and Pran : the numero uno villain deserves a Dada Saheb Phalke award
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Pran, a very intelligent and fine actor, brought maximum variety to the villainous characters in hindi cinema. In terms of variety no other actor, who has ever played villainous characters in hindi films, could compete with Pran.
Pran and Shatrughan Sinha remain two villains of Hindi cinema who were applauded when they returned to a negative character after many years of playing positive roles.
Pran, playing again a negative role, was one of the USPs of Andha Kanoon, which was launching pad of Rajni Kant in hindi films. People roared with excitement in the cinema halls when they saw Pran appearing again as a villain.
Pran always excelled in all kinds of acting whether question was to portray a character in a natural manner by living under the skin of that character or to enjoy the acting that was full of mannerisms and which was slightly or overtly dramatic.
He was equally at ease whether he was playing an illiterate villager or an anglicized city based character. He showed his brilliance in the powerful feudal characters as well as in the penniless and powerless characters.
In many films he matched scene by scene biggest acting sensation of 50s, Dilip Kumar. Their on screen rivalry created many great cinematic moments and contributed in creating many great hindi films.
An actor who plays a villain on the screen is respected properly when people hate his on- screen incarnations and Pran’s villains topped the list of these villainous characters. Legend is there that no parents dared to keep their son’s name as Pran after Pran’s name got the (in) fame as an evil like a villain. They hated the characters Pran played on the screen and his on-screen image became so powerful that people forgot the difference between Pran, an actor, a real person, and his on-screen characters.
As a villain he was a terror personified on the screen. Bimal Roy had kept a scene in the Madhumati where Vaijayanti Mala is waiting for Dilip Kumar in the forest and all of a sudden birds start flying away from that place. She does not understand it but being a person living in the forest so close to the nature she understands that there is some kind of danger and she gets up to walk away from there.
Pran reaches there riding his horse. Bimal Roy very significantly portrayed the character of this villain in Madhumati and impact wise this scene defines symbolically the impact of Pran’s villain on screen. His performance in Madhumati remains among his top five performances.
He did it film after film.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee gave an apt tribute to villainous image of Pran Saab in Guddi where Guddi (Jaya Bhaduri) goes to a film studio to meet Dharmendra and there she sees Dharmendra fighting with Pran and she detests the idea of Dharmendra talking to Pran after the shot is finished. She thinks that Pran is still doing some manipulations and trying to con Dharmendra. Dharmendra says to her that Pran Saab is one of the most benevolent and good hearted persons of film Industry.
This is true in a truest sense.
An actor who is playing good characters on screen is respected if people feel love and respect towards him. Pran Saab played a good hearted mendicant Malang Chacha in Manoj Kumar’s directorial debut Upkar and it changed the perception of people about Pran saab in an overnight manner.
Pran Saab mentions an incident himself. Upkar had been released and it had got a sensational success. Afterwards once he went to Delhi to attend the wedding ceremony of daughter of character actor Late Om Prakash Saab and as soon as he got down of his car and walked towards the wedding place, people, gathered as a crowd there, made a way for him saying respectfully that Malang Chacha has come, let him go inside.
Kasme vade pyar wafa sab itself is a wonderful song and Pran’s soulful acting has made this song deeply touching and impressive. A dejected person’s warnings are very well exhibited by Pran’s performance in it. He is unable to digest the cheating which Prem Chopra has done to his elder brother Manoj Kumar.
Pran and Manoj Kumar collaboration started with Shahid where Pran had played a bandit Kehar Singh who had got capital punishment. Short, dramatic but a very impressive performance was given by Pran in it. It was a fictitious character but because of the powerful performance of the Pran, it rose along with the giant statures of the martyrs, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Raj Guru.
His honesty in the real life became visible to all when his own film Beiman got the filmfare award and he openly advocated that other film deserved it.
Perhaps this became the first reason why his relations with Manoj Kumar could not remain good in later years.
Later he could not do Manoj Kumar’s film where he was supposed to play a Pathan, because he was doing a Pathan’s role in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer also and he did not want to repeat himself.
Pran had done a positive role way back in Aah (Raj Kapoor, Nargis) in 50s only but film had not got the success on BO. Perhaps Pran’s positive role was also a reason behind its poor performance on BO because at that time he had become quite famous in the villainous characters.
Pran had joined films while he was living in Lahore in late 30s. He started with Yamla Jat and become a saleable star there in the Lahore film Industry.
After the partition of India he and his family came to India and he reached Bombay along with his wife.
First he stayed in hotel Taj for a month or so and later long struggling period of several months forced him to shift to the economic hotels and ultimately luck favoured him and before his money could be finished he got a film.
