Sanjeev Kumar – Genius par Excellence
iView Author: SATYENDRA JHA (Pune / India)
Email: satyendrajha30@gmail.com
Sanjeev Kumar – Genius par Excellence
Hindi film industry has seen many stars, but not many actors in the true sense of having essayed a gamut of roles, each as different from the other. One such name that readily comes to mind, and which no one would dispute, is of Sanjeev Kumar. The variety of expressions that he possessed has not been matched by many, and he is still considered to be an exponent in portrayal of sensitivity or complex emoting, letting the viewer know the feelings of the character without speaking a word.
Born Harihar Jariwala on 09 July, 1938 in Surat, in a Gujarati family, acting bug hit him at quite an early age. Not having an enviable academic record, he enrolled himself in Filmalaya Acting School, and learned the tricks of the trade. However, being extremely fond of gastronomical pleasures, he had attained physical proportions which didn’t deem fit for the role of a ‘readymade’ star.
Knowing his drawback, he decided to salvage his handicap by dedicating himself to ‘method acting’ from the initial stages itself. It proved to be probably a blessing in disguise for him, since, during his entire career; he had virtually no competition in his chosen genre. He carved a niche for himself by playing aged / elderly roles, which other ’stars’ would not even dare to touch with a barge-pole.
The unconventional and versatile choices he made have not been surpassed by anyone till date. In both Aandhi and Mausam, he essayed the role of a young man in love, and then the aged person with an inner conflict, contemplating a future which is no more. In Mausam, he lived the role of a deaf & mute Harichand Mathur, who, along with his deaf & mute wife, played sensitively by Jaya, wins over the hurdles of life. Both were sent to learn the sign language for the school of specially gifted children. In Naya Din Nayee Raat, he played nine roles, based on ‘navrasa’, where he revolutionised the concept of getting into the skin of the character, and method acting by way of a complete transformation – get up, clothes, voice modulation, and body language. It was not an art many believed in those days.
Arguably his most memorable role of Thakur Baldev Singh, in Sholay, was something that probably he was born to play. Even without his hands, (which incidentally, were no less than a ‘phaansi-ka-phanda’), he manages to send shivers down the spine of the most celebrated villain of our times – Gabbar Singh. His first film as a hero was ‘Nishaan’ in 1965, but what put him on pedestal was his first hit, ‘Khilona’ in 1970, making him a household name, and an acting prowess to reckon with.
Gulzar, known for the sensitive portrayals of human-psychology, who never compromised on quality of acting in his movies, used to swear by the intricate weaving of emotions that Sanjeev Kumar would manage without breaking a sweat. They had one of the most cinematically fulfilling association, and most of Gulzar’s landmark movies had him playing the role of the main protagonist with great conviction, be it Aandhi, Mausam, Parichay, Koshish, Angoor or Namkeen. Even Satyajit Ray, the master of realistic cinema, chose him to play the central character in his only mainstream Hindi movie – Shatranj Ke Khiladi. At the same time, he became almost a lucky mascot for the king of commercial cinema, Yash Chopra, and gave us some gems like Trishul, Kala Patthar and Silsila.
He was known mostly for serious roles, but did some light/comedy roles also. Anamika, Seeta Aur Geeta, Manchali, Baat Ban Jaaye, Angoor, Biwi-o-Biwi, Naukar, Manoranjan, Raja Aur Rank, Swarg Narak, Pati Patni Aur Woh are some of the most memorable films that easily come to mind.
However, like all geniuses, he also couldn’t get away from the trap of creative boredom, and in turn, made some horrendous movie-choices. Bad Aur Badnaam, Pakhandi, Hathkadi, Ayyash, Sindoor Bane Jwala, Ladies Taylor, Patthar Se Takkar, Fauji Chacha were some of the most atrocious movies, mostly towards the fag end of his career.
The winner of 2 National Awards, and the exponent of portraying the complex emotions in the most simple and under-stated manner, had never married, probably because his love for Hema Malini remained unrequited. So depressed was he with the concept of love, and the complicated mechanisms of the heart, that he decided to lead his own life very simple, as if he were playing any character from one of those Gulzaar movies, by not getting married ever. Grapevine says once he even rebuked the offer of marriage from Sulakshana Pandit.
His sudden demise on Nov 6, 1985 due to a heart-attack at the age of 47, left all his fans and colleagues stunned. So unexpected was it that at the time of his death, there were at least ten movies he was working in. Most of them were completed with major story changes to justify the absence of his character, and were released much after his demise. Professor Ki Padosan, Love & God, Qatl, Baat Ban Jaaye were some such movies.
