Dadamoni to one and all, for 100 years

KOLKATA: How many people know that actor Anup Kumar’s daughter lives in Kolkata? How many know that actor Ashok Kumar would’ve turned 100 on October 13, had he not passed away on December 10, 2001? How many know that Dadamoni himself had stopped celebrating his birthday since both his younger brothers died before him? In fact, lot many probably know October 13 only as the death anniversary of Kishore Kumar, celebrated for his inimitable yoddling, mimicking, singing, dancing...
Kishore Kumar, in his childhood, would charge listeners for mimicking Dadamoni’s songs. One can’t blame him. In the years when movie had turned talkie, belying the worst fears of Kunjalal Ganguly and Gouridevi of Khandwa in MP, their eldest son Kumudlal had swept India off her feet with the song Main banki chidiyaan, despite the remote effeminacy that trailed his voice... More than three decades later, in 1968, when Dadamoni sang Rail gaadi chhuk-chhuk in Ashirwad, the limmerick became a national anthem.
But even before Achhut Kanya hit the screen, viewers had seen Ashok Kumar in Jeevan Naiyya, opposite the ravishing beauty Devika Rani, no less. Himanshu Rai of Bombay Talkies had cast him, then laboratory assistant to his brother-in-law Sashadhar Mukherjee, since the lead actor of Bombay Talkies, Najmul Hussein, was absconding. Despite his diffidence, the debutant’s genuine innocence spoke louder than the sophistication of England-returned Devika Rani. The year was 1936. And for six decades after that, the thespian continued to charm fathers, sons and grandsons of his contemporaries.
Dadamoni’s popularity had grown beyond his own imagination. Mahal, Bandhan, Kismet, Parineeta, Afsana, Kanoon, Howrah Bridge, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Bandini, Oonche Log, Haatey Bajarey, Jewel Thief, Anupama, Mamta, Pakeezah, Guddi, Chhotisi Baat, Victoria No 203, Khatta Meetha, Shaukeen... Films with message, courtroom dramas, family entertainers, Muslim socials, thrillers, lost-and-found formulas, ‘dirty’ stories - Dadamoni was the prototype for filmmakers in genre after genre.
His one rule in life seemed to be ‘Break the Rule.’ And this furthered cinema of every possible kind. He did so as a versatile actor, he did so as the MD of Bombay Talkies. The young man, who’d given up law to join films at a time when Himanshu Rai was ‘recruiting’ educated men from Kolkata, himself introduced Bimal Roy, Kamal Amrohi, B R Chopra, Phani Majumdar, Nitin Bose, Gyan Mukherjee - even the litterateur Sadat Hasan Manto and the evergreen actor Dev Anand!
Full of fun in real life, raconteur par excellence, dabbling in homeopathy, keen about painting, good to friends, indifferent to foes, Dadamoni was a banyan tree that grew roots at every turn of Bollywood. He was the first actor to become shareholder of a studio. Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand - Ashok Kumar was above the trio. He was the first to sport a name that had no caste or class connotations. He broke away from theatrical acting but did not lean on stylisation. At a time when actors were chocolate boys, he played villain so convincingly that Morarji Desai banned Kismet fearing it’d “spoil young men.” If some of his characters had moral weakness, it only added to their naturalness. And the way he lifted his eyes, waived his hand or puffed on his cigarette breathed life into the personas.
There was a grandeur in Ashok Kumar’s stardom that did not rest on publicity. For, unlike today’s actors, filmstars of yore were not faces seen every 10 minutes in any household with a small screen. But when the first indigenous soap entered our national life, his presence grew beyond the screen. Humlog was the first experiment in development communication, and Doordarshan wanted an anchor who’d be universally accepted by viewers across the subcontinent. The ‘granddad’ of Indian acting fitted the bill so well that soon the postman was delivering gunnybags full of mails. Viewers sought his suggestions not only on issues like family planning but smallest of problems disturbing their domestic peace. Probably this, more than the Phalkes, Filmfares and National Awards, made him the subject of a doctoral study in the University of California.
It’d only be befitting if Dev Anand flags off the Kolkata Festival that will pay tribute to Dadamoni through Achhut Kanya, Kismet and (possibly) Haatey Bajarey.