He did not take much time in establishing again his star value in the film world. It is said that even in the 50s he had followed a self made professional commitment that he would charge more money in every new film than his previous film even if this amount was raised by Rs 1 only.
Pran had become one of the most saleable names in the film industry in 50s. His work had maintained a high quality and he was capable to compete leading actors in every single frame he was present. Being a gentleman, he had earned a great reputation among filmmakers and his colleagues and people working in film Industry.
To give a proper weightage to his name on the screen filmmakers made an arrangement to present his name in a proper manner.
First names of leading actors and senior actors would appear on screen and then “and Pran” would appear on screen to show the special emphasis given to his name. Coincidently, Bunny Reuben, writer of his biography, titled the biography as “and Pran” only.
In the beginning of his career Ashok Kumar had faced a problem with his hands. He did not know what to do with hands while giving a shot. He thought and he picked up a cigarette case and a lighter to keep his hands busy. He made cigarette a tool of his acting method.
Pran also utilized smoking as a tool to bring variety to his characters or to bring an impact in his characters.
He was the first actor who used blowing of smoke rings as a part of his acting range.
He would chew his cigarette or Bidi and it would create an interesting impact on the screen. He would take a lit cigarette inside his mouth with the help of his tongue and would take it out again to keep between his lips in Maryada and it would look so good on him on the screen.
He developed many different ways of smoking a cigarette, cigar, Cheroot, Bidi, Chilum and Hukka etc in different films to give some additional traits to his characters.
Pran was the first actor in hindi cinema who experimented vividly with the get-ups in his films. Like his fees which increased with every new film he had this notion also that he would not become a type cast and would play different characters in different films and even if he got sometimes a similar kind of character in few films then he would play them differently and to fulfill this desire to look and behave differently in different films he took inspirations from the people he had met or seen in the real life.
His observation power and capability to incorporate those observations into his characters have resulted in many great performances he has given in hindi films over the years. He selected a get up and a mannerism which he thought would suit his character and then he maintained a consistency throughout the film.
Bobby started a series of films where he played the father of the leading actor. In Bobby he developed this habit of keeping his thumbs in the pockets of his jacket and he maintained a consistency here also. Even in the ending while he runs along with Prem Nath, Dimple and Rishi, he does not forget to follow this body language.
He went on playing father to almost all the successful stars of 70s and 80s.
He developed different mannerisms for different characters in his films.
Because of his father’s profession (He was a contractor in the construction business) he lived in different places of united India during his childhood and that could be one of the reasons behind his command over different kinds of characters because he has seen many people at different places and they lived in his memory and helped him in his acting career.
He experimented with his sharp voice also for the sake of maintaining a variety in his characters. His sarcastic tone was completely acerbic in nature. Watch and hear him in a scene in Raj Kapoor’s Jis Desh mein Ganga behti hai where he addresses the bandits and says,” Haan Sardar to ab ye banega, ek police wala”.
Hear him saying, Ohh Rani Kalwati… in Shammi Kapoor starrer Rajkumar.
In one film he would jerk his head in a specific manner while saying his dialogues.
In another he would select a phrase which he would repeat many times in the film.
He played with his voice and dialogue delivery to a great extent. He had a voice which would be recognized in the crowd and he took full advantage of it.
In Halaku he was not the hero but he had played the title role. Ajit, villain of late 60s and 70s, had played the hero. Pran had played grandson of Genghise Khan. He paused at odd places while delivering his dialogues and made it one of his most specific roles.
For Zanjeer he again played with his voice and he used to give more emphasis on few words in his dialogues and his Pathan looked different than the Pathan character played by other actors in the past.
In Kasauti he brought a Nepali effect in his voice and dialogue delivery.
His experiments did not remain limited to variety in get-ups and voice modulation only but his sharp mind searched specific traits for the specific characters and these traits brought psychological depth to his characters.
When in the beginning audiences see him moving his fingers on his neck in Jis Desh mein Ganga behti hai, then they may not get why he is doing it but once film is finished they may simply admire his act which brings out the fear of a bandit playing hide and seek with the law.
He played brilliantly his complex character in Purab aur Paschim. He is a traitor and though on surface he lives like a self centered person but his behaviour is too complex to be defined in a black and white manner. Pran invented a perfect and quite impressive body language for such a complex character.
In this film he hardly looked anyone directly into the eyes. He did not accept anybody’s existence in his vicinity because he suffered from an inferiority complex. Deep inside him he is always passing through a constant conflict and that controls his outside behaviour. That was a marvelous performance.
With films like Munim Ji and Kashmir ki Kali he mixed comedy with his villainous act. Earlier it was the domain of the actors like Yakub, Jeevan and Kanhaiya Lal and when Pran joined this genre of acting then he excelled here also.
