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None of Amjad Khan’s subsequent roles could outshine Sholay.
He had begun his career at the top and had no higher peaks left to conquer.
Dinesh Raheja salutes the iconic actor on his 80th birth anniversary.
IMAGE: Amjad Khan in Sholay.
Amjad Khan didn’t resort to gimmicks like grotesque get-ups or weird wigs to strike fear in the hearts of the audience.
As the iconic villain Gabbar Singh in Sholay (1975), it was enough for his gimlet eyes to bore into his beaten-up henchmen and for his whiplash voice to boom ‘Kitney aadmi the?‘ to ensure a precognition of impending doom rippling through the theatre.
Amjad Khan didn’t resort to splashing the screen with blood and gore to launch a thousand screams. In films like Sholay, Inkaar and Mr Natwarlal, he delivered the bads through the malevolence expressed in his eyes and his swaggering body language.
Yet, astonishingly, Amjad’s histrionic range encompassed comic and sympathetic roles too! In fact, many of the actor’s prominent post-Sholay roles showcased him in characters shaded with many nuanced hues of grey.
For 10 years after Sholay, Amjad’s career sparkled luminously and he did 15 to 18 films on the average every year. But the candle that burns twice as bright, they say, lasts half as long. The actor unexpectedly passed away in 1992 at the age of 48.
IMAGE: With Shashi Kapoor and Nirupa Roy in Suhaag (1980). Photograph: Kind courtesy Film History Pics/X
On November 12, it will be 80 years since the day Amjad was born as the elder son of character actor Jayant.
His father started as the leading man in stunt films of the 1930s before finding fame as a well-known supporting actor.
Young Amjad did bit roles in films featuring his father like Nazneen (1951) and Maya (1961) and immersed himself in theatre during his college days. In 1965, Amjad was to be launched as a hero with a home production, Patthar Ke Sanam, but the film stalled.
It took a decade for Amjad to finally court fame. His luck turned when screen writers Salim-Javed recommended his name to Director Ramesh Sippy to play a dreaded dacoit Gabbar Singh in Sholay.
Sippy had wanted to cast Danny Denzongpa as the main antagonist in his film but when dates proved a stumbling block, he screen-tested Amjad. The struggling actor signed Sholay on the very day his eldest son Shadaab was born.
Playing Gabbar Singh was an acid test for the new parent, whose own father Jayant passed away from cancer a few months before the release of Sholay.
Amjad submerged himself into the role.
Eschewing the prototype of the dhoti-clad dacoit, Amjad sported army fatigues purchased from Chor Bazaar, strung a bullet belt over his shoulder and even blackened his teeth to vivify the tobacco-chewing Gabbar Singh.
The Sholay Fallout… Stardom But Snapped Ties With Salim-Javed and Sippy
IMAGE: With Sanjeev Kapoor in Sholay (1975).
Sholay proved to be era-defining super hit and Amjad won tremendous appreciation.
His bullying belligerence and dead-soul gaze sent chills running down spines even when film censor considerations meant the violence was not explicit. Gabbar Singh’s murder of a teenaged boy (Sachin) is shown by his crushing a fly on his hand, and after he aims a gun at a child, all we hear is the whistling of a steam engine.
Astringent dialogue fortified Gabbar Singh’s arsenal.
Lines like ‘So jaa nahin toh Gabbar aa jayega‘ became part of the daily vernacular, and this popularly resulted in the release of audio cassettes of Sholay‘s dialogue.
Another unprecedented result of Amjad’s popularity was a villain being lionised in advertisements — biscuits were hawked as ‘Gabbar ki asli pasand‘!
But there was a falling out as well.
In the hurly burly of film-making, Amjad’s voice was initially suspected to be weak, and Salim-Javed had held a discussion with Sippy about replacing him or getting his voice dubbed until better sense prevailed. But Amjad never worked with Salim-Javed or Ramesh Sippy again.
Amjad parlayed his Sholay success into stardom, and was not lacking for good work.
