Kader Khan : Unsung and Forgotten
Not many may like Kader Khan. Not many recent entrants to Bollywood may have heard of him. Not much is written about him. - do check the web out… I did try… nah… nada… its bits and pieces of snippets here and there. Not much.
And this is the guy who was one of those, from whom, the great Amitabh Bachchan learnt better dialogue delivery. Every evening after packup on the sets of Mr. Natwarlal, KK would speak out Amitabh’s dialogues in a tape recorder, which Amitabh would then listen to later that evening.
Goes to show what KK was and still is made of. One of the most prominent dialogue writers in the seventies and eighties and ofcourse one of the most successful character actors of the eighties… there was a time when producers had the notion that for their movie to succeed it had to have KK acting and writing the dialogues for the movie.
The only place that mentions more than two lines on this Writer/Actor is Wikipedia…
Kader Khan is an Indian film actor, comedian, script and dialogue writer, producer and director. He has acted in over 150 Indian films in the Hindi & Urdu languages, and has written dialogue for over 1,000 Indian films, from the 1970s up to the turn of the 21st century… He has also worked side by side with other comedic legends like Shakti Kapoor and Asrani. He had taken many parts in films like Side Actor, Main Villain, Side Villain, Guest Actor, Comedian and many more. He lives in Mumbai, the home of the Indian film industry…
I’ll take a short walk on KK and if you have any anecdotes on his personal life… let’s build a paper on this very talented writer and an extremely able actor who’s range of characters would leave many a new entrant gaping for breath.
Kader Khan, it is clear, was a professor. Don’t remember what subjects he taught, but he had started dabbling in writing and his work started doing the rounds of Bollywood.
His very first recorded works seems to be that of a two bit role of a lawyer in Daag after which he ends up working as a additional dialogue writer for Manmohan Desai’s Roti. KK would then have a long association with Desai and his movies… but the very same year, 1974 he comes out with a movie, in which, not only he writes dialogues, but also acts as the voice on the phone that the harassed couple - Amitabh Bachchan and Maushmi Chatterjee - listen to all throughout the movie.
His Voice. Many in the later years forgot that Kader Khan had this booming impressive heavy weight of a voice and Narinder Bedi made full use of it in the movie, Kader Khan’s second project after Roti. The movie was the hit… Benaam… and I guess this is where a friendship developed between him and Amitabh.
Manmohan Desai was using KK, to write dialogues for most of his movie… while KK was also getting success in writing dialogues for other projects… hit movies like Khel Khel Mein.
The impressive voice was then again used in the Hindi dubbed version of Shalimar where KK’s voice spoke for Rex Harrison.
But before that he had bagged a major role, his first. No longer a blink a miss one. It was the role of a cop. Inspector Khan. A man who chases Amitabh all his life, yet has a soft corner for him. KK had finally arrived with his first major role in Aadalat.
There on KK was doing side villain roles or one of those 20 odd villains in the gang, old man or brother characters and sometimes main villain roles like those in Khoon Pasina, Suhaag, Jyoti Bane Jwala, Jwalamukhi, Agar, Do Aur Do Paanch, the stylized but sick Chor Police among a few others.
I guess this was a time when people in the industry had recognized his talent. His writing abilities. His booming voice. His amazing ability to balance stylized acting with an element of naturalness in it - that by the way has been amazing and tragically not anyone in the media has ever covered this impactful unique style of acting.
But somehow - I don’t think there was mass recognition yet. People, I suspect, knew him as “Oh! Kader Khan? umm… oh the one who played that role in that movie”… but not “Kader Khan WOW!!!”
That moment came unexpectedly. It changed the face of Bollywood for the next 10 years. Ironic as it may sound… but I consider 1983 to around 1995 to be one of the worst periods in Bollywood. That period, due to some sickening sense of humor God may have, turned out to be Kader Khan’s Golden period in Bollywood.
I guess it’s because KK adapted to the 80s and those low on intelligence, high on titillation content churned out by Bollywood. Critics never forgave him for that. Yet… he seemed to be the only knowledgeable person in that era to whom producers could approach to write dialogues for their movies.