With Ashok Kumar he gave many hit films.
Their pair became a competent pair.
Last time he was seen in a good role in 1942 a Love story.
It is difficult to convey the brilliance of Pran as an actor to those who have not seen Pran’s villainous acts in the films which he did in 50s and 60s as even You tube can not be helpful as it contains only songs and not the scenes from the films and a villain rarely appears in songs and if appears then it is mostly a silent presence.
His only weakness as an actor could be his incapability to play a normal romantic character in a normal way and this is more his personal weakness because he could not prepare himself to do such roles. He found it difficult to sing romantic songs on screen.
He did it later but he did it in a comic manner.
Like many of the films stars of 50s and 60s he too has been involved in various social service activities and has fulfilled his social responsibilities very well as a responsible citizen.
During the political crisis in India in the late 70s, he was among few film stars who opposed emergency in a very vocal manner. He too joined the political party originated by Dev Anand.
This brief politically active phase could be the reason behind the fact that such a great actor of Hindi cinema has not been given the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award.
He deserves it because of his contribution to the hindi cinema. Hope nation pays its tribute to this wonderful actor while he is alive. Hope Pran Saab gets the proper recognition and gets this award for which he truly deserves. His contribution is not less than many recipients who have got it in the past.
People may write to concerned authorities so that a deserving actor gets his due.
Even if Government organizations do not recognize the contribution of this brilliant actor to Hindi cinema, memories of his great performances will remain forever with the audiences and he will always be remembered as a great actor.
Perhaps following is the latest available video of Pran Saab.
Tags: 1942 A love story, Aah, Adikar, Amitabh Bachchan, and Pran-A Biography, Andha Kanoon, Ashok Kumar, bimal roy, BOBBY, Bunny Reuben, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Dimple Kapadia, Gopi, Half Ticket, Heer Raanjha, Hotel Taj, Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai, Jungle mein mangal, Kasauti, Kashmir ki kali, Madhumati, Munim Ji, Nargis, Pran, Prem Nath, Raj Kapoor, Rajini Kant, rajkumar, Ram aur Shyam, Rishi Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Sharabi, shatrughan sinha, Vajayanti Mala, Victoria number 203, Yamla Jat, Zanjeer
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Thanks RK, for this writeup on one of the greatest actors in Indian movies. He was one actor, who could effortlessly slip into the character, and then his unique voice. That one scene in Guddi, explains the kind of impact he had, at the same time, he was a person with a heart of pure Gold. In Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehti Hain where he played the dreaded dacoit Rakha, he has this mannerism of running his finger across his neck, it seems he picked it up, from dacoits, who basically had that pyschological fear of being hanged.
His face offs with Dilip Kumar were memorable be it Ram ur Shyam, Madhumati, Dil Diya Dard Liya or even in later 80’s movies like Duniya, Dharmadhikari.
He had an equally good chemistry with AB, their on screen pairings were always memorable be it Zanzeer, Don,Sharaabi, Kaalia, Majboor.
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Gopi was another good film where Dilip Kumar and Pran took care of positive and negative poles respectively.
There is a scene where Johnny Walker tries to scare Pran by reciting stories of Dilip Kumar’s bravery and Pran’s reactions are amazing in that scene.
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If anecdotes have to be believed then Amitabh and Pran association is also related to the Amitabh’s inclusion in Zanjeer. It is said that Pran’s son had also recommended Amitabh’s name for Zanjeer, he was a friend of Ajitabh Bachchan. Om Prakash who had worked with Amitabh in Parwana also said good words about him to Pran and Pran supported his entry as a hero in Zanjeer. After all at that time Pran was the biggest name associated with Zanjeer.
Funnily there were the stories in the air and they could be heard till early 80s that Amitabh was taught acting by Pran and Mehmood
perhaps because both helped him in his struggling phase.
Amitabh and Pran worked in Kasuati, Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb, Nastik also.
Kaalia reminds me that particular episode where Pran shouts,” Jakad do ise zanjeeron mein” and Amitabh reacts,: jakad do mujhe sar se paanv tak, in zanjeeron mein, Kalia har faulad tod kar dikhayega”
That was the part used in the advertisement of the film on radio.
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I remember once Prakash Mehra said in an interview while they were premiering Zanjeer in Calcutta and he was there with Mr. Bachchan, people shouted saying where is the real hero of the film (This is offcourse before the movie was displayed) but Pran sahab certainly had an aura of an established actor (Mr. Bachchan is auro now)
One might also relate there association when Pran sahab acted in Tere Mere Sapne, first film from ABCL production.
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Their bonding has been good.
Amitabh had released the biography of Pran saab and had written the forward also.
