Kader Khan's Journey: Struggles, Triumphs, and His Mother's Strength

His family had to leave Afghanistan for political and personal reasons and from then on it was a long journey crossing borders, roadblocks, and barricades! It was a very difficult journey with no destination in sight, but the Khan family somehow landed in Bombay with no money to buy a nice house or have two proper meals! His father finally settled in an area that Kader Khan cannot even imagine when he looks back at life there. The house (Kholi) his father rented was in the middle of Kamathipura which was known as the red light area of ​​Bombay! There was rampant prostitution gambling dens and local breweries and bars on every corner! There were fights of the most dangerous kind at all times of the day and there were young men who were basically trained as mechanics, drivers, or men who did odd jobs but they were not interested in using their skills and spent all their time doing jobs that were related to crime and torture. 

The area was considered so risky that even the policemen refused to intervene in the crimes that were constantly taking place in the different parts and chawls of the area. It was against this backdrop that little Kader Khan was brought up! To add to the misery of the Khans, the father, and mother, who had regular quarrels, decided to separate and circumstances forced Kader Khan's mother to marry again the man she married was not a good man, who had no interest in doing anything and little Kader Khan had to go to his father who was living far away and wait for him all day to borrow two rupees from him! He walked back and with the two rupees he bought some rice, some dal, and kerosene. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were possible only when Kader Khan came back home with the necessary ingredients to cook anything, it was a life that his mother accepted and Kader accepted too.

Kader's Journey: A Mother's Sacrifice for His Education

Kader was sent to a primary school, the memories of which haunt him. He saw all his friends working in the nearby junk shops and cloth shops where boys could earn three to four rupees a day! Kader was on his way to school when some of his friends stopped him and told him not to waste his time in all this “study” and join them in the work they were doing! Kader threw his school bag on the bed and joined the boys! He was going downstairs when he felt a soft and tender feeling in his little shoulder! It was his mother who told him that she knew where he was going and why. She asked him to go back and get his bag and go to school. Kader could never forget those two words of his mother, “You study. You study.” He remembered his mother telling him that she would take on all the challenges and responsibilities of the house and that her only interest in life was to see her son get educated. He sometimes compared his mother to the Hindu god Shiva who according to myth had the power to swallow all the poisons in the world and like many other men who have come a long way and become big names and have had to acknowledge the courage of their mothers, Kader also considered his mother as his "friend, philosopher, guide and even my goddess".

Kader started studying mainly due to his mother's advice and became one of the most educated men in the area and his community and was a qualified engineer! He could have taken up any other job, but he discovered the Kader Khan inside him! He loved to observe life and people and there were times when he would sit inside an Israeli sanitary and would do sketches of everything he saw throughout the day and imitate the men and women who had made some impression on him during the day. This crazy act was noticed by a certain person who was one of the actors who had worked in Mehboob Khan's 'Shroti' and even helped him get some very small roles in which he would steal scenes from some of the best and established actors of the time.

Time passed and he started writing plays and acting in them too. His regular stage was Sabu Siddiqui Auditorium (he had also studied in the same college). He soon became a popular name in the theatre circle and one of his plays, 'Taash Ke Patte' became so popular that it even aroused the curiosity of Dilip Kumar, who one day completely surprised Kader Khan when he congratulated him over the phone! He expressed his wish to see more plays on the success of the play. How could Kader Khan say no to the man whom he had always idolized, ever since he knew what cinema was? The actor watched the play on the terms that Kader had laid down before watching the play. He was very impressed with the play and especially Kader's performance. Immediately after the play, Kader Khan could see how moved he was after watching the entire play, which he had rarely done. The same evening he offered Kader Khan important roles in two films, 'Sagina Mahato' and 'Bairaag', in which he had three roles. Kader showed how good he could be in films and also had the experience of working with Dilip Kumar which made one see the influence of Dilip Sahab on him.

Kader Khan always said that he was blessed when success came his way because success always came to him and he never had to go looking for success. His popularity had reached the famous director Narendra Bedi who was making a film called 'Jawaani Deewani' with Randhir Kapoor and Jaya Bhaduri. He called Kader to Ramesh Behl's office who was the producer of the film. He told Kader that he wanted him to write dialogues for the film. Kader asked for narration and then walked from his lumberjack to Nariman Point wrote the entire film's dialogue in four hours and came back to the office. Bedi and others felt that he was too excited to get the assignment and had gone a little crazy. Kader Khan was serious and told them that he had come up with the entire dialogue of the film. The group was very excited by what they heard and they were inspired to go ahead with the shooting of 'Jawaani Deewani' and it was the dialogues that were one of the reasons for the film becoming a hit. Bedi continued as Kader in all the two films he made, 'Benaam' with Amitabh Bachchan and 'Adalat' also with Amitabh, but this time in a double role.

