An actor-writer-comedian and Quranic scholar, the multi-talented Kader Khan, who died early on Tuesday (IST) in Toronto aged 81, has left behind a vast oeuvre of work from a career spanning over four decades and will be remembered as much for his contribution to Hindu filmdom as for deciphering Islam for the laity across the religious spectrum.
The sad news of Kader Khan's passing shocked the Bollywood fraternity on New Year's Day, when it broke early on Tuesday morning.
He had spent nearly four months in hospital, for various old-age related ailments, including breathing issues, and finally succumbed on December 31 evening (Toronto time).
Born on October 22, 1937 in Kabul to a Pashtun family, Kader Khan (KK) migrated to Mumbai in 1952 and was educated in a local municipal school and later graduated from Mumbai's Ismail Yusuf College, Jogeshwari, a government-run institution.
He followed up with a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the M. S. Saboo Siddique Institute in Mumbai and later became a professor there for around seven years.
According to a close family friend Javed Jamaluddin, the family initially lived in te notorious Arab Gully in south Mumbai, before shifting to the suburbs and Kader Khan, who loved to read and write, continuing his higher education there.
It was during his college days that he developed a passion for theatre, acting and penning stories and dialogues. He penned a drama, "Local Train" which bagged the first prize at the National Jagruti Drama Competition in the early 1970s, Jamaluddin said.
It was Narendra Singh Bedi, son of the legendary Rajinder Singh Bedi who gave Kader Khan the first break for writing the superhit musical "Jawani Diwani" (1972) starring Randhir Kapoor-Jaya Bhaduri, and since then he never looked back.
Bollywood thespian, Dilip Kumar, who happened to watch one of his plays during a college day function, offered Kader Khan a role and an assignment for writing dislogues.
But he was already busy with scripting the Rajesh Khanna starrer "Roti" (1974), so later, he wrote the film 'Bairaag" (1976), a mega-hit musical featuring Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu in the lead roles, with Kader Khan in a character role.
An avid reader and a film-buff, he had a huge collection of books on various subjects related to film-making, acting, screenplay-writing, penning stories-dialogues and other departments from all over the world, besides being a Quranic Scholar with a mastery over Arabic and Urdu.
It was Kader Khan who inspired his friend, A. Krishnamurthi, head of Tina Films International (TFI) to venture into its first Bollywood venture, "Ghar Ek Mandir" (1984), a hit with a multi-star cast, and even insisted on writing the dialogues for it.
"After he saw the story, he wanted to play the role of Seth Dharamdas, which was originally assigned to Amjad Khan. He dedicated a lot of time and his dialogues became 'the pearls in the necklace' in that film, and later in many of our other films. I knew him since his early days in the film industry and he was truly a good human being, a great actor and an acclaimed writer" Krishnamurthi told IANS.
During the shooting of one TFI film, "Aag" (1994), in which Sonali Bendre debuted as an actress, Kader Khan inspired the co-female lead, Shilpa Shetty, to learn Urdu to improve her diction and dialogue delivery and even taught her bits of it during takes, producer K. Ramji said.
Starting with his first film as an actor in the late Yash Chopra's directorial debut, the super-hit musical "Daag" (1973), over the next 40 years he went on to act in over 300 films in memorable roles, and also wrote the story or dialogues for more than 250 films in Hindi and Urdu, starting with "Roti" (1974).
With his rich experience on stage, Kader Khan effortlessly managed to enact all types of negative-positive character roles, besides as a villain, comedian, and double-roles, though competing with some of the biggest names of his era.
He worked with top actors of the day like Rajesh Khanna, Feroze Khan, Jeetendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Randhir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Salman Khan and with the leading directors like T. Rama Rao, Yash Chopra, A. Krishnamurthi, K. Raghavendra Rao, K. Bapaiah, Dasari Narayan Rao and David Dhavan, among many others.
Some of his most memorable films as a comedian-character actor are: "Daag", "Adalat", "Bairaag", "Parvarish", "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, "Shalimar", "Mr. Natwarlal", "Suhaag", "Dhan Daulat", "Qurbani", "Jwalamukhi", "Abdullah", "Naseeb", "Yaarana", "Zamaane Ko Dikhana Hai", "Satte Pe Satta", "Desh Premee", "Sanam Teri Kasam", "Mehndi Rang Layegi", "Himmatwala", "Coolie", "Ghar Ek Mandir", "John Jaani Janardhan", "Tawaif", "Loha", "Jawab Hum Denge", "Shahenshah", "Pyar Ka Mandir", "Khoon Bhari Maang", "Baap Numbri, Beta Dus Numbri", "Saajan", "Bol Radha Bol", "Meherbaan", "Aankhen", "Eena Meena Deeka", "Coolie No.1", "Saajan Chale Sasural", "Judaai", "Dulhe Raja," "Aunty No.1" and "Sooryavansham".
