Tuesday, June 12, 2007

String of characters

On popular demand esp. Desh and Bulbul I have to write more on these fellows. Let me first make my stance clear. I neither revere nor despise the unforgettable, forgettable characters who have bedecked the silver screen for ages. They popped up in my mind because of the habit of looking at unforseen and forgotten spaces, a habit best cultivated by observing junior dance artists in P.T. dance sequences (1-2-3 types dances where half of the time hero is clearly watching the choreographer)

There are few common traits that these people share, they occupy a of your psyche where only a quaint image lingers with left over remembrances of queer accent or strange character portrayal. It is in general very hard to associate their names with their images.

Satyen Kappu: He has done various roles most remembered one is Sholay's Raam Laal, the best context specific help ever made. All that the Thakur had to call out was RaamLaal in his deep baritone and master's task would be done. Most of the times he used to be finished before the movie ends or would be weeping/whining on various things.

Jagdish: I think he and not Iftikhar has the most number of appearances as police officer without a single promotion in his life time :)

Sudhir: Now sudhir is a character which very few people can recollect. He is the fellow with long downward turning mustache and queer thick foreign accent Hindi. To aid your recollection he was one of the brothers in Satte pe Satta.

Tej Sapru: Now this one is a bouncer. Tej Sapru was epitome of road side gangster, college baddy, goon's son etc. He dominated the scene in 80s and 90s like no one else. Remember the show manager in Tezaab. Or the baddy in Saajan who tries to rape Madhuri Dixit and a crippleed Sanjay Dutt tries to save him. I guess the best AHA moment belongs to him because of the contrast between persistent presence and relative obscurity. Trying to google tej sapru results in some lawyer named 'Tej Bahadur Sapru' of British era.

Macmohan: It is easy to remember him with his all encompassing beard thin and frail frame. His most memorable role was that of Sambha in Sholay where he had only few lines. Interestingly he is uncle of starlet Ravina Tandon.

I would not include A.K. Hangal here as he is quite well known by his name and his lines in Sholay 'Itna sannata kyon hai bhai' but many people do believe he was born old :)

Do check out later i will continue this :)

PS: another good habit is to go on staple diet of movies on Zee Cinema and Star Gold

3 comments:

Kapil Barve said...

Another character in this string is Tiku Talsaniya. Police Inspector in Andaz Apna Apna or Newspaper editor of Dil hai ki manta nahi. His inimitable giggle is his trademark.

desh said...

list is certainly not exhaustive monsieur barve.
Unable to recollect Tej Sapru.
Aur aap padam Kumar(ya sumit kumar tha) ko kaise bhul gaye, appeared in innumerable films as heroine ka bhai, hero ka dost, villain ka dost, gorkha etc etc.
maybe he was suffering frm MPD :)

Interestingly bollywood provides for all kinds of research, other than the string u have bubble burst icons too- Rahul Roy, Kumar Gaurav, Bhagyashree

desh said...

avtaar gill too :D