13 May 2014, 02:14 AM IST
In 1970s and earlier too, you could watch most of popular Hindi cinema through the looking glass of muscle memory. You remembered faces and you remembered what they had done in previous films. And you knew they were always going to do the same thing again. This was the cinema of familiarity.
Sudhir, who passed away due to long-standing ailment of the lungs, was the kind of actor who did those roles. With his horseshoe moustache and gravel voice, he was always a recognizable presence. In dozens of films, he would be a walking advertisement for any section of Indian Penal Code; if only in repetitive bit parts.
Few films gave him decent screen time and the luxury of a well-etched character. Feroz Khan's superhit Khote Sikkay (1974) was an exception. Here Sudhir revelled as a rake who lured young girls by gifting them his mother's gold chain. Once he had seduced them, he would take the chain off without the girl noticing it. In the 1970s that kind of scene prompted wolf whistles galore in cinema halls. Like the other khote sikkays (Fake coins or Bad pennies) in the film, Sudhir too got reformed sometime in the ninth reel. It was one of the few films where he did not get killed or went to jail in the end. Later, they did a sequel of Khote Sikkay called Kachche Heere, where Sudhir reprised his earlier role. But the film did not work at the box-office.
Sudhir was part of another ensemble movie: Satte Pe Satta playing one of the seven brothers. But in a film where Amitabh Bachchan had a double role, how much solo screen time could anybody else get? In fact, in a career spanning over 200 films, Sudhir acted in at least a dozen Bachchan movies. You might also remember him as one of the four villains whom Shakal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) puts through a gruelling ordeal before one of them gets eaten by a shark in Shaan. Again, Sudhir was also a regular in almost every Navketan film after 1970s. The 40plus might recall the handicapped artifact thief played by him in Hare Rama Hare Krishna.
He also did quite a few movies with the versatile director Ravi Tandon. One such forgotten film was Muqaddar, where he stabs Parikshit Sahni and a mute urchin, who saw the killing, draws his face on the road with a piece of chalk to identify him.
Another Tandon film, Majboor, showed he had nice comic timing. Just watch the scene where he nonchalantly asks a nervous flyer to open the door and get off the plane, in case he gets overstressed. Many years later in Shah Rukh Khan's Badshah, Sudhir demonstrated he could still tickle the funny bone.
With passage of time as the roles dried up, Sudhir also acted in a couple of sleazy C grade films such as Qatil Chandalini and Chandal Atma. May be, he needed the money. May be, he just wanted to do some work.
Thousands come to Bombay every year hoping to become a star. Many fail to become anything. But Sudhir carved out a small shelf space for himself. He may not have become a star but he certainly lived his life in the movies.
It's no shame being an honest spoke in the giant Bollywood wheel.
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