I think they worked last time in Mrityudata where Pran Saab had a guest appearance.
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Don, Shahanshah, Nastik as well
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Add Sharabi and Najboor as well
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One significant film I missed in previous comment was Ganga ki Saugandh where Pran played a Harijan, father of Rekha. His character was modeled by taking inspirations from Kabir, Paltu, Dadu etc. Saints born in so called lower caste but who attained heights in spirituality and social reforms.
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Not only with Amitabh, post Bobby Pran worked with Rishi Kapoor also in many films. Zahreela Insaan, Zindadil, Aapke Deewane etc.
And father of Dharamendra and Jeetendra in Dharam Veer. Pran and his eagle
And some crime thrillers with Vinod Khanna like Gaddar,Khuda kasam etc. Gaddar was made on the pattern of a Clint Eastwood type western thriller. It had copied even famous pre-climax scene of The good, the bad , the ugly.
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This is another nice Qawali on Pran from a movie called Dharma. Pran plays a notorious thief, who moves around in society as a respectable person. Ajit is his friend and a cop who is looking for the thief, Naveen Nischol is his long lost son and partner in crime. Bindu here tries to make Pran reveal his real identity, thru the Qawali.
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Decent remake in Telugu: Naa Pere Bhagawaan. Satyannarayana plays the same role. Come to think of it, Satyannarayana took up Pran’s role in Zanzeer and Don remakes and probably some others as well. If you throw in all the regional actors, I bet there is a long list ahead of Pran for Dada Saheb Phalke.
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Who are there in the list who are more than 80s years old?
Pran had started in 1938 or 1940. He started many things in acting specially for a villainous character.
If list of the actors who have got it till now then Except Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kuumar, nobody seems to beat Pran.
Just because he played mainly Villain does not reduce the contribution he made to the growth of acting in Indian cinema.
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Siva, Satyanarayana generally ended up Pran’s role in Telugu remakes and vice versa. In real life too, both the actors were pretty good friends. They came together in one movie, Kodama Simham, a Sambar Western, where Pran played the Baddie, Satyanarayana played the Good Guy, and of course Chiru did the Clint Eastwood job.
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Wow…didn’t know about Praan and Satya combo in Kodama Simham. Will watch the DVD just to see how they fared against each other.
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Well, actually there r more scenes between Pran & Chiru, but i think Pran & Satya meet in the climax. The only other Telugu movie i recall Pran Sir, acting was Tandrapaparayudu, where he played the role of the French General Bussy. Interestingly Jaggaiah dubbed his voice both times.
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excellent writeup… he never got his due…
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What a good post about a wonderful actor and man!
I really liked the story about ‘And Pran’. You right that he has not received the recognition he deserved.
Thanks for the post,
Dhiraj
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Bharat and dhirajr,
I w’d not say that he did not get his due. He got roles till mid 90s. He has been respected by filmmakers and has been getting tremendous love and respect from the people.
But his contribution to Indian cinema deserves the highest award given to films related people. His contribution is not less than the other recipients who have got it till now.
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These write ups on great actors on PFC are so good they are no less than any prestigious award to them. This one on Pran is no different. The fab parts are the ones where the nuances of Pran’s acting is brought out. Hanging thumbs in Bobby, head shaking in one film, different accents, different personalities. Yeah, the guy did different roles even within the villian character.
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There wuz one film called Dus lakh, starring Sanjay Khan, Babita, Ramesh Deo, Om Prakash, etc. Pran of course played the villian. In this film, he literally translated in English everything that he spoke in Hindi. He didnt arrange the in proper grammatical sentences. Just translated every hindi word with english words. “Main cigarette nahin peeta” would become “I cigarette dont drink”
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Yes remember very well his Dus Lakh.
and even Around the World
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One Pran-Dilip Kumar anecdote:
Pran and Dilip Kumar were waiting before the shoot of a scene where Dilip Kumar was supposed to be panting. Dilip Kumar the method actor wanted to add originality to this scene by actually running a few rounds so he would naturally pant.
When DK finished his rounds and was reaching for his breadth, Pran sitting on a chair and watching all this said just one thing, “Aama yaar, iss mein acting kahan hui!? Aap to sahi mein haanf rahe hain.”
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Tejas,
I don’t think that is a right anecdote. There is something missing.
Because the incident you are quoting is related with the scene of Ganga Jamuna and Pran saab did not work in it.
Moreover this was related to a scene where Dilip Saab was supposed to do a scene where his character is tired, sweating badly by running in forest for several days. He is devoid of water and food.
To bring the impact in this scene he ran like soldiers. He picked up the gun, raised his hands and made several rounds of the place where they were shooting and when he got the feeling then he gave the shot.