But the best of times threatened to turn into the worst of times.
In 1976, the very next year after Sholay, Amjad met with a near-fatal car accident while travelling to the Goa location of The Great Gambler.
The steering wheel collided with his chest and he was unconscious in hospital with a punctured lung. It was his friend Amitabh Bachchan who signed the hospital papers, and Amjad effected a miraculous recovery.
IMAGE: Amjad Khan in Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977).
In 1977, a dozen films featuring Amjad crowded the theatres.
Among them was Satyajit Ray’s prestige production Shatranj Ke Khiladi.
He also played the villain in big hits like Hum Kisise Kum Naheen, Parvarish and, most notably, Inkaar.
In the last film, he played a child kidnapper who uncorks beer bottles with his teeth and whose perversities include torturing a cockroach with a lit cigarette and strangling a dog with his bare hands.
Amjad effectively captured human debasement with a sadistic streak in his eyes, and a nervous twitch of his facial muscles.
IMAGE: With Amitabh Bachchan in Desh Premee (1982). Photograph: Kind courtesy Film History Pics/X
Remarkably, Amjad played Amitabh Bachchan’s father in Parvarish (and later in Suhaag, 1979, and Lawaris, 1981) though they were around the same age. The weight that Amjad put on after his accident became a factor.
Amjad had become good friends with Amitabh during Sholay and the two would mockingly call each other ‘Shorty’.
Amjad was an integral part of many Amitabh films during his superstar days — 1981 alone saw the release of as many as five of their films together, namedly Yaarana, Laawaris, Kaalia, Barsaat Ki Ek Raat and Naseeb.
But it must be said that none of Amjad’s subsequent roles could outshine Sholay.
Amjad had begun his career at the top and had no higher peaks left to conquer.
Amjad the Comedian and Amjad the Leading Man
IMAGE: With Shatrughan Sinha in Jwalamukhi (1980). Photograph: Kind courtesy Film History Pics/X
Actor Imtiaz Khan revealed that when his brother Amjad had to enact a rape scene in Barsaat Ki Ek Raat with Rakhee, he inexplicably broke into a rash. That’s because such scenes were totally against his personal beliefs.
Amjad, not surprisingly, segued to roles with comic and positive shades early on in his career.
In Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), his actions are motivated by a desire to avenge his unrequited love for Zohrabai (Rekha).
The Vinod Mehra-Bindiya Goswami potboiler Dada (1979) was primarily about Amjad character’s redemption arc, and Amjad bagged his first Best Supporting Actor Filmfare award. He won the same trophy for Yaarana (1981), in which he played Amitabh’s good-hearted mentor.
Dada proved to be a sleeper hit and Amjad signed numerous B-grade films as the protagonist, often paired opposite popular actresses like Vidya Sinha (Josh). He even had a romantic song Tainu Mainu Dekhe Zamana with petite Kajal Kiran in Hum Se Hai Zamana.
IMAGE: Amjad Khan in Ramgarh Ke Sholay (1991).
Amjad’s comic skills flowered in the 1980s.
He found new admirers as the wisecracking gum-chewing, eponymously named policeman of Qurbani (1980) and as the hawaldar giving chase to the eloping couple in Love Story (1981).
He was nominated for Best Performance In A Comic Role for Utsav (1984) and Maa Kasam (1985).
But as the decade progressed, Amjad’s career lost its edge, and villains like Amrish Puri and Shakti Kapoor took over.
Amjad turned to direction with the slickly mounted Chor Police (1983) and Ameer Aadmi Gareeb Aadmi (1985) but both films failed to woo the box office. His grand plans of directing Lambai Chaudai starring Amitabh Bachchan and himself also came to naught.
Amjad never hung up his boots.
He continued to enjoy acting.
He even reprised his most memorable role Gabbar Singh in the 1991 film Ramgarh Ke Sholay.
In 1992, Amjad succumbed to a heart attack and passed away prematurely. His cinematic alter ego, Gabbar Singh, however, remains immortal.
