Kader Bhai ko nacheez ka salaam
Kader Khan
Kader Khan, or might I say with a touch of deference Professor Kader Khan, was a lecturer at Mumbai’s M. H. Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, before he made a foray into cinema. In fact in one of his initial films – Benaam (1974), the credits for dialogue writing actually refer to him as ‘Professor’ before spelling out his full name. For someone who taught mechanical engineering, the leap into the world of Hindi Cinema was akin to living two lifetimes in one.
But the talented Khan managed to bridge the gap. Writing for Khel Khel Mein and Rafoo Chakkar helped him get established. With Salim Javed setting the benchmark for screenplay and dialogue writing in the 1970’s, Kader Khan proved to be the only one to match their mettle. Where Salim Javed might have fed off each other’s creativity to spur the combine to greater heights, Khan had only himself to establish his presence in the industry as a worthy contender to the iconic duo. And while it is true that Salim Javed are responsible for scripting Amitabh’s persona as the “Angry Young man of Indian Cinema” through films like Zanjeer, Deewaar, Sholay Trishul and Kaala Patthar, it was Kader Khan who got Amitabh acquainted with his comic side.
Remember ‘Anthony Bhai’ handing out one of the important axioms of life in Amar Akbar Anthony “Aisa toh aadmi life mein do-ich time bhaagta hai – Olympic ka race ho ya police ka case ho”. Or ‘Arjun Singh vald Bhim Singh vald Dashrath Singh’ in Namak Halaal taking off at a complete tangent to prove his command over Victorian English “lo kar lo baat, arrey Babbuji aisi English aavey hai that I can leave angrej behind, you see sir I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English because English is a very phunny language ……”. The best of Amitabh’s comic scenes as a sozzled yet affable lout in Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb, Satte pe Satta or Hum are courtesy Kader Khan’s dialogues.
The other thing about Kader Khan’s dialogue writing for Amitabh’s films was that he gave most of Amitabh’s characters an identity that was closer home to the average man in the audience. ‘Johnny’ in Naseeb or ‘Natwar’ in Mr. Natwarlal or ‘Ravi’ in Satte pe Satta were identifiable next door characters. This in stark contrast to Amitabh’s larger than life screen image created by Salim Javed. As a result while fans were always in awe of Salim Javed’s ‘Vijay’, they quite readily warmed up to Kader Khan’s brand of character that Amitabh played.
However, when it was required, Khan proved equal to the task of maintaining Bachchan’s towering persona. Take for example the line in Muqaddar ka Sikander where Amitabh appreciates Vinod Khanna by extending his hand and saying ‘ama mila lo yaar, zindagi mein Sikander ne bahut kam logon se haath milaaya hai’. In that one line, Kader Khan summarized the character of the protagonist in the film while expanding the legend of Bachchan.
Kader Khan in Khoon Bhari Maang
In 2007, Khan met with an accident that left him in a critical condition, but recent reports suggest that he should be returning to films. As one half of the comic pairing with Govinda that gave us many enjoyable moments in the 1990’s, we hope Kader Khan makes a return sooner rather than later. Until that time we must doff our hats to Kader Bhai for giving us one of the finest pieces of dialogue in Hindi Cinema which goes:
“Vijay Dinanath Chauhan – pura naam, baap ka naam Dinanath Chauhan, maa ka naam Suhasini Chauhan, gaon Maandwaa, umar chattees saal nau mahina aath din aye aye sohlva ghantaa chaalu hai”
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Fitting article. Kaader Bhai is an essential chapter in indian cinema. Thanks for mentioning ANGAAR. What a film and what performances.
I always thought the guy was a very talented actor. Wonder why he didnt dozens of brainless crappy movies. Well its still not to late..
Awesome tribute to an often under-appreciated artist.
Great article, well written. I’m ashamed to admit I had no clue that Kaderbhai was the dialogue writer for so many of Bachan classics. Awesome tribute!