He often did it. To get a right feeling inside he had put on that heavy Bakhtarband in Mughal-i-azam in the desert and he used it for several days before shooting was started.
And it is very unlikely that Pran w’d make such a comment even while making jokes.
Time was different then.
During Dil Diya Dard Liya, Dilip Kumar had worked so hard on the character of Pran also. He was helping him.
“and Pran” may help!
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That anecdote is supposed to between Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman when they were shooting for Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman known for his method acting is the one who ran some rounds and Laurence Olivier said “Why not try acting? It’s much easier.”
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Dustin Hoffman himself had said that press twisted the whole incident. Within right context only it will look bit true.
Because anybody who is associated with both the mediums, theatre as well as cinema will hardly say it if he is in his full senses. As theatre relies more on actor’s spontaneous acting once he is on stage and thus an actor’s medium (at the stage of performance before the audience as director can not do anything at this stage), cinema is a director’s medium. Director of a film may take help of any device to make his shot/scene powerful. He may pinch a child actor to get right kind of reactions because a kid can not give on his own what director wants. Illusions are created with the help of camera. We don’t see what exists outside of the frame.
Only a person working solely in theatre and who has never faced a camera, can say such things in a serious tone.
So many times stories are twisted and quoted out of contexts.
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There are many anacedotes related to late Raaj Kumar. According to one such funny anecdote , he supposedly said to Shabana Azmi,” Jaani ye 4-5 awards jeetane se kuch nahin hota, kuch dance etc karna bhee seekh lo”.
It is said she was giving retakes and retakes in a dance sequence.
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In one anecdote Raaj kumar was at recieving end. During Tiranga Nana Patekar supposedely said to him,” Aap kitane saal se yahee karte aa rahe hain”
Anecdote says Raaj Kumar simply smiled.
Now if we believe it then we have to show a mirror to Nana also because inspite of being a very good actor 75% of his acting is full of mannerisms and repetitions.
I think these incidents are always given twists by the people mainly journalists to make their reports interesting.
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Nice anecdotes but what was the context of the second one. Doesn’t look as amusing as first.
These are the normal incidents keep happening on the sets. People do play with each other to keep the atmosphere lively.
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To show Nana’s akkhar andaaz during his super stardom.
Reporters report many things for their own amusement also.
While Karma was under production one newspaper had printed Naseer’s saying,” Now I will show Dilip Kumar, what is caaled acting or how acting is done”.
I don’t believe that any good actor can say such things. Because he certainly knows what is good acting and who and who have done it before him.
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Sputnik,
Long live You Tube. I googled for the right sayings of Dustin Hoffman and it led me to the video. Hope you enjoy it live.
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Thanks. I had read that anecdote long time back and when Tejas made that comment I knew that it was not true. But must say nice translation and applying to Hindi cinema.
Before I posted that comment I had googled and read that it was distorted. That is the reason why I said “is supposed to”.
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just a general opinion abt Dada Saheb Phalke award..I think its objective is to honour people who have made contribution to cinema in such a way that their contribution will be remembered forever..I feel mainly it should be given to directors,writers,music directors and producers who are the main persons responsible for birth of a film and film music..They are the main contibutors..Nothing to take away from singers,actors or villain actors,but I feel that they are already honoured many times inspite of their limited contribution..Dada Saheb Phalke is a prestigious award and should be given to only those people who have made a difference..
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SharatChandra!!
Poorest message, I have ever read by anyone on PFC. Get some life man.I feel pity it you really think so.
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Yaatri,
I like Pran’s performances but I feel him not the right person in company of Satyajit Ray,Hrishikesh Mukerjee or Adoor Gopalakrishnan..It sort of diminishes the value of those people mentioned above who have really made a difference..
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“but I feel him not the right person in company of Satyajit Ray,Hrishikesh Mukerjee or Adoor Gopalakrishnan”
Pls elaborate, i am totally lost here.
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as far as I know Dada Saheb Phalke was a writer,producer,director who is considered father of Indian cinema.He endured hardships to come up with cinema when this medium was non existent in India.So an award in his name should reflect those people who work primarily in the frutition of a film..A cinema is mainly born by the efforts of a director,writer,producer and when it comes to music, music director,lyicist..I am in no way denying the contribution of actors or singers but they come into picture mainly on insistance of a director(in case of superstars it is different I accept)..Coming to my mention of Hrishikesh Mukerjee or Satyajit Ray.wht I meant was Pran being a character actor(not a superstar) he was no way influential in making of a film like those people I mentioned above..