He may not be with us anymore, but the immortality he has gained by way of the superior work during his lifetime is sufficient for ‘passionate-for-cinema’ like us to remember him for ages, and reflect in the vicarious pleasure of ups and downs he took us to, through his movies.
Tags: Aandhi, Gabbar Singh, gulzar, Jaya Bhaduri, Mausam, Naya Din Nayee Raat, Sanjeev Kumar, satyajit ray, sholay, Thakur Baldev Singh
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Nice Article. Of most of the 70’s and 80’s actors, he is one guy is really liked.
nice article abt one of the greatest actors of hindi cinema.sadly people seem to have forgotten him these days.there’s one mistake in the article.sanjeev didn’t play deaf n mute in “mausam” but in ‘koshish”.mausam was perhaps his most complex role.sharmila tagore was cast against him in the film not jaya bhaduri.
nice work…
>>>In Mausam, he lived the role of a deaf & mute Harichand Mathur, who, along with his deaf & mute wife, played sensitively by Jaya, wins over the hurdles of life …
u meant ‘koshish’…rite! his name was haricharan and not harichand…do u recall the scene where he puts the green-chilly on the feet to mean hari-charan
@ crazyrals: sorry, i indeed meant koshish & hari-charan respectively, and not mausam & harichand. thanks bro for the correction. n yes,i indeed rem tht scene which ‘explains’ his name.
there must have been a typographical error at my end, wherein i meant koshish and wrote mausam. could be becoz in the previous sentence, i had writeen abt mausam, and the very name reminded me of the movie, got so much into my psyche, i eneded up repeating the name sub-consciously.
once again, thx guys for pointing out the error. but this has a silver lining as well: it definiely proves that PFC doesnt try to edit any article submitted. bravo…
For all his fame in serious & mature roles, for me personally, his performance in Angoor is what defines Sanjeev Kumar – I think it was closest to the character he was in real life. He had one of the finest dialogue delivery styles – be it RK Gupta of Trishul or Thakur Baldev Singh of Sholay, Sanjeev Kumar was absolutely fantastic! He would’ve probably turned into a sensitive director some day..
Angoor!!! One of my favourites!
@Jha
Nice to read about someone so immensely gifted and yet so humble. For me his stand out role, was not sholay; but a couple of other movies.
1)Angoor- one of the finest comedies in hindi cinema, and Sanjeev Kumar was perfection personified.
2) Silsila- While Big B walked away with all the accolades, i was really impressed with the mannerisms of Sanjeev Kumar, The post Holi scene with Rekha and the scene in which he tells Jaya Bachchan the “Pariyon ki kahani” are so well executed. One can see the pain and almost a helplessness in his eyes.
A true mster to his craft!
great thing abt a versatile actor like sanjeev kumar is, the moment u think one role to be his best, someone reminds u of another role played by him, which is equally powerful, if not better. why restrict with sholay, or trishul, or angoor, i think his roles in raja aur rank, khilona, koshish, mausam and andhi are more layered. that is his true genius.
those who have seen jaani dushman would swear by his multiple (dual) personality disorder. evn in more obscure movies like qatl, bad aur badnaam, he has come out unscathed as far as acting is concerned.
Angoor,Sholay,Aandhi,Mausam,Silsila & so many more gems from him.I can just go & on about Haribhai- he was simply brilliant.
Jha- btw are you are aware that his Naya Din Nayee Raat is a remake of a tamil movie- Navarathri?Sivaji Ganeshan played the 9 roles which later Haribhai made popular in Hindi.
Watch the vintage Haribhai in the song and the scene following it from the film Be-Raham
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgoEYu-vzHk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeb0THrtWg8&feature=related
GK
@ Sethu: yes sethu, im aware of tht 9 role played by shivaji ganeshan. in fact, the same role was also played by akkineni nageshwar rao (father of nagarjuna) in the telugu version.
havent watched any of these two movies though. i wonder, if at all a comparision is made for the sake of it, who wud come out better? any ideas?
Satyen, great tribute to one of the finest actors of Indian cinema. Sanjeev’s association with Gulzar in itself wud be a separate topic. Again like Utpal Dutt, Sanjeev was a totally effortless actor, which just made him slide into the skin of the role.
He could do a totally comic role like Angoor or a serious role like Sholay, Mausam or a romantic one like Manchali or Anamika.