Not only that but, during the making of Mr. Natwarlal, Amitabh would send his dialogue sheets to Kader Khan’s room. Kader Khan would study the dialogues and then record the dialogues in his voice and send the tapes back to Bachchan. Bachchan found Kader Khan’s dialogue delivery an inspiration based on which he would prepare for his shoot the next day. This neat incident was told by the late Shafi Inamdar.
Wow! Oz thanks for the anecdote- speaks so much about the professionalism of both AB & Kader Khan.
WAs it just for Natwarlal? I had heard Amitabh on KBC that he used to listen to Kader’s tapes with regards to dialogue delivery. Maybe he meant to point to this incident.
Good article, Akshay. I knew he was a dialog writer. But, I wasn’t aware of the fact that he wrote dialogs for my personal favorite AB’s films (MKS & Agneepath). Hope he recovers soon and writes and acts.
@
Akshay
A WellDeserved post.Apart from Angaar,one of the other movies i love of his where he acted is Amithabhs Adalat!! Awesome performance!!a must watch!!
gr8 post…gr8 actor…
btw, a question…In Amitabh’s Benaam, there is a voice on the phone always saying ‘Yanikee…Yanikee’ which is later identified as the voice of Prem Chopra….I always felt the voice was Kader Khans…Did anybody feel that?
Yes it was Kader Khan’s voice. This was mentioned by Sachin during an episode of a TV show of his where he parodied a Hindi film every episode. Do not know the name but do remember him mentioning this.
Lovely post…real fitting tribute.
always wondered, did Kader Khan dub for Rex Harrison as Sir John in one of the most bad-ass heist movies ever – Shalimar?
yes he did
Yeah. That was quite evident wasnt it
great, always liked him for his work, but he has been missing from the celluloid since almost a decade now
Well he was a great dialogue writer and an actor and all. But his time is up. We dont really want more of him on screen. He doesnt fit in anymore
fabulous post bro… wonderful insights there… also affiliation to the david dhawan brand of cinema has definitely not furthered any legends… hope to see more sanjeeda stuff from The Man who gave us Vijay Deenanath Chauhan.
very nice post for an unsung hero and i am glad u mentioned angaar.. his performance was class apart..despaite presence of Nana and jacky
In his initial years of acting as villian..it was tough to match his style of loughing..whether it was naseeb of kulie etc. Kader Bhai has played a great role in Amitabh’s success. U must notice his pronunciation…very good in both hindi and urdu. His has made his mark even in very small roles also foe eg. in Muquadar ka sikandar.. sukh ko bhool ja or dukh ko apna, taqdeer tere kadmo mein hogi or tu muquadar ka sikandar kehlayega .. 
great tribute to one of the living legends. yes, angaar was one of his finest roles, sans comedy,and holding his own against the dynamite nana as well as jackie and mazhar khan.
i remember that particular scene where the sons nana & mazhar are having dinner with kader khan, and the way he admonishes nana for doing something that was undesirable.
bravo
@ akshay: i think u missed out on mentioning Do Aur Do Paanch as one of the best comedies written by Kader bhai. he also acted in it as the main villain who pits AB & Shashi against each other on his ‘errands’. Kader as villain was chilling, and his dialogues mouthed by the two heroes was ROFL-stuff.
Akshay- hey! certainly a nice post on a thoroughly deserving personality.what an actor and what a writer.Its very tough to name his favorite movies- as an actor he had a superb range- be it as a villain , comedian or in positive character roles.and as a writer he was extremely powerful with his dialogues.
He was also a regular part of the Jeetendra movies of the 80’s ( mainly remakes of South Indian movies ) along with Shakti Kapoor and Aruna Irani.
Hope to see him back in action- been missing him!!!
BTW does anybody remember the hilarious cameo in a double role as waiter/manager in a restaurant that Kader Bhai portrayed in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan?
kader khan:dialouge writer to fabulous actor
Kader khan has immense contribution to industry.He definately gave a stark to Salim javed’s Amitabh with his own version :the comic amitabh.Amitabh bachchan must be thankful to kader bhai..as it was kader who gave him award winning AGNIPATH…a fresh revival.kader khan would be revisited again as he stands tall as a person who handled varied responsibilities throughout his ’satisfied’ carrier.
