Remembering Pran on his Death Anniversary: Pran... He Lived A Full Life.... BY ALI PETER JOHN

It is not only difficult to live a life like his but even difficult to imagine how he has gone through his journey for the last ninety-three years of which he has dedicated more than seventy years to films 

There has never been a bad man like him who has been so good at his job (he has never claimed to be a great actor or a star but has always considered himself to be a worker who depends on films to make a living and give a good life to his family). It is certainly not easy to be the bad as a bad can-be man in more than four hundred films while he was active from his forties to the year 2005. His name has been a very integral part of not only the industry where films are made but is also a name that is respected in most homes which is a great compliment to a man who has portrayed all that is evil in man.  He is one man who has left his mark and his place as a bad man which no one can take, even though some have tried. It is not so easy to see that he was a part of every big film because his name not only added weight to a film but also made a big difference to the subjects of most films in which he was the man who wrecks the lives of all those who live and move around him.

He could have easily been the stereotyped bad man in film after film and no one would have had the nerve to question him, but he had the knack of playing the bad man in various ways. It is very difficult to point out any film in which he has repeated himself because even if the films demanded that he play the same kind of roles he made it a point to work very hard and give every character its own life. He could also be a comic character, a blend of several different shades in one man and towards the end of his long career he also played characters that were very different from the bad men he played for years. He had the privilege of finding some of the best roles as a very good man and he saw to it that he was never bad as a good man. He has been a part of everyday life more than just an actor in films, he is one man who has never let the actor in him play around with the basically and intrinsically good and gentle man he has always been. He has won many awards but what is most surprising is that he is loved by one and all which he has always considered much more precious than any award. The Dadasaheb Phalke award should have been his a very long time ago, but his not winning it till he has reached a stage and age when it doesn’t make any difference to him is a very sad comment on the way the highest award is decided by the Government of India….

The story of his life is a very important part of the history of Indian cinema. A chance meeting with the writer, Wali Mohammad Wali, who worked for Dalsukh M. Pancholi, at a shop in the famous(?) area of  Hira Mandi in  Lahore, led to Pran Krishan Sikand winning his first role in Pancholi's Punjabi film Yamla Jat (1940) directed by Moti B. Gidwani. The film featured Noor Jehan and Durga Khote. This was followed by small roles in the films Chaudhary and Khajanchi, both made in 1941. Pancholi cast him again in Khandaan (1942), which was the first Hindi film in which Pran played a romantic hero with Noor Jehan as his heroine, the same Noor Jehan who had worked with him in  Yamla Jat as a child artist. Noor Jehan, the female lead of Khandaan, was less than 15 years of age and to compensate for the difference in their heights in close-up shots in the film, she was made to stand on bricks. In the pre-partition era, director Gidwani cast Pran in some more films like Kaise Kahoon (1945) and Khamosh Nigahen (1946).

Pran had created a record when he acted in 22 films from 1942–46 in Lahore and of them, 18 were released by 1947 when his career had to take a pause due to the partition in 1947. The films he did from 1944–47 were all made in undivided India. His films But Taraash (1951) and Khanabadosh (1952), both co-starring  Manorama, for which he shot in early 1947, were released only in Pakistan after Partition.

He left Lahore and arrived in Bombay. Though films didn't come his way for months, he kept looking for opportunities to act along with doing other jobs. He started working at Delmar Hotel, Marine Drive and eight months later, in 1948, he got a chance to start a new life as an actor. With the help of the controversial writer Saadat Hasan Manto and actor Shyam, he got a role in Bombay Talkies'  Ziddi which had Dev Anand and Kamini Kaushal in the lead and was directed by Shaheed Latif. Ziddi marked the beginning of his career in Bombay and there was no turning back for him. The same film also proved to be Dev Anand's big break as a hero. By 1950 he was established as a popular and successful villain in Hindi cinema. Within a week of Ziddi's success, he signed three more films; S M Yusuf's Grihasti (1948), which was a diamond jubilee hit, Prabhat Films’s Apradhi (1949) and Wali Mohammad's Putli (1949). Mohammad who had first lured him into movies in 1940 had by then also moved to Bombay and had turned into a producer setting up an office at Famous Studios, near the Mahalaxmi Racecourse. Romantic duets were picturized on him; like the song Tere naaz uthane ko jee chahta hai from Grihasti opposite Sharda and a song from Khandaan (1942) with Noor Jehan which became popular in the 1940s. The manner in which he delivered his dialogues in films like Sheesh Mahal (1950), a series of disguises he made in Adalat (1958), and the rapport he shared with vamps like Kuldip Kaur in Jashan (1955) show cased his versatility in the 1950s.

Post-independence, Pran's initial successful films were Ziddi and Bari Behan (1949). He was regularly offered the role of the main villain or any kind of negative character in the films with Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, and Raj Kapoor. From the 1950's directors like M. V. Raman, Nanabhai Bhatt, Kalidas, Ravindra Dave, I. S. Johar, Bimal Roy repeatedly cast him in different roles in their films. Similarly in the sixties, he was seen frequently in the directorial ventures of A. Bheem Singh of the South Shakti Samanta, Bhappi Sonie, K. Amarnath, Nasir Husain, and others. In the 1970's some new young directors and producers cast him in their films even though Pran's price was the highest among supporting actors.

Pran's performance as the negative character was very much appreciated in Dilip Kumar starters like Azaad, Devdas,  Madhumati, Dil Diya Dard Liya, Ram Aur Shyam and Aadmi . He also played hell with films that had Dev Anand as the leading man, films like  Ziddi, Munimji, Amar Deepa, and Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai. He did not spare Raj Kapoor in films like Aah, Chori Chori, Jagte Raho, Chhalia, Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai, and Dil Hi Toh Hai.

