forgets things. He needs constant reminders and that gets at me sometimes. Eutai kura das choti bhannu parcha.

As an actor:
MKS: His versatility. He can do anything. He had the whole country singing and dancing to ‘Hamri amma saarai nai
bathi chin’ at one point. Nobody can deny his charm.
HBA: He acts with honesty; he is what he is on screen in real
life too.

As a family person:
HBA: He loves to have long conversations on the phone with his children, who are both abroad. Every second of his free time goes on the telephone.
MKS: Our families are friends, naturally. Sometimes I think my kids like him better than me and his kids call me ‘thulobuwa’.

Misunderstandings?
HBA: Those come and go. There’s nothing that can’t be sorted out over a cup of tea.
MKS: Seriously, I don’t think we’d have come this far if there had been issues. And we’re also financially clear, so that leaves us with nothing to fight over.

More seriously, where is Nepal heading?
HBA: I have no idea. Nowhere, I suppose, at this pace. What I urge us to do is think of ourselves as Nepalis first and foremost. Jaat paat bhanne kura chod deu. Those are only self-imposed barriers, it’s destroying this country.
MKS: And these bandhs! How can people shut the whole country down and dance in the streets? It is suffocating. We’re digging a pit for ourselves here. Like Hari said earlier, there’s nothing that can’t be sorted out over a cup of tea.