I have not seen the Shivaji version, but have watched the ANR-Savitri version in Telugu, but even by comparison’s sake not sure, felt both the actors did brilliantly.
To point out who would be better between Sivaji Ganeshan,ANR & Sanjeev Kumar would be very difficult per se.In fact Savitri plays the role in original tamizh version too.
SJ are u sure Sanjeev Kumar was there in Kala Patthar
Nice article.
I must say he was one of the most unedrrated actors in hindi cinema
@Atul
yes he was ….he was the doctor whom rakhee replaced in the coal mines
Sethu: Why be diplomatic yaar? This is a site for debates (but it is up to us to keep it healthy)! Sivaji was the best sirji!!
Thanks for making me remember one of my favorite actors, small but a wonderful role played by him in his early career as an actor was in ‘Parichay’…and the great song by RD…’Beeti na bitayi raina…’ where he and Jaya Bhaduri sing the song…Wow!! A great actor & and a wonderful writeup…
Nowadays, people remember him only in the TV gags making fun of his sholay character…. so pathetic…
the beauty of sanjeev kumar’s effortless acting was that he cud mesmarise the viewers evn in those blink-and-you-miss roles, like in kala patthar, probably in the same way that utpal dutt cud do, like in angoor.
as ratnakar said, these two actors were so comfortable with the effortless acting, sometimes we wouldnt realise they were acting.
this very common thread was what inspired me to write abt utpal dutt and sanjeev kumar on a back-to-back basis.
ratnakar / sethu: any suggestions for the net target?
ratnakr / setu: typo error. i meant “next” target.
@ Jha- how about Suresh Wadkar?I believe he is a true underrated singer and a very good trained musician.Dont think he has really got his due so far!!!
@Satyendra Jha : keep up the good work. but let me also add tat plz put in a little more matter. as in, u cud have written a few lines abt his important movies like sholay, mausam, koshish, andhi etc. this looked like an overview. if u add a few more details and some trivia, it wud make it all the more interesting to read it
hope u r taking this +vely
Finally someone talks of my all time favorite and from Hindi cinema!
Another actor who reminds me so much of him – in the way he emotes – Mohanlal!
His first national award was for the film Dastak which in itself was a great film having won the national award for the best actor(Sanjeev Kumar)and best actress(Rehana Sultan).Sanjeev Kumar-Gulzar gave us some great films like Mausam,Aandhi,Koshish,Namkeen and Angoor.He was the best actor of the 70’s.However two of his performances as a suppoting actor which I cannot forget are Satyakam and Aap Ki Kasam.Specially in Satyakam you cant take our eyes off him in the scenes he had with Dharmendra.He was brilliant!!!Hrishikesh Mukherjee made another film Arjun Pandit with him for which he received Filmfare Best Actor award.However the copy of that film is hard to find.
Another couple of his mindblowing performances I can remember are from his lesser known but good films like Grihapravesh and Anubhav both directed by Basu Bhattacharya.Even before the parallel cinema movement ushered by Shayam Bengal-Naseer-Shabana started Sanjeev Kumar did it all in Grihapravesh and Anubhav.
@ rals: bro, definitely taking ur suggestions positively. and wht u say is absolutely right. just tht i didnt want my posts to be too lengthy. wud try to make it less documentary-style, and more personal from nxt time onwards.
thx agn for the vauable inputs.
Add Jaani Dushman to the list of horrendous movies !!
I was born in the eighties and pretty much grew up with an understanding of good actors in the nineties. One actor my father introduced my father introduced me to was Sanjeev Kumar I echo the exact sentiments. His plethora of roles can never be imitated and I doubt we will ever find an actor who will ever come close to stepping in his shoes.
@ roshni: im sure u wont b dispaaointed with sanjeev kumar’s movies, except for a few ones,which i hv tried to warn ppl abt.
Sridhar @ 19: thx for the concurrence bro. those who like sanjeev kumar will never get tired of him, even in repeat viewings. one scene, among all, that has me in splits is in angoor, whn ashok ‘the novel-reader’ is trying to tell deven verma abt the scene from the novel with all the necessary BGM with his own mouth.
on a different note, i really didnt mean to deride ur sayaji shinde article. i realised i was too harsh. tendering my heartfelt apologies. plz accept.
@Satyen – Yes, I remember that scene and hes such a magnificient actor that he played the dual role character who have so much in common so differently. Luv the way you write bro, please no apologies. Thank you. Keep them coming