He penned the story-dialogues for top-grossing and acclaimed films like: "Jawani Diwani", "Benaam", "Roti", "Amar Akbar Anthony", "Parvarish", "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar", "Suhaag", "Mr. Natwarlal, "Yaarana", "Lawaaris", "Desh Premee", "Khuddar", "Coolie", "Sharaabi", "Ganga Jamna Saraswati", "Singhasan", "Khoon Bhari Maang" and "Aunty No. 1". He also produced a film, "Shama" in 1981
Kader had contributed to several Amitabh-starring films like "Amar Akbar Anthony", "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar", "Laawaris" and "Coolie" as a writer.
"Kader Khan passes away. Sad, depressing news. My prayers and condolences. A brilliant stage artiste, most compassionate and accomplished talent on film. A writer of eminence...in most of my very successful films. A delightful company and a mathematician," Amitabh tweeted on Tuesday.
Veteran actor Dharmendra expressed his grief on Twitter. He wrote: "It is so sad. We have lost another loving co-star. Jannat naseeb ho Kader Bhai!"
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, on the other hand, wondered why was Kader in Canada during the time of his death. "Kader Khan has given so much to our entertainment industry...What a sad start to 2018. There is a lesson to be learnt from Kader Khan's death in a foreign country. We need to take better better care of our artistes so that they don't feel neglected," he said.
Actor Anupam Kher hailed Kader as "one of the finest actors of our country". The two had worked together in films like "ChaalBaaz", "Meherbaan" and "Bade Miyan Chote Miyan".
"It was a joy and a learning experience to be on the sets with him. His improvisational skills were phenomenal. His humour was eternal and original. He was a wonderful writer. We will miss him and his brilliance," he tweeted.
Kader's death has left filmmaker Anees Bazmee feeling sad. "Had the privilege to work with him as a writer in 'Aankhen', 'Raja Babu', 'Shola Aur Shabnam', 'Bol Radha Bol', 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi' and direct him in my debut film 'Hulchul'. RIP Kader Khan. You shall always be missed," he tweeted.
Apart from members of the film fraternity, President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several political leaders also condoled his death.
Actor-writer Kader Khan designed courses in Islamic studies
A little-known facet of Kader Khan, the veteran Bollywood actor-writer-comedian who passed in away Toronto early on Tuesday morning, was that he was a Quranic scholar who designed a special academic syllabus in Islamic studies, besides simplified Arabic and Urdu language courses, a family friend said.
"Though deeply immersed in Bollywood, around early 1990s, he bowed before the wishes of his aged father, the late Maulana Abdul Rahman Khan, to take forward his ideals for propagating Islamic studies and help clear misconceptions among the minds of people by using simplied language with their meanings," said Javed Jamaluddin, a veteran Urdu journalist and close friend of the late actor.
Originally hailing from Kabul, Afghanistan, Maulana Khan was a renowned Islamic scholar who remained in India post-Partition and in the early 1950s, migrated to Holland, where he set up the Arabic & Islamic Institute.
However, in the early 1990s, Kader Khan was summoned by his father who wanted him to take over and carry forward his legacy, but the actor - then already a big name in Bollywood - was reluctant, arguing he had acepractically no knowledge of Islam or Arabic or Urdu.
"Patiently, the senior Maulana Khan explained to his son that although he had no knowledge about story-writing or dialogue-writing, he learnt and made it big in Bollywooda So, in a similar fashion, he could also learn about Islam, Arabic and Urdu," said Jamaluddin, 55.
His father's words hit Kader Khan like a sledge-hammer and he immediately enrolled for and completed his MA in Islamic Studies & Arab Literature from Osmania University in 1993.
Adhering to his father's wishes, he set up a team of experts in Mumbai and also at his bungalow in Pune's posh Koregaon Park where he designed various Islamic courses for students from nursery to post-graduate levels covering Islamic tenets, Sharia laws and the like.
He followed up by opening the KK Institute of Arabic Language & Islamic Studies in Dubai and later in Canada to impart training in Arabic and Islamic laws as preached in the Holy Quran, said Jamaluddin.
"The secret was simplifying and interpreting the Quran for the common masses, creating an entire syllabus from nursery to post-graduation in Islamic studies in an easy-to-understand format with their meanings, which could be understood easily even by non-Muslims," he added.
All his academic efforts were completed around 2005 and he felt very happy and satisfied at having fulfilled his father's last desire, said Jamaluddin.
In September 2014, an ailing Kader Khan went on a Haj pilgrimage accompanied by some family members and aides, the videos of which went hugely viral on social networks globally.
"All his life, he strove to bring the common Muslims into the educational mainstream through his courses, wanted the Muslim youth to be academically and vocationally qualified to become independent and help advance the community in India," Jamaluddin said.
Before his illness set in around seven years ago, he was planning to set up branches or study centres of the KK Institute in India, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Dubai and other countries, besides in Europe and work on many of them is at various stages.
