Bollywood Films and their Official Websites

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Sanjeev Kumar - the dynamic actor bollywood

Sanjeev Kumar – the most versatile actor of bollywood.

Sanjeev Kumar can be considered as one of the most versatile actors who had glorified bollywood with his depth of understanding characters and dynamic performance in numerous films in Bollywood. Harihar Zariwala, better known as Sanjeev Kumar, was born on 9th July, 1938, and made his debut in the film Hum Hindustani in 1960, but got his role as a hero in the film Nishan in 1966.

As the directors and producers of the 60s and 70s, recognised the supreme calibre of Sanjeev Kumar in understanding the emotions of different characters from the depth of his heart, they started casting him in experimental roles. He acted in the role of an insane person in the film Khilona, 1970, opposite Mumtaz and got critics acclamation. His lips in Rafi’s song titled “khilona”, was well appreciated by music lovers. In Parichay, 1972, he acted in the role of classical singer who was rebuked by his father Pran (an industrialist) and to leave his house to create separate identity. Neither his wife was accepted his father, nor could he appreciate the musical skills of his sons, according to whom music was a substandard professions only practiced by tawaifs in kothas. Sanjeev Kumar contracted incurable disease and died leaving 5 children including Jaya Bacchan, the eldest of them and Master Raju, the youngest, who were brought back by Pran and reformed by Jeetender the compassionate teacher who felt the pains in the minds of these children who required love and not over strictness displayed by Pran. Sanjeev Kumar gave supreme lips in Bhupinder Singh’s songs “Mitwa” and “beeti na bitai raina”. The audience were in tears to see Sanjeev Kumar shedding blood while singing as he coughed out to death. Brilliant performances in each and every film of Gulzar made Sanjeev Kumar, the greatest actor of his generation.

He received the national award for the best actor in 1971, for his natural performance in the film Dastak, 1971, which was based on the pains of young couple who could not find a reasonable accommodation in the city of Mumbai, and went on searching them from one place to another which was a burning problem in those days and still remains a big concern today. He received his second national award in Gulzar’s film Koshish, in 1973, which was based on deaf and dumb subject. He himself was deaf and dumb and learnt to use sign language taught in deaf and dumb schools and taught Jaya Bacchan, who was also deaf and dumb to express herself with those signs. He did not have any dialogue in the film. There were so many soft emotions in the film, once Dina Pathak asked Sanjeev Kumar to tell his name which was haricharan, he just took a chilli and put it on her foot, as chilly is green meaning hari and feet resembles charan. At the same time he showed his sense of humour in Ramesh Sippy’s Seeta aur Geeta, 1972, opposite Hema Malini.

In 1975, Sanjeev Kumar, acted in the role of his lifetime in the film Sholay, where he played the role of a zamindar of a village in north India, who retired as a police officer and faced the challenge of dacoits in the Chambal region with a 2 man army of Amitabh Bacchan and Dharmender who were offenders themselves. The film was based on real life incidents and Ramesh Sippy’s blockbuster remains India’s most debated film of the millennium. He brought entire expression of horrified soul when Amzad Khan severed his two hands by giving a horrified look. The same expression was displayed at the end of the film when he deformed the hands of Amzad Khan, bringing all the feelings of revenge against a group of dacoits who killed everyone in his family and horrified the villagers with their tyranny. Sanjeev Kumar won the film fare award in the same year with his performance in the film Aandhi opposite Suchitra Sen. He was also nominated for the best actor award for his serene performance in the film Mausam opposite sharmila Tagore, in the same year, where his reflections in the song “dil dhoonta hai phir wohi fursat ke raat din” sung by Bhupinder Singh still haunts film lovers.

He also won best actor award for the film Arjun Pandit, in 1976, where he was the compounder of a village doctor and gave his entire savings for the education of the son of the doctor. The pains in the role of the rural character as displayed by Bengali actor Kali Banerjee in the film Arohi directed by Tapan Sinha was well matched by Sanjeev Kumar’s brilliant acting skills.

The list of outstanding performance of Sanjjev Kumar, include Shikar, 1968, Satyakam, Alaap, etc., and it can go on as he was seen in almost every alternate film made at that time. If Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah depict realistic acting after specialising in acting with experience of learning performing arts in acting schools and schools of drama, Sanjeev Kumar belong to a unique gharana where no training is given in respect of perceiving the feelings of human beings through the senses and displaying them with expressions. He films should be restored for immense filmic value.