The industry had woken up a new dialogue writer who could also be a good actor. Manmohan Desai was making 'Shroti' with Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz. He called Kader and told him what he wanted in his film. He said he did not want any Shayari or poetry or any kind of philosophical language in the film and said he would tear up the pages written by him if they were full of 'nonsense' by which he meant all high and flowery type of language and if he lived up to his expectations he would be given a seat on his head.

Kadar took a train to Churchgate and wrote the dialogues of ‘Shroti’ amidst the boys playing football and cricket at Cross Maidan and went back to Manmohan Desai who lived in Khetwadi and loved playing cricket with the street boys of the area. He was surprised and a little worried about why Kadar had come back so soon. In those days dialogue writers sometimes took months to sit in five-star hotels to write the dialogues for a film and Manmohan Desai knew it. He was shocked when Kadar told him that he had brought the complete dialogues of ‘Shroti’. Manmohan was in a state of confusion but still, he asked Kadar to come to his house and then asked him to read the dialogues he had written. ‘Man ji’ who was like an excited child asked Kadar to read the dialogues and he jumped with joy! He did not know how to express his feelings in front of Kadar but he had made up his mind to take Kader Khan as the dialogue writer for all his films and kept his promise. 

Soon, it seemed that there was only one successful dialogue writer in the industry and he was also an actor who could play any kind of role without much effort. He raised his price, had many assistants working with him, and did not let anyone change what he wrote. And the producers accepted all the terms he gave without question.

The South wave had gripped the Hindi film scene and next to Jeetendra who was the most wanted hero for the South producers, it was Kader Khan as a dialogue writer, and with a significant role he was now the highest-paid writer. He was sometimes writing five or six films a day and had assistants who would carry the pages on which he had written his dialogues and go to wherever a unit was shooting a film. He sometimes wrote a few lines that were immediately needed on an air ticket with which the assistant flew off and went to the places where films were being shot in the South for producers and his favorites like Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai. He had never dreamt of such success but as he said success always followed him.

But like every rise has a fall, a fall awaited Kader bhai too! The South had stopped producing Hindi films. His mentors Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai were losing their touch as their films were turning out to be flops. Kader bhai thought of investing his money and so started a shopping mall in Holland with his son in charge. This grand experience too fell flat on his handsome face and Kader bhai was suddenly shaken by the shock of the same life that had once given him everything. He decided to produce films and the first artistic films he made were an unmitigated disaster. He got the biggest shock when he approached Amitabh Bachchan for whom he had written dialogues for some of his best films. He asked Amitabh to work for him in a film called 'Jahil' but Amitabh did not show the enthusiasm Kader had expected. The film was expected to start on three different dates given by Amitabh but each time the plan had to be abandoned due to some reasons told by Amitabh.

Kader bhai who started a one-man revolution, Kader bhai who gave a new dimension to dialogue writing, Kader bhai who introduced the language of the common man in Hindi films. The Kader bhai who gave a new lease of life to actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shakti Kapoor, Asrani, Prem Chopra, and even Pran which only led to success, was now a broken man. His career had reached a new low. He was losing on all fronts and eventually, he fell seriously ill with a disease for which no doctor anywhere could find a cure. Eventually, he decided to go on his Haj pilgrimage and the videos of his journey showed him as a very seriously ill man who could not even walk on his own. This was the beginning of many rumours about his death which mostly turned out to be false. But finally, he died in Canada and expressed his wish to be buried in Canada itself and not have his body taken to Mumbai, a decision which shows how angry, disillusioned, and frustrated he was with life.

I wonder what dialogue he must have written for himself when he saw the worst of his life, then his peak, and finally when nobody cared about him or his work until he had to die to tell the world that it had a price.

Mother is that power that knows life better than anyone else. Mother does not have to read books to become a mother. Mother is a mother and she knows everything. That is why it is said that if there is anyone after God, it is the mother.

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