The monarch of madness

Ask any VCD salesperson for a mood-elevating movie experience and he will, in all probability, recommend a Mehmood film.

When he didn't overstep the mark into risqué antics or drippy sentimentalism, Mehmood could delight the viewer with pure physical comedy (he could make more faces than a barrelful of monkeys) and on-the-dot comic timing.

Son of Mumtaz Ali, a film and stage actor-cum-dancer, and brother of character-actress Minoo Mumtaz, Mehmood was born with a mile-wide funny streak. His mother once caught him at a railway station, attempting to run away from home, when he was still a child. When she angrily reminded him that even his clothes had been bought by his father, Mehmood quickly began to drop his clothes!

An enterprising youngster, Mehmood began earning money from an early age by doing odd jobs. He sold poultry products and even taught table tennis to Meena Kumari.

After he married Meena Kumari's sister Madhu and sired a son, Masood, in the early 1950s, Mehmood felt a pressing need to supplement his meagre income. Desperate, he began to accept bit roles in films. On hindsight, one recognises Mehmood in tiny roles in films like Do Bigha Zameen and Pyaasa, but in those days he went unnoticed . A self-respecting man, he was keen to make a niche for himself without any help from his famous sister-in-law.

Famous for his fusillade of funny moments, two of Mehmood's most remembered roles were in Pyar Kiye Jaa (1966) and Padosan (1968).

In Pyar Kiye Jaa, he played an aspiring film director who wants his father (Om Prakash) to finance his banner, Wah Wah Productions. Narrating a ghost story to a frightened Om Prakash, Mehmood interspersed onomatopoeic sounds like 'Waoo, waoo, kudu kudu, kach kach kach' into an imbecilic story of a chudail (witch) to create a scintillating scene. Also, his efforts to make a wide-eyed, village belle Meena (Mumtaz) a top film star are hugely hilarious.

In Padosan, Mehmood played the choti-sporting, lungi-clad, south Indian music teacher enamoured with his shishya, Bindoo (Saira Banu). His classic riposte, 'Aye sur badla, aye phir bhatkaya [You changed the tune again and confused me]' sung in response to Kishore Kumar's masterful twisting of the tune of Ek chatur naar evoked laughs galore.

By the late sixties, he was heralded as the monarch of madness, with successes like Patthar Ke Sanam, Do Kaliyan, Neel Kamal, Aankhen and Aulaad releasing one after the other. Mehmood was a master at playing the hero's friend, who would help him out of sticky situations with his street-smart ways.

Unfortunately, his popularity, according to the grapevine, rankled the ruling heroes of the day. What further restricted Mehmood was his preference for playing central roles in early seventies films like Main Sundar Hoon, Lakhon Mein Ek, Mastana and Do Phool. As his career lost its early heat, Mehmood also resorted to producing his own films (Bombay To Goa, Kunwara Baap, Ginny Aur Johny) to stay in the limelight.

A magnanimous man, Mehmood promoted many talents like Amitabh Bachchan and Aruna Irani (he gave them lead roles in his rollicking road comedy, Bombay To Goa). The straight-faced, attractive Aruna (Aulad, Garam Masala, Naya Zamana) provided the ideal foil to his funny antics.

But Mehmood was now overreaching himself. He overdid the glycerine act, while his comedy sometimes became off-puttingly lewd and loud. His breaking off with his pardner-in-laughs Aruna and the failure of his films gave anonymity an opportunity to engulf him in its clutches by the start of the eighties.

Today, Mehmood keeps indifferent health and largely lives at his Bangalore farmhouse. But his comedy continues to be prescribed as the panacea for the depressed and the downcast.