Small Time Actors in Taxi Driver, Funtoosh etc.
Afzal A. Khan
About two weeks back, these two films were mentioned
in a thread "ism sharif".
Patanjal is the robust bad guy in "Taxi Driver".
In the climax, (the late) Johnny Walker sticks a
knife in his midriff and makes him laugh.
The owner of the (Irani ?) hotel is M. A. Lateef.
He too was a fixture in Navketan films. You will
recall him as Kalpana Kartik's father in the climax
scenes of "Nau Do Gyarah". He also appears in the
train scene in "Kala Bazar" where Dev Anand sings
"Apni to har aah...".
Bhagwan Sinha is the much slimmer bad guy in "Taxi
Driver". In one scene, it is he who says "Wah, beta !"
He was also the house servant in "Funtoosh". He
brings the breakfast tray to Dev's bedroom and
intones : "Naashta !". And when Dev tells him to
go get somehing to eat, he says grandly : "Naashta
sooNghne ki cheez naheeN hota". Bhagwan Sinha also
appeared in a bit role in "Nau Do Gyaarah" as
the lawyer consulted by Dev.
I believe all three are now dead.
Afzal
Satish Kalra
mine)
**************
I will try to provide photos this weekend. Can't promise. Kinda busy.
But here are all the people I know from Taxi Driver:
Dev Anand = Hero
Kalpana Kartik = Mala the Rajput
Shila Ramani = Sylvie
JW = Mastana the one who is drunk without drinking
Patanjali = Main bad guy who says Wah Beta in the song
[ Acco. to Afzal saheb's psot, this guy is Bhagwan Sinha. I had been
mistaken in assuming him to be Bhupinder Kapur. ]
Ratan Gaurang = the Nepali who said unthinkingly that he wanted to marry
a girl's mom
I know how Braham Bhardwaj looks like, most often the white-haired
lawyer or judge, but do not remember where he was in Taxi Driver.
[ He is the one who played the role of the Manager in Anari, and of the head
Butler in Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan. Will have to watch the entire film (Taxi
Driver) to see what role he played. ]
The credits mention Uma Devi, but I do not remember seeing Tun Tun;
perhaps Dev's bhabhi or Sylvie's mother is another Uma Devi? I do not know.
[ This question would also get answered with the re-watch. No problem.
:) ]
Guest Artists:
Hamid Sayani = the one who shows magic tricks to Mala; he is Amin's
older brother
Rashid Khan = The gambler who pawns his wife's ornaments and is always
borrowing money from Hero
Parvin Pal = wife of Hamid; she throws Mala the servant out
M. A. Lateef = DeMello the club owner
Krishan Dhawan = the gambler to whom Rashid Khan loses money
I would love to know who played
Dev's bhabhi,
Sylvie's mother,
MD Ratanlal (his voice is very high-pitched,m reminds me of MD Shyam
Sunder, may be it is an inside joke!)
Suprisingly the Dance Director is mentioned as Shetty. I wonder if he is
the baldie baddie of later years.
I have a hunch that one of the two goons of Patanjali is Bhagawan Sinha,
but more research is needed. If one of you watches Shole carefully,
should be able to pick him out.
[ Going by Afzal saheb's post, Bhagwan Sinha was not in Sholay (1975).
Patanjal could have been there, as one of Gabbar's fellow dacoits. ]
Another good movie to watch for figuring out bit players is Kala Bazar.
In the scene where Dev's friends open the White Market, Dev walks
through and he names names. Many of the names he says are the actors'
real names! Assuming all of them are real, we can get a few more. I have
tons of ideas like that. Unfortunately I have no assistants or graduate
students.
[ I am available for hiring. :) ]
*************
Now onto Afzal saheb's post.
"Afzal A. Khan" <il_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3F298FB6...@yahoo.com...
>
>
> About two weeks back, these two films were mentioned
> in a thread "ism sharif".
>
> Patanjal is the robust bad guy in "Taxi Driver".
> In the climax, (the late) Johnny Walker sticks a
> knife in his midriff and makes him laugh.
>
> The owner of the (Irani ?) hotel is M. A. Lateef.
> He too was a fixture in Navketan films. You will
> recall him as Kalpana Kartik's father in the climax
> scenes of "Nau Do Gyarah". He also appears in the
> train scene in "Kala Bazar" where Dev Anand sings
> "Apni to har aah...".
>
> Bhagwan Sinha is the much slimmer bad guy in "Taxi
> Driver". In one scene, it is he who says "Wah, beta !"
> He was also the house servant in "Funtoosh". He
> brings the breakfast tray to Dev's bedroom and
> intones : "Naashta !". And when Dev tells him to
> go get somehing to eat, he says grandly : "Naashta
> sooNghne ki cheez naheeN hota".
Correct on all accounts. I just watched Funtoosh for about half an hour the
other day, and Taxi Driver a little while earlier, for the "ai merii
zindagii..." song.
Bhagwan Sinha also
> appeared in a bit role in "Nau Do Gyaarah" as
> the lawyer consulted by Dev.