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Back to the movie that brought Kader Khan to the masses. It also had Jeetendra in it, who was trying to survive his hundredth elimination from the industry. His movies were flopping left, right and center. Gulzar had saved him in the seventies. In the eighties, Gulzar himself was hard pressed to get his projects rolling. Jeetendra was doing family melodramas in the early eighties or B grade content thrillers packaged as A grade products… things were working…
That’s when he went back to his other saviour. The Southern Studios. Padmalaya Studios picked up a project. Jeetendra as the hero. Sridevi - the heroine. Kader Khan - the dialogue writer and… a character which was someone KK had not played before.
The role was that of a Munimji - Narayandas Gopaldas. Thick glasses… Hitler-ish moustache, wearing a dhoti, a jacket, a black umbrella… utterly selfish and a turncoat of a man… KK flattened his voice, went for windmill like hand movement, the frustrated look with buffoonish side effects… and he was done. He had arrived.
Himmatwala was crap. Narayandas Gopaldas was not. KK did a 180 from what he had been doing so far. Comedy. Mixing Chaplin, Buffoon, Slyness and his rata-tata-tat speech delivery… the audience finally noticed. And for the first time the Billboards screamed… watch Kader Khan in a never before seen role…
It was all gold for Kader Khan from there on while… quality in Bollywood went downhill…
Though content grew extinct and Bollywood’s tattered scripts looked like the beggars living on Bombay’s sidewalks or the homeless in San Francisco’s streets, it was undeniable that KK still came out with a range of roles that had weight… from making you cry in one movie to laughing your pants out in the very next… Kader Khan was having fun.
The critics ofcourse were running him down. They were right in their view to some extent. Double meaning dialogues, crappy and vulgar sense of humor… Producers needed the front benchers that formed the majority of the cinema visiting audience in the 80s, and KK made sure the producers got what they wanted…
But all was not lost… KK in between all this murkier that the murk quality of films, would come up with a film or two with hard hitting dialogues… the movies remained crap but his dialogues would get noticed… a prime example would be one of those patent 80s hero dishum dishum movies was Dilwala… starring Mithun, Meenakshi and Smita Patil.
Pran was coming back after a long time as a bad guy. He was tired of playing the good guy character roles. KK came back with hard hitting dialogues… a prime example would be the chess board like maneuveres Patil and Pran played with each other… and in one of the scenes Patil who’s just outmaneuvered Pran goes “Some people because of the fear kneel down to worship the snake while the fearless smash it’s head to pieces…” - the dialogue fitted into the scene like a glove… KK hadn’t lost it.
While his role of an armchair revolutionary punching people’s egos with his straight shooting talk had me in splits… and I ended up watching a shit movie like Aaj Ka Daur - 14 times, to memorize each and every dialogue of KK’s character. I would jump with excitement each time he came to roll the entire audience off their seats holding their bellies. I watched it all. 14 shows, 14 different sets of audience. And KK got each one of them. Each of the viewer. In each of the shows. Each of the groups. Be it the Matinee show or the 9pm show. KK just had a uniform impact.
The biggest tragedy of all could be that KK’s talent for writing and his amazing ability to play a wide range of roles came to be used in the worst period of Bollywood.
The south made the best use of KK for churning out their cookie cutter products. KK struck gold. Along with Jeetendrea, Shakti Kapoor and Asrani. These four made the most of the 80s wave of the South Studios in Bollywood. Tragically, the studios never came out with any gems that Southern studios produce time and again.
It was all Hero, Heroine, Comedy, Conflict, Villain, Dhishum, Dhishum - the End. Never once did they waver from the path.
And there in lies the tragedy of being a Kader Khan. He found commercial success in the worst quality phase of Bollywood. It’s mind boggling to note this when one looks in the past. But it’s the truth. One of the most talented writer/actor in Bollywood was reduced to playing a buffoon and writing dialogues where you weren’t sure if the word stick actually referred to a dick.
The early nineties already had a new wave of jeans wearing directors in their early twenties raiding Bollywood studios. KK tried his best to gel into this new generation… sadly he couldn’t… things would reach such a state where the then new director Sanjay “Zinda” Gupta had to point blank tell KK to “cut the crap” because he took KK’s constant suggestions as interference. Kader Khan merely smiled and said “Naya zamana aa gaya hain… hum ab purane ho gaye“…
Slowly KK’s projects grew less and less… He still comes in now and then… and does leave an impact with his comedy… example - check out Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, where he so hilariously plays a character who has this shifting sickness where one day he loses his sight, another day his memory, then his speech etc…
His relationship with Amitabh, seems to be still steady for he came in to do a two minute role in the Amitabh starring Family… it was really sad to see him do such a role…
…because my belief in his talent and his range has not diminished one bit. A booming voice, an amazing wordsmith, an actor of thousand faces… Kader Khan, unsung and now forgotten…
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November 30th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
OZ:
Kader Khan perhaps basically belong to Afganistan. He was teaching Civil Engineering in a polytechnic and was doing theater as hobby when Dilip Kumar saw his one drama and asked him to join films.Though KK has good voice but he copied Dilip saab ’s style of dialogue delivery. No doubt there was atime in 80s when he was a super star character artists and almost every south-bombay united film was having KK.
