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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Wayanad LS bypoll: Priyanka crosses lead achieved by Rahul in 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.
The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.
Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.
"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.
IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.
A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.
According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.
Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.
After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.
The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.
The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.
Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.
