Amjad 'Gabbar' Khan Remembered

It is rare that the screen persona of an actor is so fused with his real life persona. Gabbar Singh, the character from 'Sholay' which propelled Amjad Khan to success, was a larger than life character and the actor could rarely match up to it in his subsequent films. Gabbar Singh probably became a part of the late actor's life. In a career spanning more than 20 years, the actor worked in over 130 films but was most popular for his depiction of the iconic Gabbar Singh.

Amjad Khan, born on 12 November 1940 was the son of the character actor Jayant and was one of three brothers but the other two, Imtiaz and Innayat, could not make it big in films. Amjad, on the other hand, started early in life when he appeared in 'Ab Dilli Door Nahin' in 1957, as a child actor. The actor dabbled in theatre before he entered films as an adult, his debut venture being 'Hindustan Ki Kasam'. He had earlier assisted K. Asif on 'Love And God' but the film could not be completed due to the director's death. As is well known, the film was completed and released only in 1986. But hope arrived in 1975 in the form of the role of Gabbar Singh from the film 'Sholay' which was being directed by Ramesh Sippy. The film starred Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan and Hema Malini and was scripted by the famous duo of Salim Javed. 'Sholay' created history at the box office and Amjad Khan was an overnight success. People still remember and mouth dialogues from the film, specially, Gabbar's 'Arre O Sambha, Kitne Aadmi The?' line.

Sholay's stupendous success lead to numerous other roles as villains in movies galore. But as a villain, Amjad Khan could never quite touch the heights of Gabbar Singh. But that was not a statement on his talent, but on the iconic status that the character of Gabbar had attained. Besides playing villain, Amjad also excelled in the portrayal of several other characters like that of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in Satyajit Ray's 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi' in 1977, or that of the good friend in 'Yaarana', or the famous Vatsayana in 'Utsav', the underworld don in 'Perfect Murder' or in comic roles in 'Chameli Ki Shaadi' and 'Qurbaani'. The actor also took to directing with 'Chor Police' in 1983 and 'Ameer Aadmi Gareeb Aadmi' in 1985 but success eluded him. An unfortunate accident in 1976 caused him to take certain medicines, which resulted in a weight issue which ultimately triggered a fatal heart attack in on July 27, 1992, thus cutting short his life at age 51.

Amjad Khan was an actor par excellence and was at complete whether playing a hated villain or in a comic avatar. In fact, his sense of timing and dialogue delivery in 'Qurbaani' is quite unmatched. He stole scene from both Feroz Khan and Vinod Khanna as the gum chewing cop. Another memorable image of him is as the helpless Nawab in 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi', speaking volumes with his soulful eyes. Of course, no piece on Amjad Khan can be complete without mentioning the dreaded Gabbar Singh. That was history. If for nothing else, Amjad Khan will always be a part of our memories because of 'Sholay' and Gabbar Singh.