In a decade covering 60 films in which he played fond -headed leaders, charming support characters and threatening bad guys, the actor Motilal left a stamp on Indian cinema which, according to many, is erased. Among the stars he has influenced are Naseeruddin Shah, Astabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar. He remains best known to play Chunilal in the 1955 adaptation, which presented Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in the main roles. But despite his popularity, Motilal would have died without the penny and underestimated. “There should be a retrospective of his best work. Motilal should be studied in actor schools because he is an excellent big,” Sudhir Mishra filmmaker told Times of India in a 2015 interview.
Motilal was born Shimla In 1910. He obtained his first break as head with the film Shaher Ka Jadoo (1934), but his first success was Jagirdar de Mehboob Khan (1938). He won a filmfare prize for his performance in Devdas, but is also well considered for the work he has done in films such as Sampat (1952), Anadi (1959) and Paigham (1959). “Little has been written in praise of a tall and very natural actor. Motilal was ahead of his time. If he was alive today, his pure versatility would have assured a place for himself now. In fact, he would do much better than any of us,” Bachchan wrote about it in the prediction of the Book of the Hundred Lights of Indian Cinema. In an interview in 2023 with film Companion, Naseeruddin Shah Said about the young generation of actors: “It’s great that they stand on the shoulders of Om Puri, myself, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Farooque Sheikh, just as we were holding on the shoulders of Balraj Sahni and Motilal.”
Motilal actor-director with a cigarette. (Express Archive Photo)
Motilal acquired the admiration of none other than the Mahatma Gandhi after making a film on untouchability. The film historian Firoz Rangoonwala had been cited by Mayapuri magazine: “Kl Saigal was a singer-star of heavy subjects and much larger than Motilal, the lighter counterpart of Bombay, fun and his response, Calcutta. Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. »»
Motilal and Shakila in the film Hathkadi. (Express Archive Photo on 21.02.1958)
Motilal was also known for his flamboyant personal life, marked by a love for games and theft. He would have lost a lot of money by maintaining this sumptuous lifestyle. He was in a relationship with Shobhna Samarth, the actor’s grandmother Kajol and mother of Tanuja. “I have survived three heart attacks, an air accident, a quasi-birth and several rotten films,” he joked in you in 1965, the year of his death at the age of 54. He would have been “ penniless “at the time, having made bad investments and lost a lot of money on a passionate project he had produced. The film Choti Choti Baten released posthumously. He received two national prizes after his death. The government of India published a timbre commemorating Motilal in 2013.
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Motilal and Sulochana in Film Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (Express Archive Photo)
In an interview of 1963, Motilal would have said about his latest film role: “He looks like ineffable sadness and, inside him, he is full of kindness in the world – a world that has not been good for him, in which he finds only the ultimate dignity by visualizing the mobile film of my film, a suburban, a subuse himself:” Where is peace? ” And is driven from corner to the corner, I took myself, many echoes of all my yesterday. By the way, his last character was also appointed Motilal.