 Films with him as the lead hero, Pilpili Saheb, and Halaku were big hits too. Pran proved his versatility in the 1950s by enacting the typical swashbuckling pirate in Sindbad the Sailor and Daughter of Sindbad and in action-packed thrillers like Azaad historicals like Aan and Raj Tilak social themes like Baradari and light romances like Munimji and Asha. In the 1960s and early 1970s, even though he was in his forties, his demand never went down and he was given pivotal roles as a character of the age range of 25 to 30 in films with Shammi Kapoor,  Joy Mukherjee, Rajendra Kumar, and Dharmendra as the lead heroes. From the early 1950s to the early 1970s  Pran's name invoked fear in the minds of the audience due to his villainous characters. It was in 1964 with Pooja Ke Phool and Kashmir Ki Kali that he brought forth the comical side to his negative characters. While Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor's careers as a young hero started to decline in the late 1960s and even the careers of Rajendra Kumar and Shammi Kapoor as lead hero too ended by 1973, Pran was still busy playing a variety of characters. His association with Dev Anand which had begun in 1948 continued even during the 1970s and the 1980s with Johny Mera Naam, Yeh Gulistan Hamara, Joshila, Warrant, and Des Pardes.

Pran made sure that he had significant roles in comedies starring Kishore Kumar in the lead roles. Pran's memorable collaborations with Mehmood include Sadhu Aur Shaitaan and Lakhon Me Ek and he did Chham Chhama Chham, Aasha, Bewaqoof, Half Ticket, and Manmauji. He played some of his best good-man roles in Manoj Kumar’s Upkaar and Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer. It was Pran who recommended a struggling actor called Amitabh Bachchan to Prakash Mehra who cast him in his Zanjeer with Jaya Bhaduri as his leading lady and the rest is history.

Pran who was a very busy actor never failed to find time to take part in cricket matches and rallies during the different wars and during droughts, famines, and natural calamities in any part of the country. In fact, he led most of the moves to gather support for the helpless and the needy. His health started failing him after 2000 and he has almost been bedridden now when the highest award has come his way, it is indeed very painful to know that he doesn’t even know that he has been the recipient of the highest honor done to anyone from the industry.

THE OTHER SIDE OF PRAN

He was from Lahore in pre-partition India and always wanted to be an actor in films. It was a leading filmmaker called Pancholi who took a liking for him and advised him to try his luck as a villain and his very first film in which he played a wicked man was a big success and he never looked back for the next sixty years. He continued playing the villain in films when he moved to Bombay after the partition and continued to work in Hindi films and was accepted as the most popular bad man in Hindi films He had very good friends with some of his co-artists like Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand with whom he did several films as the bad man in their lives in the films they did together He was a very personal friend of Ashok Kumar who he treated like an elder brother and a friend. He sought his advice on various issues and sometimes they spoke for hours and even the whole night on the telephone. They did several films together, the most popular being Victoria 203. He was heart-broken when Ashok Kumar who he called Dadamoni like everyone else in the Industry fell sick and died even though he was the best Homeopathic doctor who could even cure cancer if diagnosed in the early stages

In the seventies, there was a survey conducted by a University in Maharashtra and it was discovered that no boy was named Pran for more than fifty years because the people who were innocent and ignorant believed that their sons would also grow up to be like him, a bad man. He loved all the good things in life, good food, good liquor, and even good women. He openly told his friends that he had a girlfriend in every major city that he looked after in return for her love. He also said that there was not a day in fifty years when he did not consume at least half a bottle of Scotch. He was also a chain smoker at one time. He was a fan of Raj Kapoor as a director and was grateful to him for creating the role of Raaka, the dacoit in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hain which he feels is one of the best roles of his career. He fell out with Raj over some personal matter  and they did not work together for a number of years till Raj apologized to him and asked him to play Rishi Kapoor’s father in Bobby

He together with Dilip Kumar and two senior actors who were not so famous, David Abraham and Chandrashekhar were the leaders who came forward to help in times of war, famine, and drought and when it came to helping the poor and the downtrodden many other actors tried to imitate him and his mannerisms and ways of speaking his lines but none of them succeeded. He was a very good host and his parties were looked forward to by his friends. He was a lover of good Urdu poetry and had regular Mehfils of some of the best poets writing in Urdu which went on till the early hours of the morning. He is grateful to Manoj Kumar for changing his image from a bad man to a saintly man in his first film as a director, Upkaar which gave him a new lease of life. He led several delegations to various ministers and even met ministers in New Delhi to ask them to solve some major problems in the Industry. He was one of the most loved persons in the Industry  and surprisingly most of his admirers were women

The well-known publicist and writer Bunny Reuben who had written books on Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor also wrote a bio-grapey of Pran called “And Pran” but Pran was very disappointed with the book as he said the writer had misrepresented facts and even misquoted him. He disowned the book

He is ninety-three now. He has lost complete control over the lower portions of his body and cannot move on his own. He rarely leaves his house. The only time he moved out last year was when his family celebrated his 92nd birthday and again when he went to see his ailing friend Dilip Kumar. Pran is otherwise very alert mentally and remembers dialogue and even some of the songs pasteurized on him. He spends his time sitting with his wife and her friends who have a daily ‘satsang’ (prayer) in his house. He watches TV, especially when there is a cricket match, has a bottle of beer before lunch, and his regular three large pegs before dinner. He has no regrets in life (Pran). ‘I have lived the kind of life no hero or even a king has lived. I don’t need to go to any heaven because I have seen heaven here and I don’t think God will send me to hell because I don't  remember having done any harm to anyone and have only tried my best to make my life useful to the lives of others.’