There was rumour that Jeendra had made a clause in his contract with south film makers that either KK will write his films and dialogues or will act in those as when KK was doing both he used to steal the show.
his pair with shaki kapur made difference
November 30th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Oz:
its good you covered kadar khan in such elaborated manner. He was quite popular in 80s. In Jeetdenra’s films he played variety of roles and perhaps he took crwon of comic villain from Jeevan in 80s. Cant recall the movie where he says. He is not seen in many films now. last I can recall him in Lucky of Salman Khan where KK has played a hindustani Doctor residing in Russia.
In diallogues writing he also can be accused for writing double meaning dialogues. Was it not he wo wrote dialogues of maqsad?
November 30th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
- RK, yep I haven’t checked it… but Maqsad’s dialogues were written by him.
November 30th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Finally an article on Kader khan…
Must say he was one of the starting influences for me …. I used to love the puns .. the similies and metaphors in his dialogue … melodramatic or not …I still loved him ….
Really sad to see him in Family and Lucky …
December 1st, 2006 at 1:39 am
Oz-bhai so good to see someone like Kader Khan getting his due atleast on DT. The munim characher has been etched eternally into Bollywood viewers.And what to say of his comic timing…rarely we’ve see another character actor other than Utpal Dutt or Paresh Rawal with that quality. Also his Govinda movies…just too good. I was just remembering that horrible movie Kismat (or could be Naseeb) starring Govinda+Mamta Kulkarni and none else than great KK. There was one scene where a drunk KK goes to pee and instead of unzipping his trouser, he tries to unzip his shirt and in the process gets his “patlun geeli”. The way this guy carried it out was simply brilliant.
Somewhere I was reading that all the male members of Dhoom2 cast went to the same high-school. The way these cartels are holding their grips on Bollywood is killing the creativity of struggling people and character actors like KK are reduced to mere 2-3 mins cameo role in Lucky.
But even in that small slot in Lucky his dilemma of helping a fellow Indian or throw him out, is brought out in a superlative fashion. God when will that day come when we would have a movie with only character actors. May be that day KK might get his due credit.
December 1st, 2006 at 2:15 am
Is he not having some financial trouble at the mo? That is what I heard or read.:-?
If Kader Khan was of this era - he would have been another Boman Irani (i.e more successful) or Boman Irani is today’s version of Kader Khan (but without writing ability)..
December 1st, 2006 at 1:40 pm
oz, have a few things to say about kk. a gem of a human being. for now, i’ll say thanks for writing this post. and secondly, WHY IS THIS NOT ON PFC?!? x(
December 2nd, 2006 at 8:34 am
I think Kader Khan shot himself on foot by refusing to do any villain roles since late 80’s. He was an awesome villain but got into “my kids are growing up and I cant do any more villaineous role” emotional stuff. Audience are right int he sens ethat Kader Khan’s shelf life as comedian was way past its sell by date. Bottom line is reluctancy to do any villain role was his downfall.
December 2nd, 2006 at 11:32 am
Oz,
I had heard that he has become very selective about the movies that he does nowdays. (Perhaps becoz of people like the copycat Sanjay Gupta). But I know for a fact that he is very close to all the actors he has worked with incl AB, Sanjay Dutt, Salman Jeetendra etc.
I think he did some great work in films like Dariya Dil, Aatish, Adalat ( with AB and waheeda rehman) and geraftar. But, yes, his dialogues are brilliant.
I think his son is also into acting and theatre - he had also acted as salman’s friend in tere naam and the villain/goonda in Sohail Khan;s debut film.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
KK best acting came out in Govinda starrer Jaisi Karni waisi bharni. The guys was superb doing emotional roles.
Oz, I hope you remember Shaktis dialouge Murder all murder khnoonam knoo laalam laal from Dilwale.