Kader was one of the best , remember all those Jeetu movies(Patal Bhairavi),today also i was just watching Bhai , i guess this was his Last main stream film as dialogue writer.
Remember that Hum’s dialogue of Big B.Is Duniya main do type ke…,
Such a refreshing change to see someone writing about Kader Bhai! Thanks mate.
I was very young when I saw him for the first time on the sets of Do aur do paanch. Also, he was the only one I heard speaking. So he left a unique starter’s impression on me.
Subsequently he and Raza Murad did a Ajmer baba movie, name I forget, and I remember his khaas urdu from that. Impressive.
By then he was rocking as a dialogue writer and some movies as the lead villian. From this bunch, I remember MKS, Naseeb, Natwarlal very well. Remember he still used to take Physics tuitions then.
But then, the Andhra period of Hindi cinema arrived, starting 84 and Kader Khan decided to go commercial or rather slid into that. Recording the dialogues on a cassette and sending it over. “Main tere munh mein thukun” kind of dialogues, 20 day shoots with Jeetendra, Sridevi, Jayaprada, Shakti, Kader, Aruna Irani combo in Hyderabad studios, all went down…
By the QSQT breathed some freshness into our cinema in 88, Kaderbhai was so down the road that he had to find refuge in David Dhawan films and some Mithunda goldies!
He simply faded out.Some sporadic hits here and there but nobody wanted his thodfaad urdu dialogues ever again esp after DCH!
wht abt yum hai hum in taqdeerwala..
If the whiff from here can somehow get to him, I hope he gets well soon and comes back with those dialogues that we love so much. What a great contributor!!
I have been a very big fan of Kader Khan ever since I started watching films, and that is because I started watching films as a kid with my father who was a big film buff and he was a big fan of Kader Khan. So he would always tell me to not just notice the hero and the heroine but also notice Kader Khan, his acting and his dialogues. My father is such a big fan of his that he could tell which dialogues were written by Kader Khan just from hearing them, and this was in the early 90s when there was no Internet, no IMDB, no IndiaFM and no Cable Television.
Personally I think he is a terribly underrated actor, underrated because he is not given the respect and appreciation that he deserves. He should be treated the same way an Anupam Kher or a Boman Irani is treated today.
I hope he recovers well and and we see him in films soon.
Thanks for this piece.
hate leaving these one word comments for want of/lack of anything more to add……nonetheless
SUPERB!!!!!
What a legend Kader bhai has been. One should also acknowledge his Coolie No. 1, which was a comedial riot! Kader bhai was robbed of many awards, whether dialogue writing or acting.
there are 2 aspects to this. Kaderbhai’s dialogues when mouthed by Amitabh were,are and will always be immortal. Yet the same “quality” of dialogues when mouthed by the likes of Jeetendra and even himself just come across as wierd and bizarre!.
So Kader/Amitabh jodi is symbiotic but WITHOUT Amitabh, Kader bhai’s dialogues fall flat.
Idharrr aaaaaoo……Waaaapass jaaaaao…..
We are so much in the awe of the lead actors in the Indian frame of cinema that we just don’t give a damn about the so called dtereotypical ” side-kicks”.
The side-kicks have now been replaced by the actors in supporting roles who are invariably the ‘other’ stars.
Then there are directors who want to give the credits to the unsung heroes : read ’side-kicks’ and come up with movies which which show the stars portraying these characters or the other stars who in turn struggle and finally establish themselves as the real stars/actors.
Alas!
In the Indian scheme of things a side-kick has been kicked-aside.
Although his name is mistakenly paired only with loud, meaningless stuff, he was extremely talented. He knew the power behind words, he could write.
He remains a bit under-rated, his work being touted more as frivolous than anything else. Wrongly so.
I like his stuff. Will always.