A tribute to Mehmood - the Comedy Czar

Mehmood, the Comedy Czar, was just what the doctor ordered for generations of movie buffs over three decades and more than 200 films. Screen pays a tribute

From eccentric to comic
Mehmood was the second child of actor-dancer Mumtaz Ali. Born September 29, 1932 when his father Mumtaz Ali resided in Mumbai's midtown Byculla.The family shifted to the suburb of Malad to be in close proximity to Bombay Talkies in 1940. Mehmood would love visiting the studios with his father but was never interested in acting. He reluctantly played a child actor in the all-time hit Kismat (1943) starring Ashok Kumar. The only other sibling who joined films was his sister Minoo Mumtaz.

Incidentally, Mehmood was an ardent devotee, despite his religion, of Lord Shiva and had a photograph of the deity in his room. When Ashok Kumar, already a top star, noticed a mark like a trident (Lord Shiva's trishul) on Mehmood's forehead, Mehmood thought that it was all pre-ordained. This belief was consolidated when his character in L.V.Prasad's Chhoti Bahen (1959), in which Mehmood was named Mahesh (another name for the deity) became a big hit. Subsequently, Mahesh became for Mehmood what Vijay was to Amitabh Bachchan - his most frequent screen name, including in all the films he did with L.V.Prasad and Pramod Chakravorty.

In one of his last interviews, Mehmood also recalled how precocious he was as a kid, which included driving a car at the age of eight and never being caught! Mehmood even followed multiple occupations - he would do odd jobs, sell poultry, teach table-tennis to Meena Kumari, get paid for his live mimicry and comic acts by Nutan and Pradeep Kumar and even was witer-filmmaker-lyricist Pyarelal Santoshi's driver. Falling in love with Meena's younger daughter Madhuri, he married her in 1953 and turned seriously to acting only after he became a father. Before this, filmlore has it that he turned down a B.R.Chopra film, Ek Hi Raasta, because sister-in-law Meena Kumari had suggested his name for the role!

Mehmood's earliest bit roles as an adult include the cameo of a hired killer in Raj Khosla's bumper hit C.I.D. along with other small roles in Guru Dutt's Pyaasa and Kagaz Ke Phool as well as Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin, Satyen Bose's Jagriti and I.S.Johar's Nastik.

It is said that Mehmood struck a close friendship with the eccentric Kishore Kumar and asked him for a role in his films at the singer's peak as an actor. And the actor replied, "How can I give a chance to someone who will compete with me?" And Mehmood told him, "One day I will become a big-name filmmaker and cast you in my films!" Mehmood kept his word with Padosan(1968) and also let Kishore sing for him in many home- as well as outside productions including Bhoot Bungla, Albela(1971), Main Sundar Hoon, Mastana, Kunwara Baap, Ginny Aur Johnny, Ek Baap Chhe Bete, Sabse Bada Rupaiya, Humjoli, Jawab, Lakhon Mein Ek and others. Finally, Kishore did cast Mehmood in Shabaash Daddy.

Mehmood's first tryst with true fame came with Parvarish in 1958 and Chhoti Bahen in 1959. But it was Sasural (1961) that really began his meteoric rise to fame. "I had the looks of a villain but I was good at mimicry and observation and that made me a good comedian, I guess!" said the ace comedian once.

Thunderous reign
In the '60s he was the unparallelled Comedy King. An unending cavalcade of hits like Sanjog, Rakhi, Dil Tera Diwana, Aarti, Hamrahi, Grahasti, Ghar Basake Dekho, Dil Ek Mandir, Bharosa, Zindagi, Ziddi, Sanjh Aur Savera, Chitralekha, Beti Bete, Kaajal, Gumnaam, Arzoo, Pyar Kiye Jaa, Love In Tokyo, Daadi Maa, Patthar Ke Sanam, India's first 70mm film Around The World, Suhaag Raat, Neel Kamal, Do Kaliyan, Izzat, Ankhen, Waris (in a dual role) and Tumse Accha Kaun Hai followed. The '70s were also replete with hits like Humjoli, Paras, Naya Zamana, Jugnu, Dulhan, Qaid, Hatyara and Des Pardes. Mehmood as a character actor, continued to make a mark till much later when he did films like Khuddaar, Manpasand and Andaz Apna Apna. The last film was directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, whose father's chaffeur Mehmood had once been! Mehmood's last release was Barsaat Ki Raat in 1998.

In his reign as a topnotch comic, Mehmood set and broke many trends. His powerful persona and spontaneous comedy gradually saw scriptwriters and filmmakers not just make him the comic relief in classic melodramas but also devise a complete sub-plot for his character. This led to Mehmood forming hit teams, first with Shubha Khote and later with Aroona Irani, whom he is said to be have both mentored and romanced. Top banners like AVM and Gemini in Chennai as well as Mumbai filmmakers like Ramanand Sagar, A.A.Nadiadwala and Kundan Kumar could never do without him.

The second aspect was that he was given songs and these invariably proved chartbusters. While Mohammed Rafi and Manna Dey were his most frequent singers, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Mehmood himself also came in. In the later stages, Bappi Lahiri (Aflatoon/Dilsey Miley Dil), Amit Kumar (Nazar lage na saathiyon/Des Pardes) and Hariharan (Chand sitaron mein hai/Mohabbat Ki Arzoo) were among his rare singers.