And Au Lolita, mai bada harrami hoon from Tohfa
December 6th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
KK’s decline i feel was rather sudden probably coupled with the decline of Govinda-David Dhawan-Sanjay Dutt trio. probably the last thing that we saw of him in good flow was Haseena Maan Jayegi/Yeh Hai Jalwa post which he started doing those obscure Z-grade movies like Suno Sasurjee/Fun2shhhhhhhhh.
I still love his amazing part-Urdu dialogues from Sharaabi especially the face-offs between AB and Pran.
its kinda sad that to see him reduced to Lucky-No time for ‘KK’ and Mujhse Shaadi Karoge.
In fact in Haseena Maan Jaegi he had a role almost rivalling that of Govinda-Sanjay Dutt minus all the songs.
some1 ritely said that he was the Boman Irani+extra of that era.
Does anyone else feel that he could have had the stature of Amrish Puri if he had capitalised a bit more on his negative image.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Glade to know that somebody is recalling KK.
U have forgotten to write about dhansoo dialogues of
Agneepath , Dhadkan written by KK.
Agneepath was one of the best movies of Amitabh Bachchan but u can not neglect KK’s contribution in that film for dialogues.
Also I was totally impressed in Dhadkan -the conversation between kiran kumar and Sunil shetty.
The KK, Johny lever and Paresh Rawal Trio did marvelous comedy in Judaai(1997).
U can not neglect his acting abilities in Dariya Dil, Coolie no.1, Dulhe Raja, Khudgarz etc. I think he is one of the great character artists of Indian cinema but industry could not take benefit of its talent.
Bye
Shailesh Limbachiya
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
Yep it was great to know more about such a great actor n dialogue writer.Really miss him in todays films.He is one of the bestest character actors the Indian Film industry has ever witnessed.His voice,his elan just wanna c more of him coz me n i believe many many r his big fans!!!
September 24th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
I didn’t know that Kader Khan was a dialogue writer till I had watched that “Vijay Deenanath Chauhan” scene from Agneepath and I wanted to know who wrote such kickass dialogue.. Kader Khan? that comedian? no way.. yes way! that was quite a surprise to me..
Life mein aadmi doheech time bhaagta hai.. olympic ka race ho ya police case ho..
Dude.. Amar Akbar Anthony.. KK all the way..
Currently, a show I’m working on - Rokkky’s 99 Greatest Dialogues features Kader Khan quite prominently.. so if you want to check that out.. 8 p.m. Sunday.
Kader Khan rocks!
April 12th, 2008 at 6:47 am
I am very great fan of Kadar khan,he is one of the talented
actor,comedian,dialogue writer produced by Bollywood.He is cetainly good hearted man,from high family,with good moral values.I remember his speach in one of Urdu school in Pune,he was cheif Guest,
‘Bachho,ye jamana kisi majahab,religion ka nahi hai,ye hai quality ka jamana.People will know you,remember you because of your quality , if you are of good quality people will say he/she is sachha muslim,high class,nabab.’
I have seen several film,just now Rajababu,his acting is superb.
Let us make KK fan club.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I love Kadar Khan, :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just his appearance in movies makes me smile, :)…… The way he jiggles his hands, fingers as part of acting is histerical to me! His expressions are hilarious!!!
In short he’s a fabulous person. Obviously, He has to be a great person to make others laugh, :)
October 17th, 2008 at 8:47 am
to be able to make others laugh*
November 4th, 2008 at 7:12 am
KK was a gud actor and he is still…………He has stopped acting and working as manager in a hotel.as with the money earned by acting cant be used to go for pilgrimage(HAJJ)…..Alhamdulillah
November 24th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I personally know Khan sir. Whoever wrote up there that he is working as a manager wrote a bunch of crap because he has no idea of how well to do is he. He is very philanthropic and extremely knowledgeable. His office is full of awards from various film fare events. Sitting with him is an awesome experience as you can see creativity at its best !!
November 29th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Kader Khan is truly a legend.
His comic timing is amazing.
Ive seen some movies only for his superb dialogue delivery.
Some of his movies I love watching are
Hero No 1,Aankhein (Govinda starrer),Hum hai Kamaal Ke,Judaai,Dulhe Raja.
In Bollywood,its said that to be active takes a lot.
Hes been around for so many years that speaks a lot.