Manoj Kumar: Actor-filmmaker who blended patriotism with mainstream appeal
Manoj Kumar: Actor-filmmaker who blended patriotism with mainstream appeal
MUMBAI: (Apr 4) Manoj Kumar will forever be Bharat for generations of filmgoers, an actor-filmmaker who framed his patriotism in celluloid just as a nascent India was coming into its own and beginning to realise its dreams and potential.
It was a fortuitous happenstance for the filmmaker who channelled his Partition angst to tell stories of an evolving India in films such as “Upkar”, “Purab Aur Paschim” and “Roti, Kapda aur Makaan” in the mid 1960s and 1970s. They were all blockbusters, finding a ready audience at the time and each helping carve a niche all his own.
Kumar died in a Mumbai hospital in the early hours of Friday. He was 87, a one-time star battling multiple health issues who had long retreated into the shadows. His screen name was Bharat in several films, a cleverly chosen moniker that fused into his identity as a filmmaker and an actor and he came to be known as ‘Bharat Kumar’ to many.