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sharathchandra,
But music is not essential for films. BGM can be there but songs are not essential. so that should eliminate MDs and singers and lyricists also as they have not contributed in the improvement of films. they are simply additional elements. so only director, producer and writer remain there as deserving contributors. among them Dada Phalke award may be given every 5 years as it may be difficult to search for these guys every year.
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@SharatChandra
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadasaheb_Phalke_Award
checkout the list of the recipients,you might want to throw out a lot of people from the list.
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Majrooh Sultanpuri is there and Sahir Ludhianvi is not…
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Where is Shailendra if a lyricist’s long and consistent contribution is concerned?
Where are Jaidev, Khayyam, Shankar Jaikishan, SD Burman among composers?
If Manna De and Bhupen Hajarika can get it then where are Rafi and Kishore Kumar?
KK even contributed in acting, music and direction also.
Apart from singing nobody can deny the power of his acting in comedy roles. His presence in the film industry has brought only improvements.
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RK, I agree. Is this Dada Saheb Phalke award given only to living persons? That may explain the missing of KK and others on the list.
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@ Siva, it was given posthumously to Prithviraj Kapoor in 1971, though as of now, that remains the only time it was done so.
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Siva,
Not always. Prithviraj Kapoor was awarded posthumously.
And it is not Bharat Ratna or Param Veer Chakra. It is to recognize the contribution of a person so IMO it should not matter in general whether a person is alive or dead.
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I bet it matters to the person :-)
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Surely it matters to the person and his family if he is given it while he is alive.
I meant that authorities should not make an excuse that now person is no more so we can avoid his name.
Rather I&B and concerned authorities may give it to many people who could not get it in their life time.
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With that logic no actor will look good in the company of directors. If we go with a comparison then a Hrishikesh Mukherjee may look bit odd in the company of directors like Ray and Adoor.
It is given to the great contribution made by them and it is not based on the competition.
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as far as I know Dada Saheb Phalke was a writer,producer,director who is considered father of Indian cinema.He endured hardships to come up with cinema when this medium was non existent in India.So an award in his name should reflect those people who work primarily in the frutition of a film..A cinema is mainly born by the efforts of a director,writer,producer and when it comes to music, music director,lyicist..I am in no way denying the contribution of actors or singers but they come into picture mainly on insistance of a director(in case of superstars it is different I accept)..Coming to my mention of Hrishikesh Mukerjee or Satyajit Ray.wht I meant was Pran being a character actor(not a superstar) he was no way influential in making of a film like those people I mentioned above..I am not doing any comparison here..Hrishikesh Mukerjee and Satyajit Ray were directors who made good films in their own different genres..I am not clubbing them or comparing them with each other..
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Going by your logic, Ashok Kumar, Rajkumar, Shivaji Ganesan, ANR, Dilip Kumar should not be getting it.
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Ideally I would have loved to see writer directors like Padmarajan,Bharathan who are considered to be the pioneers of parallel cinema movement in Malayalam films and MT Vasudevan Nair,then BharathiRaja,Balachander,Balu Mahendra from Tamil Film industry than those superstars u mentioned..Coming to Rajkumar,ANR,Shivaji, they were superstars and they had the power to influence a movie..on this factor they deserve it..
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Sharat chandra,
Film making is not a one man’s contribution but it is always a team work. Whoever has contributed in making improvements in any film related area may be given this award. Films, specially Indian films are necessarily based on human characters and thus heavily dependent on the good acting shown by actors.
Actors have given an authenticity to the films by their contribution.
Many deserving people have not got Dada Phalke award and Pran is one of them.
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RK- a very nice post on one of my favorite actors of all time.Pran saab will always be remembered for the various characters- villain or positive, that he has portrayed time and again.He was so good that even while playing father to the top stars his role would have some special dimension as seen in a Sharabi or a Amar Akbar Anthony.This post actually reminds me of Pran Saab’s interview in Screen Magazine where he had elaborated on a lot of these things.
I still remember watching a serial called Baap Se Bada Rupaiya when I was in school.The serial was more of a B grade movie as it had action, songs etc.I would watch it just to look out for Pran Saab.
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Do you have that interview? Can you scan and post?
Never found Pran Saab’s interview on TV channels etc.
Never read his interviews in newspaper or magazines etc.
I always thought that he was not interested in giving interviews.
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Have no idea about this TV serial also. Never heard about this TV serial. Never saw him in any TV program.
This is new information. Thanks for information. Missed the serial.
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http://www.screenindia.com/old/fullstory.php?content_id=13163
RK- Check the link above,this is the interview I was talking about.Baap Se Bada Rupaiya was shown on D.D in the weekday afternoon slot in the early 90’s.It had all the bollywood masala- action,comedy,emotion,songs etc
Pran of course had the best role.