The fallout of his superstardom was his effortless overshadowing of major stars and soon this snowballed into an ego problem where many a top actor refused to work with him. Undeterred, Mehmood began to play leading roles either by himself or with cooperative heroes like Kishore Kumar and Shashi Kapoor (Pyar Kiye Jaa), Vinod Khanna (Mastana and fellow comedians like I.S.Johar (Johar Mehmood In Goa, Johar Mehmood In Hong Kong).

In any case, Mehmood was never satisfied with just being an actor and a comic. He had launched his own production company as early as 1961 with Chhote Nawab, and he made films right till the end of his career, with himself as either a character artiste (Pati Patni, Janta Havaldar) or - more frequently - as a leading man (Chhote Nawab, Bhoot Bungla, Sadhu Aur Shaitan, Padosan, Garam Masala, Do Phool et al). For Mehmood, his later films also were the means of going beyond comedy and Kunwara Baap, Sabse Bada Rupaiya, Ginny Aur Johnny as well as outside films like Mastana and Main Sundar Hoon saw Mehmood's acting genius extend to making the audience weep with his emotions. For good measure, he also fulfilled his dream of playing a villian in that 5-minute memorable cameo of a politician in Gulzar's Mere Apne.

Mehmood was not satisfied with being an actor. A creative genius, he ended up writing, producing and directing films and even singing for himself. In two unusual cases, he sang playback for a junior artiste in Do Aur Do Paanch under a composer whom he introduced, Rajesh Roshan, and choreographed, sang and enacted a song in his last directorial venture Dushmun Duniya Ka (1996) in which he whimsically made Anu Malik tune lyrics written by fellow composer Ravindra Jain instead of his fave lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri.

The comic palette
Mehmood's comic palette ranged from the truly witty to (later) the coarsely physical, and the latter part of his work began his downhill journey as he faced a barrage of criticism for his vulgar gestures, lewd or double-meaning dialogues and cheap characterisations. Subtle, situational, slapstick and sleazy and finally serio-comedy - Mehmood's humour traversed the spectrum of the genre through hit after hit.

Typecast as a comic, Mehmood saw to it that albeit with uneven finesse, the actor exhibited an amazing range and variety: a special feature being his penchant for enacting characters of all communities and occupations!

And so we had the Tamilian of Padosan, the Keralite of Do Phool, the Hyderabadi of Gumnaam, the Marwari of Sabse Bada Rupaiya, the Muslim from Arzoo (1965) and so on.

As for his on-screen professions, probably no one else can match him in the variety - he was a barber in Do Kaliyan, a pandit in Pandit Aur Pathan, a drug-pedlar posing as a goat-herd in Dushmun Duniya Ka, an espionage agent in Ankhen and Shatranj, a film producer in Pyar Kiye Jaa, a kabadiwala in Neel Kamal, a cabbie in Sadhu Aur Shaitan and a mobile restaurant owner in Naya Zamana. Mehmood's other characters have included an assassin, a ear-cleaner, a garage owner, music teacher, pop singer, accountant, gate-keeper, waiter, chauffeur, rickshawwallah, actor, butler, wedding dancer, doctor, photographer, policeman, a qawwal, music director, bus conductor and even a prince!

A good observer, Mehmood had the quirky trait of taking slices from real people. He was inspired by film distributor giant Tolaram Jain whose body language he incorporated in Sabse Bada Rupaiya. In Humjoli, his famous triple role was a tribute-cum-spoof on three generations of Kapoors - Prithviraj, Raj and Randhir. Humjoli was shot a good two years prior to Randhir Kapoor's acting debut, but uncannily projected the 'youngest' Mehmood as a prototype of the young star's future screen image, completely with his favourite voice-to-be Kishore Kumar as playback singer!

The emotional mentor
Mehmood mentored several talents apart from attempting to make his children star as child artistes. His son Lucky Ali turned singer with Dushmun Duniya Ka and his second wife, Tracy, an American, wrote an English song in Ek Baap Chhe Bete.

More importantly, he mentored struggling heroes like Sanjeev Kumar (Pati Patni) and Amitabh Bachchan (Bombay To Goa) besides suggesting Vinod Khanna's name as his parallel hero in Mastana. Mehmood also introduced Bharati from the South in Sadhu Aur Shaitan, director S.Raamnathan in Bombay To Goa and of course promoted Aroona Irani.

But Mehmood's main achievement is his contribution to music - he has been Columbus for two composers - R.D.Burman in Chhote Nawab and Rajesh Roshan in Kunwara Baap. It is under the former that he turned singer in Bhoot Bungla (the film that also marked RD's debut as a playback singer and an actor!) and it was under the latter that he sang the only song not lip-synched by himself! Among his lesser discoveries were Ramaprabha (Do Phool) and RD's assistants Basu-Manohari as music directors (Sabse Bada Rupaiya).

For Mehmood, relationships mattered a lot. Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Jeetendra (who was one of the young heroes who always supported him) were regulars in his own films. Abrar Alvi, who wrote the Guru Dutt films in which Mehmood played small roles, was his regular writer after Guru Dutt passed away. Finally, he ensured that his father ended his career in a last burst of glory as he enacted the chartbuster Saj rahi gali meri maa in Rafi's voice for Kunwara Baap.

The last act
Mehmood saw his son Lucky (Maqsood) Ali turn singer and also hero with Sur (2002), the trial show of which witnesssed his last public appearance. In the '80s and '90s Mehmood spent most of his time in his farm in Bangalore. His health necessitated a long treatment in Pennsylvania in USA and it was there that he passed away on July 23, 2004. One dream of his remained unfulfilled - the setting up of a trust for Cine Comedians. But few comedians even worldwide have reached where Mehmood Ali did.

Screen India