Kader Khan: A man that Bollywood forgot too soon
Veteran actor of Bollywood Kader Khan has breathed his last. Today's generation identifies him only as an actor of comedy genre. There was a time when Govinda and Kader Khan made for a superhit pair. Their roles would be created on the lines of popular cartoon series such as Tom and Jerry. Those roles used to be very powerful such as son-in-law and father-in-law, or son and father where the characters would hey into direct competition with each other in performance. Shakti Kapoor also entered into the completion equation sometimes.
Kader Khan who breathed his last in Canada on Dec 31, was a very popular actor of hindi cinema in 1990s. His pairing with Govinda or Shakti Kapoor would be a sure way of getting more comic relief into the cinema. Banarasi Babu, Hero No 1, Haseena Maan jaayegi and other films may not be his best performances, but they sure we're hits of their times. He had not only acted in more than 300 films, but had also written dialogues for more than 200 films. He had deep knowledge in classics of the world so that he could even hold lengthy discussions on them.
But looks like Bollywood was only amused by the daffy acting of this creative man. The field did not want the most creative writer and thinker who could have enriched the field with his knowledge. If he ever included some parts of good literature into the dialogues he wrote, the directors often rejected them and asked him to write perhaps the double entendre dialogues that would be relished by the young generation. Khader Khan used to be very disappointed about this. He had used the 'street style’ language for Amar Akbar Anthony for Amitabh Bachchan’s Anthony Gonsalves’ character when the film was made in 1977. He had later regretted that he even brought that language into circulation in the film industry. But he was very proud of the language he had employed for Akbar's role that was performed by Rishi Kapoor. People had loved Bachchan's role though where he says people run only two times, when there is a Olympic race or policie case.
These dialogues had been a superhit among young people. It would be significant to note that Khader Khan grew up in the red light area of Mumbai, known as Kamathipura. Even then, his family had succeeded in protecting him from the ill effects of the surrounding areas. He reminisced often about entire streets occupied by sex workers, another street was occupied by hijras and the adjoining street had bars and alcohol shops along with places for gambling. Khader Khan often saw sex workers running their business with great acumen.
As a child, Khader Khan was inspired by the works of Russian and Indian writers. Sadat Hasan Manto was his favourite writer. Khan came from theatre background. He was a Mathematics professor by profession. But his interest lie in acting and performing. He entered film industry through Dilip Kumar. He got to play a small role in Yash Chopra's Daag in 1973. Yet, IMDB lists Roti as Khan's first film which was made in 1974. Saleem Javed pair were ruling the dialogue writers world in Bollywood in 70s. They would offer a proper package to the directors such as story, screenplay and dialogue all done together by the duo. This meant Kader Khan got to work on very few films. But the film Amar Akbar Anthony opened the doors of fortune for Khader Khan.
He had written for Desai's films such as Parvarish, DharmaVeer, Suhaag, Naseeb and Coolie. He became the most sought after writer in 70s and 80s. Along with writing for films, he had also gained good reputation in anti-hero roles as well. After brand Govinda began to fade, Khader Khan also began to lose market. He was the first one to identify the growing intolerance in this country. He has even voiced his opinion against it. He brought out a book on the peace-loving aspect of Islam faith. In an interview he gave in 2012, he spoke about growing intolerance, if not going into long discussion about politics. After this, he stopped fancying Bollywood and the feeling was mutual. There were time when he had to clarify that he is alive when rumours of his death spread far and wide. His presence had been long forgotten. It's an irony that he had to be remembered that he was alive when he actually died. Bollywood truly lost a gem in his death.
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TMC MP Saket Gokhale slams Bihar electoral roll revision, claims 1.26 crore voters 'deleted'
New Delhi(PTI): Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Monday said 1.26 crore voters have been "deleted" from Bihar's electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and challenged the government to a debate on the issue in Parliament.
Sharing the Election Commission's SIR data in a post on X, Gokhale said the poll panel "conveniently" did not share any information regarding its claim of having found foreign nationals in Bihar.
As the month-long first phase of the SIR has concluded, the EC on Sunday said that enumeration forms from 7.24 crore or 91.69 per cent of voters of the state have been received.
It also said 36 lakh people were found to have either permanently shifted from their previous addresses or were not found. It pointed out that seven lakh Bihar voters were found to have enrolled themselves at multiple places.
"ECI has deleted 1.26 crore voters in Bihar from the 2024 Lok Sabha voter list overnight," Gokhale, the TMC Rajya Sabha MP, said on X.
Calling the details revealed by the EC "bizarre", Gokhale pointed out that of a total of 7.90 crore voters, forms have been collected from only 91.69 per cent -- 7.24 crore voters.
"This means that forms were not collected from 65 lakh voters, and they will be deleted. About 22 lakh voters (2.83 per cent) have been deleted because they're claimed to be deceased, about 36 lakh voters (4.59 per cent) have been deleted because they're claimed to be untraceable, and about 7 lakh voters (0.89 per cent) claimed to be found as duplicate entries so half i.e. 3.5 lakh entries deleted," he said.
"ECI has conveniently not disclosed how many voters were found to be non-citizens of India. This is important because ECI had claimed that the SIR was being done to 'remove illegal immigrants'," Gokhale said.
EC sources had earlier said their field-level functionaries found "a large number of people" from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar during house-to-house visits made for the ongoing intensive review of the voters' list in Bihar.
Gokhale further said the names "deleted" were on the voters' list in the last Lok Sabha polls.
"A total of 1.26 crore voters in Bihar, whose names were on the Lok Sabha 2024 voter list just one year ago, have been deleted from the new voter list," he said.
"To give you a comparable idea, the number of deleted voters in Bihar during the current SIR is equal to the entire combined population of Uttarakhand plus Himachal Pradesh or the entire combined population of all 6 states of the North-East (excluding Assam)," he said.
He said EC needed to answer some questions "urgently".
"The voter list was revised by ECI before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. How on earth did 1.26 crore voters become ineligible in just one year?" he said.
"How many voters has the ECI been unable to reach for collecting their forms? Under the rules of SIR, those whose forms were not collected will be deleted. Therefore, what is the total number of voters whose names have been deleted only because their forms were not collected?" he questioned.
He said the EC has not collected documents along with the forms from all 7.24 crore voters.
"Does this mean that more voters will be deleted if their documents have not been collected with their forms?"
He reiterated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statement that the SIR exercise "is NRC by the back door".
"ECI had claimed 'removing foreigners from the voter list' as one of the reasons for conducting this SIR. Why has the ECI not disclosed how many actual 'foreigners' were found and deleted from the voter list during this SIR?" he said.
"It makes zero sense that 12 million people in Bihar have become 'ineligible' voters in just one year between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections till date... When 12 million people in a single state lose the right to vote overnight, it is a serious issue," he said.
He added that the opposition MPs have been pressing for a debate on the issue.
"Why is the Modi Govt so scared to have an open discussion on this in Parliament?" he added.
Meanwhile, the EC has asserted that no names will be deleted from draft rolls without following due process.
VERY IMPORTANT AND SHOCKING
— Saket Gokhale MP (@SaketGokhale) July 28, 2025
ECI has deleted 1.26 CRORE voters in Bihar from the 2024 Lok Sabha voter list OVERNIGHT
Last night, the ECI published details of ongoing "special intensive revision" of the electoral roll being conducted in Bihar. The deadline for collection of forms… pic.twitter.com/E7x2egYfCw