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Thanks Sethumadhavan,
It was a nice read.
60 times he worked with first time director or a producer!
Journalist did not ask him about one Salman Khan film of 90s, where he had played a rival to Danny.
Somebody should have asked him how and what he felt while delivering dialogues in his trademark voice like he said in Taqdeer ka Baadshah,” Teeeen baaar ke… baad to… Bhagwan bheeee maaaaf nahin kartaaa”.
Lovely anecdote about Shaheed. Some Critics have to have problems with everything in films.
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Rk- glad you liked it.You are referring to Sanam Bewafa, the movie from Saawan Kuamr Tak
critics will always be critics 
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yes Sanam Bewafa.
Pran’s addressing Dina Pathak as Amma Jaani, should be legendary.
This title confuses me as I remember Gulshan Kumar also had made a film with this title or a similar one.
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Gulshan Kumar’s movie was ‘Bewafa Sanam’ starring his brother Kishen Kumar. His most successful movie. this movie had songs of Ataulla Khan.
have not seen either but recall them from their songs.
Sanam Bewafa- Chudi maza na degi..
Bewafa Sanam-Achcha sila diya tune mere pyar ka…
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@ Jahan
Sanam Bewafa was a perfect Torture. It had good songs, but that’s it. The movie was a yawn fest, and by the time Sallu Mian, shouted out loud “ChaaaChuuuuuu” in his accent, i felt like tearing my hair out.
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Heh! I once watched it for 10 minutes on TV while having food in a restaurant. That was enough to know what this movie was like.
But I guess the popularity of the songs made it a hit.
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Yes both Bewafa Sanam & Sanam Bewafa had good songs & were hits.
Sanam Bewafa- “Mujhe allah ki kasam
allah allah ki kasam,bina eid ke bhi chaand ka deedar ho gaya,tumse pyar ho gaya”
” choodi mazaa na degi,kangan mazaa na degi,tere bagair saajan,saawan mazaa na dega”
“o hare dupatte wali,seedhi saadhi boli baali janam ruk jaana,tu salma haiya sultana, naam to apna batlana,o jaanam ruk jaana”
and some more
Bewafa Sanam-
1. Acha Sila diya tune mere pyar ka
2. Yeh dhoke pyar ke dhoke
3. Wafa na raaz aayi tujhe o harjai
4. O dil todke hansti o mera
5. Nargisi nargisi aankhein teri nargisi ( copy of oorvasi oorvasi from Humse Hain Muqabla/Kadhalan)
6. ooyee ooyee ooyee meri amma
7. teri gali vichchon utega janaza
and a few more
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Angoor ka dana hoon, is not this song also from Sanam Bewafa?
It had a scene in climax where somebody puts child of Salman Khan and his onscreen wife on the ground and Pran and Danny are asked to cut the baby into two pieces so that they quench their thirst of shading blood of each other as they are old enemies and Salman comes from one family while his wife comes from rival group.
Formula at its height
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Adding to what RK had said, the heroine( her name was some Chandni), then sings a never ending song, Danny and Pran, agree to bury the child, and that’s when a group of Rajputs, who are her best friend’s brothers, step in claiming they would never allow their sister’s child, to be buried
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I remember reading that Gulshan Kumar had different directors to shoot for different parts of Bewafa Sanam. He had made it easy on the pattern of Industrial production by distributing the work among several directors who were assisting him.
Though do not know how far this reporting was true.
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yes Rk angoor ka daana hoon is from Sanam Bewafa indeed.some more songs that I remember from it-
“tune dil mera thoda,kahin ka na chhoda,sanam bewafa”
“o jinke aage ji, jinke peeche ji”
movie certainly was a torture fest.
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@Sethumadhavan
You watched that serial ‘Baap se Bada Rupaiyya’ while schooling. You were also in school that time, I was also in school, how is this possible because I guess you are much older than me or it was B-school?
Then it must have been an old serial because I remember it was telecasted in late 90s or early 2000s on DD, every Tuesday afternoon 3 pm. I mostly missed it because of my school and also it was not that interesting.
It must have been a repeat telecast then. Pran did look younger in it but also at that time I had no idea of how old he was but if people don’t know about this then it means it was new serial at that time.
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Jahan- I did watch Baap Se Bada Rupaiya while in school
) – it was shown on D.D in the afternoon as you mentioned but the period was early 1990’s-probably 1993 or 1994.My school timings were 7.30-12.30 & so I would be home for lunch 
remember very clearly that the serial had action & songs too.
( not B.School
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Then I think it was repeated on DD because I dont remember it from 93-94 and I remember it was after the era of daily afternoon soaps started on DD.
