Remembering Sanjeev Kumar

This hero was unlike any other. He acted much beyond his age, and also played heroes who were older, like in Aandhi (with Suchitra Sen, with some great songs penned by Gulzar and tuned by R.D. Burman), and in younger roles, romanced Hema Malini (Seeta aur Geeta) and Leena Chandavarkar (Manchali was a delight).

Comedy? Angoor was a classic, with two Sanjeevs and two Deven Vermas. Tragedy? Khilona, where he played a tragically ill man. Nine roles? No problem- Naya Din Nayi Raat was the film.

Father of the hero? Trishul... of the Heroine? Parichay. College kid? Devata (this film had the song Chal baithen church ke peechey). Dashing inspector and then the village thakur who is the centrepiece of the blockbuster Sholay.

Manoranjan was another delightful film where he played a cop who tries to rescue a prostitute because he is in love with her- a remake of Irma La Douce.

Another memorable film of his was Koshish, where he and Jaya Bhaduri played a deaf and dumb couple.

Endearing Film Characters

The two profs in Chupke Chupke are not professorial at all, and are funny in the extreme. Dharmendra and Amitabh in  roles that paralleled Sholay in quality, for me.

Sunil Dutt as Bhola in Padosan, Saira Banu as his haughty but music-loving neighbour.

Mehmood as a Charlie-Chaplin look-alike in Aulad. He sings "Jodi hamari jamega kaise jaani, hum to hain angezi, tum ladki Hindustani"with Aruna Irani in the film.

Om Prakash as Jijaji in Chupke Chupke, a lover of Shuddh Hindi.

Ramesh Deo and Seema Deo in Anand. Very real, and beautifully portrayed.

Jaya Bhaduri in Mili-slightly over-the-top, but her character was like that.

Keshto Mukherjee in all his films, playing a drunkard.

Soorma Bhopali aka Jagdeep in Sholay.

Pran as a Pathan in Zanjeer. Yaari hai imaan mera yaar meri zindagi, he sings in the film, and how!

Rajesh Khanna in Bawarchi-the goodness of his character comes through in each frame.

Deven Verma and Sanjeev Kumar in Angoor. Fabulously innocent.

Naseer and Ravi Baswani in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. Satish Shah in the same film.

Saeed Jaffrey in Chashme Baddoor.

Zeenat Aman in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, as the girl who gets into drugs.

Shreyas Talpade in Iqbal.

Circuit (Arshad) in Munnabhai MBBS.

Aditi (Genelia D'souza) in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na played an easy-going teen. Reminded me of Ayesha Takia in Socha Na Tha.

Abhay Deol and Diana Penty in Happy Bhag Jayegi impressed me a lot.

The two girls in Dangal were great.

Kangana in Queen was also one of the best.