Actors - Ashok Kumar

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	Actors - Ashok Kumar

:For the UK politican, see Ashok Kumar (politician). :For the Indian Field Hockey player, see Ashok Kumar (Indian hockey player).

Ashok Kumar (Hindi: अशोक कुमार) (October 13, 1911 – December 10, 2001) was an Indian actor. Born and brought up as Kumudlal Kanjilal Ganguly in Bhagalpur, Bihar and educated at the prestigious Presidency College, Kolkata, he stands apart as a cinema icon of the 20th century. He broke apart from the theatrical role playing then prevalent in Indian cinema and started a natural style of acting. He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1988 from the Indian Government for his lifetime contribution to the Indian film industry. He also won two Filmfare awards as well a National Award.

Reverently called Dadamoni, he started his career in Bombay (Mumbai), albeit accidentally, with the Bombay Talkies production Jeevan Naiya in 1936. The male lead, Najam-ul-Hussain, ran off with the female lead and director's wife, Devika Rani. When discovered, the leading man was dismissed but the company needed a new hero. The director and studio head, Himanshu Rai, called upon his laboratory assistant Ashok Kumar to take the part and thus began a six-decade-long acting career. However, it was his subsequent venture with Devika Rani in Acchut Kanya in the same year that set him up for the big league. The movie itself stands out as one of the heralding social dramas of pre-independence Indian film. It was the story of a Brahmin boy falling in love with a girl from lower caste, the so called untouchables in Indian society. It was a big hit and started the trend of socially committed films.

Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar did a string of films after this including Izzat 1937, Savitri 1937 and Nirmala 1938. But she was the bigger star and Ashok Kumar was definitely in her shadow. He came into his own with three films opposite Leela Chitnis: Kangan in 1939, Bandhan in 1940, Jhoola in 1941, singing his own songs as was the custom then. He acquitted himself creditably and came away with several hits including most famously Main Ban ka Panchhi.

Ashok Kumar challenged the prevailing more traditional theatrical acting style and developed his own more natural style. He was also not afraid to take risks and was one of the first anti-heroes of Indian Cinema with his role in Kismet in 1943.

He produced several films for Bombay Talkies during the final years of the company including the famous Mahal
in 1949 in which he co-starred with Madhubala. In the 1950s, he played the suave cigarette-smoking criminal or police officer in several films of what was the Indian film-noir movement. In the late 1960s he switched to character roles playing the parent, grandparent, dirty old man and suave criminal, being careful never to be typecast.

He gave up acting in films in the early 1980s, save for the occasional television appearance, most famously anchoring the first Indian soap opera Hum Log and appearing as the title character in the forgettable Bahadur Shah Zafar. His last film role was in Aankhon Mein Tum Ho in 1997.

His brothers Kishore Kumar and Anoop Kumar also acted in films. The three brothers worked together in the comedy Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
. Ashok, though the eldest of the three by quite a margin, survived them both. In fact, he stopped celebrating his birthday after the youngest brother, Kishore, died on that day in 1987. Besides acting, he was an avid painter and a practitioner of homeopathy.

Some of his most remembered films include Parineeta in 1953, Ek Hi Raasta in 1956, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
and Howrah Bridge in 1958, Bandini
and Gumrah in 1963, Mamta in 1966, Jewel Thief in 1967, Aashirwad in 1968, Pakeezah
and Victoria No. 203 in 1972, Choti Si Baat in 1975, Khubsoorat in 1980 and Shaukeen in 1981.

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