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Probably had a repeat- not sure of it.Now I recall that the title song of the serial was sung by Hariharan & the other singers included Udit Narayan too
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I remember the music in my mind but not the song. It was quite slow.
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Zee TV had this wonderful series, dedicated to older Gen actors, there would be 3-4 episodes each dealing with a particular actor. Ashok Kumar, Pran, Kishore Da, Shammi Kapoor were some of the actors covered. Don’t recall it’s name though.
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I have not watched extensively TV programs and specially TV serials after 1990-91 so that may be the reason that I am not aware of many TV programs. I have preferred to watch films on TV also.
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AM Padmanabhan in an interview mentioned how previous generation knew that sound recording was as important a job as acting and they worked as hard on it. Pran would want the entire scene to be played at one go. He had the dialogues written in Urdu for him. In first few passes he would make his own mark on script. If he had a longer pause, he had his own code. He marked it all and then would give a rehearsal from the beginning to the end, with the entire lip synch. While dubbing Pran did not even watch the screen! (guess that’s quite a superb code Pran saab developed for dubbing). Pran would do the whole scene at one go so that he kept the flow.
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Chandan,
Did A M Padmanabhan work with Pran Saab in any film? Or he said things which heard from others working in industry?
Could you say in what context he quoted Pran Saab in his interview?
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@Rk
The way he said it, looked like his own experience. prior to it he was talking about the person he enjoyed most dubbing with. It was Waheeda Rehman for some Mahesh Bhatt movie. He was particularly fond of her habit of never coughing or clearing her throat into the microphone. When asked if previous generation were better in terms of dialogue delivery, he mentioned Pran. Initially Padmanabhan worked as assistant to Dinshah Bilmoriya(Bimol Roy’s recordist) at Rajshree.
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Chandan,
Thanks for the detailed information.
That is true that majority of hindi films made before mid 80s had better quality in dialogues and actors gave a proper diction to nicely written dialogues. Even actors who came from non hindi regions and who could not speak in hindi in real life could be seen speaking on screen in a right manner as per the demands of the characters.
That was because of insistence of directors and their willingness to invite better writers in their teams.
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RK Sir,,,please please give me some details –storyline — about a film called Namumkin by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 1988. There’s nothing on the Net
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Aditi,
Sorry I know about the film but I have not seen the film so if I write about it, it may not match completely with the film. It will not be first hand information.
I try to ask some people who certainly might have seen it and write details to you.
I c’d not seen two Hrishikesh Mukherjee films, Arjun Pandit and Namumukin. I have seen only some parts of Arjun Pandit.
Namumukin was not available on DVD also.
I can give you details of its songs though as I had its music cassette.
Though Pancham was the MD but music is not that much attractive except one Kishore Kumar song.
He sang three songs in it. (Bahut dur hoke, Ai zindagi huyee kahan bhool, Ai zindagi kya hain tere khel).
Last two songs are sung by Anuradha Paudwal also. Her limitations in singing are well expressed in her versions of the songs.
One song is sung by Lata- Saathi aisa lagta hai.
Very ordinary song in every respect.
It was a T series album.
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RK,
Heres one for you
http://www.pransikand.com/interview.html
Also a very good interview here
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2000/apr/05pran.htm
“As a villain, I was so effective that people were scared of me in real life! When I went to someone’s house in Delhi for tea, his young sister was whisked out of my sight!?”
” In England, I would have been knighted and my name pronounced as Sir Prawn”
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Jwalant,
Thanks for the links.
Rediff links gives the same interview which Sethumadhavan had posted but it was screen india link.
Thanks for Pran saab’s website. Did not know he has gone high tech
Seems his grandchildren might have done it.
I think not many people know his full name Pran sikand and everybody will google him by his famous name Pran. They should have made Pran.com.
Thanks again for this link.
He is very right about Knighthood.
Our country does not recognise talent.
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Thanks RK Sir for responding…A memorable of Pran Saab for me is from kashmir Ki kali “Shataa Shataa Le hamara bhi shamay aaeyga”….
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Rk, as usual a very nice post about the best villan of the hindi film industry to date. In fact there is hardly anyone who can come near to him. The only ones I can recall are Ajit, Amrish Puri and to a certain extent Rehman. I would also like to add here two films where he was a dead body in most of the part of the movie, Kab Kyoon Aur Kahaan and Sadhu Aur Shaitan. You can never forget the eyes of Pran in those films.
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Sanjeev,
remember very well KK aur kahan and Sadhu aur Shaitan.
Negative characters played by many actors since the begining of hindi films produce more interesting material than positive characters.
Many actors touched heights in acting when they played a negative character. Rather they changed the way negative characters were portrayed before they played a certain character.
Negative characters have brought more variety to hindi films.
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