Bachchan. Jeetendra. Govinda. Action. Emotion. Comedy. Kader Khan wrote the entire spectrum of filmi emotions in an extremely durable writing career of about thirty years.
Amar Akbar Anthony : “ Aise toh aadmi life mein doich time bhaagta hai, Olympic ka race ho ya police ka case ho! ” drawled Anthony- bhai in typical Mumbai tapori lingo. Manmohan Desai’s favourite dialogue-writer, Khan endeared himself to the director by using everyday language, coming up with punchlines and doing so at a speed that matched the maker’s scorching pace.
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar : “ Zinda hai who log jo maut se takrate hain. Murdo se badtar hai woh log jo maut se ghabrate hain… Taqdeer tere kadmon mein hogi aur tu muqaddar ka badshah hoga… ” With these lines (and more), Kader Khan made it big with Prakash Mehra as well, writing dialogues that would transport Amitabh Bachchan from a superstar to a megastar.
Himmatwala : “ Tumhari loot maar ko khatam karke, tumhari zabardasti ki hukumat ko ujaadne wala, himmatwala ”, screamed the hero. A misunderstanding with Bachchan saw him move to the South for a slew of films (many starring Jeetendra). Some of his scripts were criticised for their crass humour but Khan clearly knew the audience’s pulse as all of them were wildly popular with the masses.
Agneepath : “ Yeh chhe foot ka body ludkane ke liye chaar inch ka goli kam pad gaya, maloom? ” Probably his best script, Khan revealed in an interview that he had recorded all the dialogues on a tape and gave it to Bachchan to help him understand the voice modulation and delivery. The lines became cult classics and Bachchan’s performance won a National Award for acting.
Coolie No. 1 : “ Duniya mera ghar hai, bus stand mera adda hai, jab mann kare aa jaana, Raju mera naam hai aur pyar se log mujhe bulaate hain Coolie number one ”. Khan handled the Bachchan-Govinda transition with aplomb. By now, his original hero was a pale shadow of himself but he was still writing whistle-inducing dialogues for the Hero No. 1.
As an actor
Comedy. Villainy. Conscience-keeping. Probably due to Khan’s super-prolific output, his landmark roles tend to get lost and he doesn’t get enough credit for the wide range of roles – many of them he himself wrote the lines for!
Inquilaab : Kader Khan’s stellar career as a menacing, conniving villain can be well-represented by this character – an unscrupulous political leader who manipulates Amitabh Bachchan’s character. His measured movements and deliberate dialogue delivery style were an asset for this ‘mastermind’ kind of roles.
Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri : Kader Khan stopped being a villain quite emotionally when he saw his sons getting ridiculed and even beaten up for his negative roles. He started doing comic roles in the mid-1980s and soon formed a partnership with Shakti Kapoor (who often called Kader Khan as his guru). This film is one of their more hilarious outings, where the comic duo called the shots despite having a A-list lead pair!
Hum : In a double role, Kader Khan played an Army General and a nautanki actor. The former was a ‘kadak’ soldier and had quite a few sharp lines about patriotism while the latter was bit of a flake with silly lines by the dozen. In the film, the latter was called on to replace the former and Khan uncorked mayhem!
Angaar : An under-discussed but complex role, where he played Jahangir Khan, a benevolent don ruling over Mumbai. His ego was intertwined with his benevolence, his benevolence at odds with his love for his sons and the love for his sons got overshadowed by his ego. It was neither a villainous nor a heroic character and Khan brought interesting dimensions to it.
Aankhen : A laugh riot had twin Kader Khans as the fathers of Govinda, Chunky Pandey and Govinda. Govinda and David Dhawan formed a dynamite box-office combination in the 1990s and Kader Khan’s short roles in many of their films were frothy icings on the cakes. The double role in Aankhen was among his best comic performances.
The writer has authored five books, four of which are on Hindi cinema
