Over the weekend when rumours oscillated about
Kader Khan's failing health, Nagpada locality of South Mumbai was praying for his well being. The supplications turned into obituaries Tuesday as WhatsApp groups began to mourn the artiste whom they first knew as at Saboo Siddik Polytechnic.
Nagpada is proud of two former residents of the 1970s who rose above their environment and became film stars. ``One was Kader Khan the other Farooque Shaikh. Of course Shaikh came from a privileged background. But today we have lost our other hero too,'' rued senior journalist Saeed Hameed. Interestingly, Shaikh and Khan started their career at the same time, Khan as co-writer for Jawani Diwani (1972) and Shaikh Sahab as actor in Garm Hava (1973).
Hameed was Kader Khan's student in the 1970s. They met several times over the decades, particularly because Khan was the first president of Saboo Siddik's Old ' Association (OSA) and Hameed was an active member.
"Kader Khan was a Pathan who had humble origins in Kamathipura of the seventies. He himself studied at Saboo Siddik and then began to teach. He taught us workshop technology at Saboo Siddik Polytechnic. He would ride in on his trademark Lambretta scooter. It was here in Saboo Siddik that his passion for theatre flourished at inter-collegiate competitions alongside Shafi Inamdar and Mushtaq Merchant. After school hours, they would rehearse at the stage in Saboo Siddik well into the night. Khan was part of the Kal Ke Kalakaar troupe or KKK, and Farooque Shaikh was part of the St Xavier's theatre group. Both of these Nagpada youths made us proud in inter-collegiate theatre competitions." Kader Khan's prominent plays were Taash Ke Patte and Local Train.
After Kamathipura Kader Khan moved to Madanpura's Sankli Street and then Tardeo before buying an apartment in Santacruz.
Khan's struggle saw him graduate from selling chikki and lime water for subsistence, to writing dialogues and then acting, given his command over Urdu. Hameed says, "The family faced such poverty that one day Kader Khan's friends suggested that he join them to pick scrap at nearby Bharat Bazar, at least he would earn Rs 2. But his mother found out, and she said that if he chased Rs 2 instead of concentrating on studies, he would remain at that level all his life. Education, she said, could help him extricate himself from poverty. Khan heeded her words. He used education as a weapon to fight his way out." Kader Khan's mentor was Shahabuddin Dasnavi, a scholar and educationist who was the first principal of Saboo Siddik Polytechnic and general secretary of Anjuman Islam group for two decades.
Hameed says, "Also, Khan's stepfather Maulana Abdul Rehman was a taxi driver who instilled in him a love of hard work and religion. His teachings insulated Kader Khan from the underworld gangs operating in Nagpada. Notorious dons like Alamzeb and Amirzada who rose from the nearby lane both met a gory end."
Interestingly Kader Khan, like Dilip Kumar, was an active member of gangster Karim Lala's Pathan welfare outfit named Pakhtoon Jirga Etihad. "Those days hundreds of Pathans populated pockets of Arab Gully, Dongri and Kamathipura, so they would come to this came to them with their grievances. I have listened to all three of them speaking Pashto fluently," said the writer.
In later years when Hameed met Kader Khan, the actor had begun to take a keen interest in matters of religion. He also wrote Islamic textbooks for children. "He said I am basically a teacher so one day I would like to return to academics. But his health did not permit him to do so. In 2009, he arrived in a wheelchair to far-off Mumbra to boost the morale of Ummeed Foundation, which works to rehabilitate disabled people. I was then the Editor of Rashtriya Sahara, a prominent Urdu newspaper, and he felicitated me that day. I am so proud of you, he said. It was such a great moment for me to hear my teacher say so," Hameed says.
Saboo Siddik's Old Students' Association may organise a memorial for the actor at their annual day coming up January 24.