The Indian film industry will hit the century mark in coming May. This is a great landmark for Indian Cinema. This industry has not just given audiences some of the most memorable films but it has also given some of the most memorable characters. Who can forget Daaku Gabbar Singh from Sholay, Inspector Vijay from Zanjeer, Sehzaada Salim from Mughal-e-Azam. Actors like Amzad Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar respectively immortalized these characters with their powerful acting and popular dialogues. As we celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema, here are some unforgettable characters in the history of Hindi Cinema. These characters used the celluloid as their canvas to paint larger-than-life dreams that galvanized generations of millions.
Mogambo (Amirsh Puri) in Mr. India
This was Amrish Puri’s best-known role as the villain Mogambo. Mr. India is still known for his famous dialogue "Mogambo khush hua" (Mogambo is pleased), which is one of the most famous dialogues of Bollywood and has become synonymous with him. The Mogambo character is also considered to be one of the best villains in Bollywood history.
Daaku Gabbar Singh (Amzad Khan) in Sholay
His scenes and dialogues from the film earned iconic status in India, such as "Kitne aadmi the" (How many men were there?), "Jo dar gaya, samjho mar gaya" (One who is scared is dead), and "Bahut yaarana laagta hai" (Looks like you two are very close).
Devdas (Dilip Kumar) in Devdas
Dilip Kumar’s role as Devdas was the culmination of his acting prowess. He outperformed in perfectly getting under the skin of a prodigal Devdas in the first hour of the movie and a profligate Devdas in the last hour. He took film acting to new heights in the portrayal of Devdas.
Anand (Rajesh Khanna) in Anand
Rajesh Khanna played the role of a terminally ill man who wishes to live life to the full before the inevitable occurs. It is very rare for guys to shed tears after watching a movie, this movie does make you shed tears for the protagonist. People still remember "Babu Moshai, Zindagi Aur Maut ke Khel Mein Hum Sab Katputhli Hain", immortal piece of dialog from Anand.
Radha (Nargis) in Mother India
Nargis performed a versatile role of a mature Indian mother who would not allow her own son to rob the honor of their village at any cost. The climactic last scene of the epic, where Radha shoots her son in the back, while Birju was all set to kidnap the cruel money lender’s daughter is a tragedy sequence.
Sahibjaan (Meena Kumari) in Pakeezah
Meena Kumari’s performance in Pakeezah is undoubtedly one of the finest of her career. Pakeezah is probably one of the finest Hindi films ever. It is an epitome of perfectionism. A fantastic movie, full of heart beating melodrama, that fills the eye, stirs the senses and in the end, conveys the message.
Inspector Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) in Zanjeer
Amitabh played the role of a brooding but explosive person who fights back when cornered. After the success of the movie, he became famous as "The Angry Young Man" and became the new hero, who had the courage to fight against the wrong and maintaining moral values at the same time. This film also ended the struggling period for Amitabh and turned him into a rising star. Zanjeer, thus remains an important film in the history of Indian Cinema and is regarded as a classic today.
Raju (Dev Anand) in Guide
Combining style with substance, Dev Sahab gave a memorable performance as a man grappling with his emotions in his passage through love, shame and salvation. This role was a landmark for his acting career.
Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpai) in Satya
Manoj Bajpai’s solid performance as Bhiku Mhatre enjoyed universal acclaim and turned him into a star overnight.
Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) in Lagaan
Aamir Khan has always been a very competent performer and one of the best actors of our times but with Lagaan, he went to level next with terrific performance.
Satyajit Ray cast him as Mirza in Shatranj ke Khiladi (1977). The film was based on a short story by Munshi Premchand in Hindi. It was a huge loss for the Indian film industry when Sanjeev Kumar breathed his last in 1985 because of heart ailment.
Rajesh Khanna had always won acclaim and registered his credits in the box office hits, whenever he portrayed a sentimental, morally strong and emotionally focused role. He also did a great job in SAFAR, wherein he portrayed a similar role of a cancer stricken patient.Nevertheless, he is not well at portraying the roles of “an angry man”, “a fighting sequence”, “an overly volatile role” and “clownish comedy roles” that can all be performed in a masterly manner by his arch rival, Amitabh Bachan.However, Rajesh Khanna’s personification of a lively, vivacious, death defying and winsome portrayal of a cancer stricken man was stupendously performed. His person consummately excels in mimicking soft, romantic, sad, morose and boisterously exuberant roles.Many people contend that Amitabh would had done a better characterization if he had been offered an author backed role instead of Rajesh Khanna in ANAND. Here it may be kept in mind that Amitabh could not match a stunning performance in MILLI, where his real life spouse Jaya Bahaduri outperformed him. The bullock cart scene immediately followed by the song “Kaheen door jab din dhal Jaye” in ANAND speaks volumes of the excellently crafted direction of Hirsihkish Mukherjee and has enlisted his name among all time great directors. This song and the one “Zindagi Kaisi he Paheli” touch the latent strings of sublime imagination with poignant originality, which cannot even remotely be identified anywhere, among the fast, untamed, crazy and meaningless songs of this age of Indian Cinema ……which seems to be overly swamped by the temporal, vulgar and money minting mentality of the producers, directors and actors.That is to say, there is nothing worthwhile in contemporary cinema, which happens to be laden with tawdry vulgarity and incompetent intellectual standing, vis-a-vis the cerebral and in-depth creativity of movie makers of erstwhile days.