Sharmila Tagore- Soft romantic actress of bollywood

Sharmila Tagore – the symbol of Bengali Beauty in Bollywood:

Sharmila Tagore is one of the remote actresses gracing bollywood during 60s and 70s, who had rabindrik image which depicted a unique appeal for the film lovers of the country.

She started her career with the Bengali film Apur Sangsar, in 1959, the third episode of the Apu Trilogy directed by one of the greatest directors of the world Satyajit Ray. Scenes depicted by Ray, where she was silent, her expressive eyes spoke for herself. She acted in other films of Ray including Seema Baddha, Aranyer Dinratri, Debi, etc., but viewers had acknowledged her sublime performance opposite Uttam Kumar, in Ray’s film Nayak, 1966, which was based on the biography of Bengal’s greatest superstar of all times. Sharmila played the role of a journalist and her submissiveness before a popular matinee idol shot in Rajdhani Express depicted the bashfulness of Bengali women of that age.



In 1964, Sharmila began her career in hindi films in Shakti Samanta’s musical blockbuster Kashmir Ki Kali, 1964, opposite Shammi Kapoor. She displayed the role of submissive Kasmiri woman and gave elegant lips in OP Nayyar’s songs sung by Asha along with Rafi including “isharo isharo”, “diwana hua badal”, etc. The same pair was launched again by Shakti Samanta, in An Evening in Paris, 1967, this time Shankar Jaikishan’s composition of music flabbergasted the audience, including duet songs sung by Asha and Rafi like “raat ke humsafar”, etc. The entire film was shot in France and Indian audience got an additional flavour of rich locations in addition to popular music.

Sharmila Tagore acted in successful films after that period including Yakeen, Satyakam opposite Dharmender, Talash opposite Rajender Kumar, Dastan opposite Dilip Kumar, Aradhana, Safar, Amar Prem opposite Rajesh Khanna, Mere Humsafar opposite Jeetender. Most of these films had excellent music and that contributed to the success of the films in addition to romantic performance of Sharmila Tagore opposite all these actors.

In the mid -70s Gulzar gave a new dimension to the performance of Sharmila Tagore by casting her in a double role in Mausam opposite Sanjeev Kumar. She was the daughter of a village doctor near Darjeeling, who treated Sanjeev Kumar while he came to that place while studying medical science. He went abroad for further education, within short time Sharmila gave birth to his daughter which was played by Sharmila again and due to victim of circumstances she became a tawaif. The entire film hovers around that relationship and Sanjeev Kumar, the father at the end of the film takes her back to the city. The film was based on reflections and Madan Mohan’s music, Gulzar’s lyrics and the songs sung by Lata, Bhupinder Singh and Rafi, including ‘dil dhoonta hai phir wohi” touched the soles of the viewers. She won the national award for the best actress in that year for sublime performance in Mausam.

Sharmila Tagore’s performance in Gulzar’s film Namkeen opposite Sanjeev Kumar is worth mentioning. She played the role of the eldest daughter of Wahida Rehman ( a widow of a poor rural family) and acted as a guardian for the other two sisters who received support from the truck-driver played by Sanjeev Kumar. Besides her performance opposite Uttam Kumar in films like Amanush, Anand Ashram, Dooriyan, is worth mentioning. In Anand Ashram, she married the doctor who opened a dispensary in the village for treatment of poor, helpless villagers and she ably supported her husband in the noble mission. Unfortunately she died while giving birth to her child. The rest of the film relates their relationship with the next generation but throughout the film Uttam Kumar mourned the untimely death of her wife and displayed her immense love for Sharmila.

Dooriyan relates to complex relationship between the husband and the wife which leads to separation and again unification at the end of the film as the children of the couple could not stay without their parents together. Very soft virtues of husband wife relationship was displayed in the film and the duet song “zindagi zindagi” sung by Anuradha Porwal and Bhupinder Singh and “zindagi me jab tumhare gham nahi the” talked about them. Jaidev’s everlasting tunes have not lost significance even today. In recent years Sharmila Tagore won national award for best supporting actress in Goutam Ghosh’s Abar Aranye. Although Sharmila Tagore did not belong to the category of powerful dancers like Vaijayantimala or aristocrat performers like Meena Kumari, her soft, docile, submissive, understanding characteristics have given a separate dimension to bollywood films for which her films should be preserved and restored.

