When Hangalsaab faced the camera three months ago...

Veteran actor A K Hangal, also known as Bollywood’s Rahim Chacha, after the character he played in Sholay, is no more. He passed away in Mumbai on Sunday morning, at the age of 95. He had been admitted in the Asha Parekh Hospital, after he slipped and fell in his bathroom on August 14, fracturing his right femur (thigh bone).
Hangal had been battling old age problems for a while, having a history of pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic kidney disease and hypertension, and required to be operated.But doctors felt that he wasn’t fit enough to undergo any surgery.
Born into a Kashmiri Pandit family on February 1, 1917, Avtar Kishan Hangal spent his early years in Peshawar. After his family moved to Karachi, he participated in India’s freedom struggle, while working as a tailor. After the Partition and three years imprisonment in Pakistan, he moved to Mumbai and started working with Balraj Sahni and Kaifi Azmi in Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA).
Hangal was in his late 40s when he was offered his first film role, as Raj Kapoor’s brother in Basu Bhattacharya’s Teesri Kasam (1966). Although his scenes were removed from it, there was no looking back as he acted in over 200 films. Notable among them are Namak Haraam, Shaukeen, Aaina, Avtaar, Arjun, Aandhi, Kora Kagaz, Bawarchi, Chhupa Rustam, Chitchor, Balika Badhu and Guddi to name a few.
In most of them, he played a father, uncle, grandfather or a meek, harrassed old man, an image that he couldn’t shrug off. His last assignments were dubbing for Ugrasen in the animated film, Krishna Aur Kans, and a part in the teleserial Madhubala — Ek Ishq Ek Junoon, which he shot in May this year.
A K Hangal is survived by his 74-year-old son Vijay, a retired still cameraman. The veteran actor was in dire straits before the film industry chipped in to fund his medical expenses after news of his failing health broke last year.
Last tryst with camera
Saurabh Tewari, the producer of the teleserial Madhubala on Colors, which marked Hangal’s last appearance on screen, says, “I had no idea it would be the last time he is facing the camera. He seemed very happy to return to where he truly belonged, in front of the camera, and thanked us for giving him an opportunity to do so.”
“When I went to his house, he looked so frail and weak that I almost thought about casting someone else. But then, he beckoned me close to his bed and said with a glitter in his eyes, ‘role toh samjha do’. He was so enthusiastic that I decided to cast him,” he recalls, adding that the actor’s spirit on the sets surprised him and his unit further.
Conceding that they weren’t sure if the actor would be able to deliver his lines, Tewari says, “ Like all actors, he first did rehearsal, asked for makeup, did touch-up, and then gave his shot. I didn’t know how to react when he said, ‘I am sorry if I couldn’t match your expectations’. Later, his son Vijay told me that after returning home that day, Hangal saab had told him, ‘See, I still get offers’.”