Haven't seen it in a while now. Time to dig out the VHS. :)
Happy Listenings.
Satish Kalra
Srinivas Ganti
> "Afzal A. Khan" <il_...@yahoo.com> wrote
<snipped>
This thread made me go back a couple of years.
At that time I asked about various characters in
Dev Anand movies and Afzal Saheb answered
most of my queries.
Can anyone point out the name of the Villan in
Baat Ek Raat Ki ? His screen name was Beni Prasad.
TIA,
sg.
> Kaala Bazaar
> .Who is the guy on whom(and Dev) the song "terii dhuum har kahin"
> is picturised?
> .What are the names of the characters who plays Waheeda's father,
> Waheeda's Mother and Dev's mother.One of the last two must be Leela
> Chitnis.
> .The titles show Chetan Anand's name.Now can anbody point to a scene
> where this guy appears?(so that I can go back and identify him)
>
> Baat Ek Raat Ki
> .What is the name of the actor who is the Villain?He is Wahedaa's mentor
> and want's to usurp her property.His screen name is Beniprasad.
> .The names of the actors who play the roles of blind man and the person
> killed by Beniprasad.
>
I can satisfy your curiosity about "Kala Bazaar"
The guy with Dev Anand was Rashid Khan. He was
a Nav Ketan regular. You will remember him as
John the Bartender in "Hum Dono". He also did
a brilliant cameo as the deranged gardener
Kallicharan in "Nau Do Gyarah". Rashid Khan died
in 1972.
Waheeda's father was acharacter actor M.A. Lateef.
Also a Nav Ketan regular. You may perhaps remem-
ber him as the restaurant-owner in "Taxi Driver".
Waheeda's mother was Mumtaz Begum. Appeared in
many films in mother roles. Other films :
"ChaudhviN Ka Chaand", "Mere Mehboob", "New Delhi"
etc. I think both of them are now no more.
Chetan Anand was the handsome lawyer who defends
Dev Anand in the court. ("...to Judge Sahab, ise
mojizaa samajhna chahiye"). He had impeccable
Urdu diction. BTW, the prosecutor was Kishore
Sahu. Both are now dead.
I cannot help you with "Baat Ek Raat Ki" for the
simple reason that I cannot recall the movie
which I saw in early 1963 I think. If I see
the movie now or get to see any photographs of
these characters, I think I will be able to
identify all of them without much difficulty.
Regards,
Afzal
Satish Kalra
news:bgcjjf$mlgpm$1...@ID-75004.news.uni-berlin.de...
>
> > "Afzal A. Khan" <il_...@yahoo.com> wrote
>
> <snipped>
>
>
> This thread made me go back a couple of years.
> At that time I asked about various characters in
> Dev Anand movies and Afzal Saheb answered
> most of my queries.
>
> Can anyone point out the name of the Villan in
> Baat Ek Raat Ki ? His screen name was Beni Prasad.
>
> TIA,
> sg.
That person was Jagdish Sethi, a veteran character actor by the time of Aar
Paar - the first movie I remeber of his. In Aar Paar, he played Shyama's
father. IIRC, Rashid Khan is the guy he played chess against in the film.
Jagdish Sethi played a few leading roles in his good days.
.....rest snipped.....
Happy Listenings.
Satish Kalra
Afzal A. Khan
Satish Kalra wrote:
Jagdish Sethi was seen in "Street Singer"
as the rejected suitor of Kanan Bala.
He spoke chaste Urdu in the movie.
He was also the villain in the Dev starrer
"Baarish" (1957 ?)
And then he was the benevolent old man in
"Miss Mary", in search of his long lost
daughter. A fine musical.
I think the NDFC chief Nitin Sethi was his son.
IIRC, he too is no more.
Afzal
Satish Kalra
Just remembered that the only person who could have been close enough in
appearance to Bhagwan Sinha is the guy who reads the letter from Gabbar
Singh aloud to the villagers sent with Ahmad's (Sachin) body. He is the one
who snatches the letter from Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and starts off raeding
it with the words "...aur tum bhii suno gaaon ke logo...".
Surjit Singhji - please correct me if I am wrong.
Happy Listenings.
Satish Kalra
Surjit Singh
Have been extremely busy.
Yes, you found him. His name Bhagwan Sinha. I also saw him as a mill
worker in Resham Ki Dori, the one who accosts Saira bano. Afzal is
absolutely right about all the others.
>
> Happy Listenings.
>
> Satish Kalra
>
>
--
Surjit Singh, a diehard movie fan(atic), period.
http://hindi-movies-songs.com/index.html
Surjit Singh
>
> There was another Nepali guy who did minor roles
> in many of A. R. Kardar's films. My best memory
> of him is as the guy (syce/companion) who is holding
> the reins of the hero's horse, when he is watching
> Madhubala dancing ("Dulari"). He looked such a
> clumsy oaf in that scene --- gawking awkwardly
> at her for most of the song. And, surprisingly,
> the camera lingered on him for quite a while.
He was the same Ratan Gaurang.
>
>
> Afzal