A Tribute To Sanjeev Kumar
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Almost more than two decades have passed since Sanjeev kumar passed away, but his performances still remain fresh in my mind. He was undoubtedly one of the best actors Indian cinema has ever produced. But sadly, today he is mostly remembered mainly by way of the innumerable spoofs on Thakur Baldev Singh from Sholay.
Sanjeev kumar (SK) often treaded the unconventional path. And he defied many myths prevailing in the industry. The standard requirement of a typical Bollywood hero was that he should be good looking, tall and must have a thin and lean frame. Sanjeev kumar was quite the opposite of it. Here was a man who wasn’t a stereotypical good looker, was short and was somewhat overweight by Bollywood standards. Sure, he didn’t possess any of the standard requirements to be an actor in Bollywood, but what he lacked in other aspects more than covered with vast range of unquestionable acting skills and a charming smile. Bollywood has mostly been rigidly stereotyped with respect to casting of actors for roles. Pran saab gave some superb performances as a villain in many movies, as a result he was stereotyped as a villain for a major part of his career. That was the case with most of the actors in Bollywood. Once you are successful in a particular type of role (e.g character artist, villain, comedian etc) you had to continue in the same bracket for the most part of your career. Any shift in roles was seen as a big risk and was considered risky. But this man changed that perception as well. The length of the role didn’t matter to Sanjeev saab, but the impact the role had mattered to him more.
He was comfortable playing the lead role in films like Angoor, Pati , Patni aur woh, Koshish etc. as much as he was playing supporting roles in films like Hero, Vidhaata Parichay etc. But versatility and subtlety were the two main strengths of SK. He played a wide range of roles . Be it the deaf and mute protagonist Hari singh in Koshish, the melancholic younger brother of Amrish Puri in Hum paanch, The eternal Thakur from Sholay , the humble husband of an aspiring politician in Aandhi, the philandering husband in Pati,patni aur woh, the double role (Army man & Conman) in Biwi o Biwi , the business tycoon in Trishul etc. He left an indelible mark in almost every role he played.
The film Naya Din Nayi Raat was one of his biggest moments of glory. By playing as many as 9 diverse roles, he showcased his vast range of acting skills. Sivaji ganesan had done something similar in a Tamil film called Navarasa prior to it. And living up to the legendary Ganesan was quite a challenge. But SK took on challenge sportingly and delivered an amazing performance. Each of the 9 characters were different from the other. Be it the God man, the scientist, the doting father, the beggar,the bandit , the romantic lead opposite Jaya bachchan or my personal favourite the transvestite, SK excelled in the portrayal of each and every character.
The two biggest strengths of SK as an actor was subtlety and variety as mentioned previously. Bollywood was characterised mainly by loud and melodramatic performances wherein the actors were also straining for effect. But SK was different . He delivered masterful performances without resorting to melodrama most of the times. Case in point would be Koshish. The scene in which he tells his name i.e. Haricharan singh to Dina pathak by referring to a mirchi lying there and then to his feet. Or his outburst in the scene when his son refuses to marry a deaf and mute girl. Or how about Sholay??? The cold look in his eyes was enough to communicate his anger . He had a superb sense of comic timing which could be rivalled by few. He used this timing to great effect to give us some amazing comic performances in films like Angoor, Pati, patni aur woh, Biwi O Biwi. Who can forget his rendition of the song ‘pritam aan milo’,or his frustration and his reactions to the confusion about the twins in ‘Angoor’, his narration of a sob story about his wife to woo other women in ‘Pati, patni aur woh’, the hard nosed colonel and the conman in ‘Biwi o biwi. These performance of his showcased his excellent comic timing. Of course equal credit must be given to directors such as Ramesh Sippy, B.R Chopra, Rahul rawail etc. who gave him such opportunities to showcase his acting prowess.
How can one not mention Gulzar if one is talking about Sanjeev Kumar. Together they have given some amazing films. Gulzar fully understood SK’s acting genius and gave him diverse roles to showcase his vast acting prowess. In the process, Gulzar and Sanjeev saab made some of their best films together . Be it Aandhi,Koshish, Mausam,Parichay or my personal favourite Angoor. Each was film was different from the other yet it was a masterpiece.Even in a small role as Jaya Bachchan’s father in Parichay, SK left a mark.
Even in multi starrers such as Trishul,Vidhaata, Jaani dushman etc. SK’s presence loomed large over the film. Trishul was a multi starrer in the truest sense with the likes of Amitabh bachchan,Shashi kapoor, Hema malini, Rakhee etc heralding the cast besides Sanjeev kumar. Amitabh bachchan gave one of his best performance as the illegitimate son of industrialist J.K (Sanjeev kumar). But it is Kumar who gives the film that extra edge with his performance. As JK, the ruthless industrialist SK’s presence largely dominates over the film with his subtle yet powerful performance.
Amongst the leading ladies, SK formed a unique jodi with Jaya Bachchan. They have acted together in diverse pairings and roles. As father and daughter in Parichay and Naya din nayi raat, father in law and daughter in law in Sholay, husband and wife in Koshish, or the romantic lead in Anamika, Naukar etc. And she also displayed great flair and gave compelling performances opposite him esp. in films like Koshish, Anamika.
In the ’80′s i.e towards the fag end of his career, SK diverted towards playing supporting roles in films such as Hero, Vidhaata etc. But still he gave memorable performances in these films. He also had his share of bad films during this phase such as Zabardast, Hathkadi etc.
