Lesser Mortals in Bollywood

Bollywood has had its heroes and heroines who stole the show over the years. But smaller roles were played by many with aplomb and sometimes these roles were critical to the storyline. I mean, classy villains like Pran and Ajit, or leery ones like Prem Chopra or Manmohan. Or unique ones like Gabbar Singh.

But I also mean character role players (as if the heroes were without character) or bit role players, for instance, Ashok Kumar, Om Prakash, Mukri, Keshto Mukherjee, Asrani, Mehmood, David, Deven Verma, Aruna Irani, Nazneen, Bindu, Helen.

Jagdish Raj typically played inspector, while Iftekhar was usually a higher-up such as the Commissioner, IG or DG of Police.  He probably did not play any other role so well, except in Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaaye, where Madan Puri also had a delightful role, and stole the thunder from the hero.

A.K. Hangal, who passed away recently, was also a good character actor. Amrish Puri, Danny Denzongpa, Abhi Bhattacharya, Durga Khote, Anupam Kher, were some other powerhouses though in smaller roles. Jagdeep played a good foil to Mithun Chakraborty in his James Bond roles. His Soorma Bhopali in Sholay was also a classic.

Ashok Kumar was a great actor in any role he got, and conveyed a variety of emotions with minimum effort. Another actor that comes to mind is Om Puri. Satish Shah was also good, so was Shafi Inamdar. 

6 comments:

Diamond Head said...

A quintessential component of any Hindi film seems to be these five words 'Tum Kehna Kya Chahte(i) ho?' as if there is always an enigma surrounding the ridiculous comments or that the person saying is seriously daft (wonder if you can undaft someone?)

Rajendra said...

There are plenty of cliches like "Main tumhare bachche ki maa banne waali hoon", and "Nahin, chhod do mujhe", etc.

Meghna said...

Very nice. You have pretty much summed up the entire gamut of these specialized stints of Hindi cinema. Pity these days we don't have much on these lines. I guess it got over with Johnny Lever and Kadar Khan.

On an unrelated topic, I thought I must inform you that the placement season has begun here in Nagpur. And I got placed with Asian Paints on day zero.

Rajendra said...

Meghna, Congrats! You are now in the elite club and I will need an appointment to talk to you! Jokes aside, proud of you. Do a good job and get a PPO too.

Rajendra said...

Sorry, I got that wrong. It IS your final placement. So That's even better! Party needed, soon. Or a celebratory blog!

Meghna said...

Thank you sir! Both, the party and the celebratory blog, are due. Hopefully will accomplish both soon. :)

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