Raj Kumar - The Stylish Actor of Bollywood

Raj Kumar – the stylish actor of Bollywood.

Raj Kumar can be considered as one of the most stylist actors of bollywood whose style of stretching the dialogues with a unique manner of expression entertained the film lovers for the last 50 years. Born on 8th October, 1926, his original name was Kulbhushan Pandit, but he gained popularity in Indian silver screen with the name of Raj Kumar. He started his career with the film Merry Women, in 1952, but got recognition after acting in an epic role opposite Nargis in Mehboob Khan’s cine-classic Mother India in 1957. Although it was a female oriented movie with Nargis showing the struggle of a widow in a peasant family in rural India who had faced the crude realities of life after Raj Kumar died in bringing up her two sons Sunil Dutt and Rajender Kumar, Raj Kumar kept his mark in the initial part of the film.

Raj Kumar started getting prominent roles in the 60s with the success of the film Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi in 1960 opposite Meena Kumari and Nadira. He was sublime in the performance relating to complexity of emotions in the films as he had to balance the duties towards his wife Nadira in spite of having weakness towards the nurse played by Meena Kumari. Raj Kumar also acted with his personality in the film Dil Ek Mandir, 1963, where he played the role of the sick husband of Meena Kumari and was treated successfully by the doctor played by Rajender Kumar who died at the end of the film. The songs composed by Shankar Jaikishan in both these films became evergreen hits.



In mid-60s Raj Kumar displayed a new style of performance in the film Kajal, 1965, where the song sequences with his role of a drunkard appealed to the masses. The songs “chulene do nazuk hoton ko”, “yeh zulf agar khulke bikhar jaye to accha ho”, composed by Ravi and sung with a sombre expression of Mohammad Rafi had astonished the viewers. At that time Raj Kumar appeared in multi-starrer films of BR Chopra including Waqt, 1965, along with Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor and Humraaz, 1967, along with Sunil Dutt. He acted in a unique role in Neel Kamal opposite Wahida Rehman and Manoj Kumar, where he used to appear in the dreams of Wahida Rehman and reflected a past relationship. Ravi’s composition and Rafi’s song “tujhko pukare tera pyar” became super duper hit at that period. He was well appreciated in the film Heer Ranjha, opposite Priya Rajwangsh and the songs of Rafi and Lata including “yeh duniya yeh mehfil” composed by Madan Mohan became everlasting hit.

Raj Kumar also performed well in historical roles like Lal Patthar in 1971 which was the hindi adaptation of Bengali Superstar Uttam Kumar’s film Lal Pathor made in 1964. the royal nature of lifestyle of the badshahs residing near Agra was displayed with style by Raj Kumar. He also complimented Meena Kumari in Kamal Humrohi’s musical blockbuster Pakiza, 1971. His dialogue “yeh paer bari haseen hai, ise zameen par mat phekna, maile ho jaenge” was memorised by numerous film lovers in India and abroad. Ghulam Mohammad was excellent with his use of the dholak and the duet song Rafi and Lata titled “chalo dildar chalo” picturised on Raj Kumar and Meena Kumari symbolised majestic romance.

After performing in other significant roles in films like Maryada, 1971, Raj Kumar shifted to action films in the 80s and 90s. In the 80s his film Bulandi stormed the silver screen, where he played the role of a Professor and used the students of his institutions to raise their voice against corrupt businessmen operating in the society. The dialogues in the film including “humko mita sake zamane me dum nahi, humse khud hai zamana, zamane se hum nahi” almost reciprocated his personality.

He continued to perform in big productions including Subhas Ghai’s Saudagar, in early 90s opposite Dilip Kumar and Tiranga opposite Nana Patekar. In Saudagar, he did maintain his family heritage which confronted with Dilip Kumar’s set of values and the audience enjoyed their clash of personality and witty postures. With his death in the mid-90s, the generation of stylist actors faded away.

His son Puru Raj Kumar, is sometimes seen performing with stylish endeavour in films like Mission Kashmir, opposite Sanjay Dutt, but he gets mainly characters resembling anti-heroes. Raj kumar’s films should be restored to update the present generation with the blend of personality with style and depth of performance which Raj Kumar had displayed for the last 50 years.