In November 1985, he passed away leaving a permanent void in cinema world and fans disappointed. In the July 08 edition, Filmfare did a feature on Sanjeev kumar to mark his birth anniversary. Strangely, his family members refused to speak about him in that feature. And the speaking was mainly done by actors such as Shatrugan sinha, Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana azmi amongst others. SK’s personal life has mostly been mirred in tragedy. Dejected after being rejected by Hema malini, he remained a bachelor for his entire life and passed away in loneliness perhaps.Perhaps, his personal life took a toll on him and might have been one of the reasons for his early demise.
Though he may passed away, but he still continues to regale audiences with his vast range of memorable performances which showcase an actor of great calibre. And he continues to live in the hearts of moviegoers forever through his great performances.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I appreciate your attempt to write about my most fav actor SK , but at the same time,I think you wrote this article hurriedly and missed out some crucial points.
First thing first , he was dead handsome.Period.I guess you haven’t seen his earlier films ( B&W) its only later on he put on the weight.
then you missed out on Khilona, which was his first big hit and brought him into limelight. Also Sangharsh , where he was pitted against Dilip saab is a wonderful watch. If you are a fan of Sanjeev kumar, and if you haven’t seen Anubhav, go get a DVD of Anubhav immediately and finish it in first go.
May I take liberty to add some of his other meticulous and fine tuned performances.
1. Namkeen – Watch out his performance as a vagabond truck driver.
2. Devta – I guess its an underrated film but one of my fav films.
3. Grih pravesh – A gem of the movie under Basu da’s direction, also you can get to see Gulzar saab participating in one of the songs in the film.
4.Mausam – An old man in search of his wife returns to a remote village and face the bitter truth of his life. Master performance.
5.Manoranjan – Directional debut of shammi kapoor , though it was an average movie SK was in his elements as a constable.
6.Manchali – Another comedy featuring SK.
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agree with u there..He was dead handsome..HemaMalini might have been really confused being chased by two handsome guys at same time..
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He was totally handsome allright. He had enough understated charisma and a mast versatile voice …Hear him modulate it to wonderful effect in all his movies….No wonder gulzar sahab used him so effectively.
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Just recalled “Shatranj ke khiladi”.
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yes great performance by Sanjeev Kumar..I especially like the way he brings up the illicit affair of Saed Jaffri’s wife to distract him when he was losing the game..Very subtle and natural acting..
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I love reading tributes but this one didn’t work for me. Tributes should either reflect thorough research and full justice to their career or plain passion from the author. You tried doing both but the passion quite didn’t come through.
If someone has a link to Oz’s tribute to Gulzar and Sanjeev on Desi Train, we must post it again on PFC. That was some of his best writing and made me a permanent fan and later drew me to PFC.
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I agree , this one seems just for the heck of an article. Moderator should do a double check before posting any article on the PFC.
my 2 cents
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yaatri…. i am well aware of the films which u’ve mentioned such as Devta, Namkeen,sangharsh. It’s just that i havent been able to watch these films in really long time. That is why i didnt mention them here.
As far as manoranjan is concerned i think it was one lousy movie and thats why it didnt even cross my mind to mention over here. Regarding Khilona & shatranj ke khiladi it was really my bad that i forgot to mention them here. But doesnt paying tribute also mean an assimilation and recalling of your personal experiences and memories regading a particular film or actor. I’ve also mentioned mausam in the list.
I’ve tried to mention as many films as i remembered and makethe list as comprehensive as possible. Regarding the weight issue i’ve said ‘somewhat overweight’ and not ‘grossly overweight’like an Adnan Sami or Pinchu kapoor.
Are these the only two things that make you concurr that seems a rush job or an article done for the heck of it??? Or are there some other nitpickings which you want to further point out???
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@Aditya
I reiterate ,its better to do than speak about it. I might know much more about SK than you but you did it and wrote the post and you deserve a pat for that.
Coming back to my problem with this posts that you missed out on the most important things on SK and it irritated me. If you write, write originality.
Second, if it was about your personal experiences it lacked in passion
my 2 cents
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Ok sir. Point taken. Thank you for patting my back.I mentioned already as to why i missed out on those things. Nevertheless, thank you for taking time to read the post. And yes , i understand your grouse now. Btw sirji aap bhi Sk fan and me too. Maybe ur a much more hardcore fan. Isi baat par ceasefire sirji.
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SK would have been very proud of this handshake guys ….SK time se pehle hi nikal liya ….mujhe bahut afsos hai mai usse mil bhi na payi
….chalo real life me nahi to photo ko hi shraddhankali roop haar pehna diya karenge….sapnon me!!!
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Here you go, found it
http://passionforcinema.com/sanjeev-kumar-the-gulzar-connection/
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Thank you for that post. It is common in our country to state is a rather cliched way, when someone passes away, that the place they have left can never be filled. In a sense it applies to every human being because we are all unique. But in Hindi cinema there has been no actor in the vein of Sanjeev Kumar. His versatility is unmatched his ability to evoke a sense of sadness (refer Mausam) and laughter ( Angoor) remains unparalleled. My take: as an actor he was one the rarest of rare actors who do not see themselves as ‘ authors’ of performance, he truly became what an actor is supposed to be – a medium through which a character is expressed. It is a rare quality, and is seen often in the actor Irfan nowadays but only up to a point.
Thanks again for this post.
And yes I think he was very good looking overweight or not. Jack Nicholson can be described as the Sanjeev Kumar of Hollywood.
There is that something about the two actors
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thank u for the appreciation:). His versatility is undoubtedly unmatchable. yes and the qualities which he displayed as an actor are found rarely. Cant say much about the similarity between Sanjeev jumar and Jack nicholson thoough. Once agin thnx for ur kind appreciation.
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