Dear ALL, Today, the 13th of October happens to be the birthday of ASHOK KUMAR GANGULY- THE FIRST UNOFFICIAL AND UNDECLARED SUPERSTAR-ACTOR OF HINDI FILMS, UNOFFICIALLY THE FIRST RAP SINGER OF THE INDUSTRY (PLEASE LISTEN TO HIS RAIL GADI FROM AASHIRWAAD AND PERHAPS THE MOST VERSATILE, THE MOST EVOLVED, THE MOST DISCIPLINED, THE MOST WELL-GROUNDED AND THE MOST LONG-LIVED ACTOR TILL PERHAPS A GENTLEMAN CALLED amitabh bachchan IS ALL SET TO TAKE OVER THE MANTLE: SELF DISCIPLINE AND RESPECT FOR ALL BEING THE KEY!) and let me tell you one thing: my experience of stage acting teaches me that it is easier to cry on stage or before camera than to laugh with naturalness and spontaneity! ASHOK KUMAR JEE HAD THE BEST LAUGHTER THAT ANYONE HAD OR WILL EVER HAVE IN THE INDUSTRY! NO BODY COULD GENERATE THE SAME ENERGY OR SPONTANEITY IN THEIR LAUGH...( by this account , according to my late mother, therefore, beta, Ashok Kumar is the best ever...) Ashok Kumar (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), also fondly called Dadamoni in Bengali, was an Indian film actor. Born Kumudlal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, Bengal Presidency, he attained iconic status in Indian cinema. The Government of India honoured him with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1988 and the Padma Bhushan in 1998 for his contributions to Indian cinema. His brothers Anoop Kumar and Kishore Kumar also acted in films. The three brothers worked together in the comedies Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Badhti Ka Naam Dadhi. Ashok, though the eldest of the three by quite a margin, survived them both. In fact, he stopped celebrating his birthday after the youngest brother, Kishore, died on that day in 1987. His sister, Sati Devi, was married to Sashadhar Mukherjee of the Mukherjee-Samarth family. (Hence related to Joy Mukherjee and Rani Mukherjee) Ashok Kumar married Shobha. His daughter, Preeti Ganguly, acted in numerous Hindi films during the 1970s;later she started the Ashok Kumars Academy of Dramatic Arts, Mumbai in 1993. She died in 2012 of cardiac arrest at the age of 59. His other daughter Rupa Ganguly and son Arun Ganguly never joined films. Rupa is married to actor and famous comedian,Deven Verma Reverently called Dadamoni (affectionate term for elder brother), he was born in Bhagalpur and educated at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, Kolkata. He started his career in Bombay city (Mumbai), albeit accidentally, with the Bombay Talkies production Jeevan Naiya in 1936. The male lead, Najam-ul-Hussain, went absconding with the heroine Devika Rani, the directors wife who returned later on. The director and studio head, Himanshu Rai, in retaliation dismissed the hero and called upon his laboratory assistant Ashok Kumar to take the part and thus began a six-decade-long acting career. However, it was his subsequent venture with Devika Rani in Achhut Kanya in the same year that set him up for the big league. The movie itself stands out as one of the heralding social dramas of pre-independence Indian film. It was the story of a Brahmin boy falling in love with a girl from the so-called untouchables in Indian society. It was a big hit and started the trend of socially committed films. Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar did a string of films after this including Izzat (1937), Savitri (1937) and Nirmala (1938). But she was the bigger star and Ashok Kumar was definitely in her shadow. He came into his own with three films opposite Leela Chitnis: Kangan (1939), Bandhan (1940), Jhoola (1941), singing his own songs as was the custom then. He came away with several hits including most famously Main Ban ka Panchhi. He was one of the first anti-heroes of Indian Cinema with his role in Kismet in 1943. This movie went on to create a record for the highest grossing film in India at the time of its release. He produced several films for Bombay Talkies during the final years of the company including the famous Mahal in 1949 in which he co-starred with Madhubala. In the 1950s, he played the suave cigarette-smoking criminal or police officer in several films of what was the Indian film-noir movement. In the late 1960s he switched to character roles playing the parent, grandparent, dirty old man and suave criminal, being careful never to be typecast. He paired up 20 times with the queen of tragedy Meena Kumari, in films such as Parineeta, Bahu Begum, Pakeezah, Ek Hi Raasta, Bandish and Aarti and Chitralekha In the 1960s, Kumar played many older roles from fathers to lawyers and elder husbands in films such as Kanoon (1960), Dharamputra (1961), Rakhi (1962), Gumraah (1963), Bandini (1963), Chitralekha (1964), Aashirwad (1968), Intaquam (1969). He received the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 1962 and 1968 for Rakhi and Aashirwad. In Aashirwad, he played a father who journeys through life to find his daughter and reunite with her. He acted in fewer films in the 1980s and 1990s and occasionally appeared on television, most famously anchoring the first Indian soap opera Hum Log and appearing as the title character in the unforgettable Bahadur Shah Zafar. His last film role was in Aankhon Mein Tum Ho in 1997. Besides acting, he was an avid painter and a practitioner of homeopathy.Altogether, he starred in over 275 films. He has done more than 30 Bengali dramas in Dhakuria. Ashok Kumar died at the age of 90 in Mumbai on 10 December 2001 of heart failure at his residence in Chembur. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee described him as an inspiration... for many generations of aspiring actors. Awards and recognition 1959 - Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 1962 - Filmfare Best Actor Award, Rakhi 1963 - Bengal Film Journalists Association - Best Actor Award (Hindi), Gumrah 1966 - Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, Afsana 1969 - Filmfare Best Actor Award, Aashirwaad 1969 - National Film Awards for Best Actor, Aashirwaad 1969 - Bengal Film Journalists Association - Best Actor Award (Hindi), Aashirwaad 1988 - Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Indias highest award for cinematic excellence 1994 - Star Screen Lifetime Achievement Award 1995 - Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award 1998 - Padma Bhushan 2001 - Awadh Samman by the Government of Uttar Pradesh 2007 - Special Award by Star Screen Awards ( Note: He was the first legendary star who had a huge fan following including the young ladies of the time....there is a story that many young women secretly or openly nurtured the desire in their hearts that their bridegroom, even in an arranged marriage, should resemble Ashok Kumar Jee a bit in looks or mannerisms.....) I tell you I know one such lady who married a gentleman who others would say did resemble Dadamoni! Ha! Ha! PRANAAM TO THE AMITABH BACHCHAN OF YESTERYEARS, DADAMONI (OR AS MY MOTHER WOULD SAY: beta, please refer to Amitabh Bachchan as The Ashok Kumar of modern times!)
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 15:25:32 +0000
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