Ninety-plus and counting

veteran villain

Pran — that’s how his name appeared on the screen in at least 250 of his 350-plus movies in Hindi, beginning with Khandaan in 1942.

He had acted in several Punjabi films in Lahore before moving to Mumbai on August 14, 1947. He has had an amazing career graph since then, a long innings as a dreaded villain as well as a loveable character-actor. Walking woes and other health problems forced him out of action, and he decided to retire in 2004 at the ripe age of 84. Ziddi, co-starring Dev Anand and Kamini Kaushal, was his first big hit in Hindi cinema and the forgettable Kiska Dosh was his last recorded release in Mumbai. In the sixties, he worked in a record 60 films, from Chhalia to Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool.

It was in Bari Behen that he started his villainous career. Nearly two decades later, in Upkar — when he had first contemplated retirement — Manoj Kumar dared to take the risk by casting him as the good-hearted Malang chacha. “People thought I was a fool,” averred Manoj Kumar in a private conversation, “for taking a big risk in casting Pran saab in a sympathetic role in my very first film as a producer-director. But then, I firmly believed that if a good man can act as a villain, why can’t a ‘villain’ act as a good man? Even while I was working on the script, and developing Malang chacha’s scenes, I constantly began to see in my mind’s eye, Pran saab doing the role.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Upkar became Delhi-born Pran Krishen Sikand’s third experiment with acting histrionics, a talent he did not acquire from any acting academy.

As a person, Pran saab had no detractors in the Hindi film industry. He has been known to be considerate, punctual and hardworking. No other actor in the world has experimented with get-ups the way this loving ‘bad man’ did. There are stories about children shutting their eyes in movie theatres when Pran appeared in one of his villainous acts. There is also the story of his refusing the role of Pathan in Manoj Kumar’s Shor mainly because he had accepted a similar role in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer.

He also refused to accept the Best Supporting Actor Filmfare Award because he felt that that year’s Best Music Director award should have gone to the late Ghulam Mohammed for Pakeezah, and not to Shankar for Be-Imaan.

Pran received three Filmfare trophies for his performances in Upkar, Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool and Be-Imaan. His other achievements include the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997, Star Screen and Zee Cine Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, Stardust Villain of the Millennium Award in the same year, Padma Bhushan in 2001, and the film industry’s Phalke Icon Award in 2010.

He played villain to almost all the major heroes of his time, from Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajendra Kumar and Shammi Kapoor to Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra, Joy Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachchan, with whom he acted in 15 films.
He also acted in several Bengali films, beginning with Ashim Banerjee’s Sonai Dighe, where Joy Mukherjee was the leading man.

On reaching his 90th milestone in 2010, a big bash was thrown, which was attended by close friends and associates like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Prem Chopra and Shatrughan Sinha, all of whom had raised a toast to the oldest star in Bollywood. We can only hope that in the years that follow, it will be no different.