Manoj Kumar (1937-2025) | The actor who made ‘Bharat’ a brand

Manoj Kumar, whose films played a vital role in shaping the cultural consciousness of the country, passed away in Mumbai early on Friday (April 4, 2025) after a prolonged illness.

Making Bharat a household name, he created an idealist hero with a strong moral compass who stood for national integrity, putting self before family and country, and was steadfast in raising his voice against social injustice, foreign influence, unemployment, and corruption.

Unlike the nationalism portrayed by Raj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan, Kumar’s imagination of Mother India was a lot more direct, almost overt. Born in Abbottabad (now in Pakistan) in 1937, his cinematic language was a product of Partition, where he lost his younger brother during riots. The personal tragedy shaped his views on nationalism and the importance of unity.

Over the years, some find the depiction of the clash of cultures between village and city and the East and the West in his iconic films, Upkar (1967) and Purab Aur Pachhim (1970), simplistic. Put into context, in the mid-60s and early 70s, when the Bollywood hero was on a picnic in Kashmir while India was at war with a belligerent neighbour, Kumar made loving your country an aspirational idea. He made Shor (1972) for the rights of the mill worker, espoused communal amity, and kept issues of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) relevant at the box office in a poetic fashion.

Songs like Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ugle and Bharat Ka Rehne Wala Hoon Bharat Ki Baat Sunata Hoon became global anthems and inspired a generation, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who paid a rich tribute to Kumar.

The alarm for reviving the Golden Bird period and the bugle call for being vocal for local, that drive the ruling dispensation, find their echo in Kumar’s universe. The filmmaker was the first recipient of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award after the NDA government came to power in 2014.

Kumar had a way with Prime Ministers. At the cusp of the Emergency, Kumar depicted the youth’s growing disillusionment with the welfare state by raking up issues of unemployment and rampant inflation in Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, where the song Mehngai Maar Gayi won him the ire of Indira Gandhi’s bureaucracy.

Before that, when Kumar found his voice with Shaheed (1965), the most moving cinematic depiction of Bhagat Singh’s life, he caught the eye of the then-PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. The film and the song Mera Rang De Basanti Chola struck a chord with Bhagat Singh’s mother, and Shastri asked Kumar to take his slogan, Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, to the public. It resulted in Upkar, where Bharat asks, “If every young man moves out of the village, who will take care of the country’s hunger?” Educated, Bharat is a farmer by choice, and he decides to put his family and his village before himself, which wins him the heroine’s attention.

With the camera capturing visuals of the wheat crop through the actress’s anklets, Kumar introduced us to a new visual grammar. Be it creating the revolving stage of a London restaurant in Mehboob Studios for Purab Aur Paschim or depicting colonial cruelty in Zindagi Ki Na Toote Ladi (Kranti) on a rain-swept ship, he would often say the story should decide the set, the set should not dictate the story.

Born as Harikrishna Goswami, Kumar picked his screen name from Dilip Kumar’s character in Shabnam (1949). Inspired by the thespian, he started as a romantic hero. After an uneven start, thrillers like Woh Kaun Thi (1964), Poonam Ki Raat (1965), and Gumnam (1965) made him a big draw at the box office, and romantic dramas like Do Badan (1966) and Patthar Ke Sanam (1967) cemented his honest face in the hearts. Along with Rajendra Kumar, he dominated the box office and fashion charts in the 1960s. Unlike Rajendra Kumar and Shammi Kapoor, Kumar would seldom get animated on screen and remained a picture of elegance and poise. He delivered a sensitive performance opposite Dilip Kumar in Aadmi (1968), and despite a strong patriotic image and moral stand, he successfully kept escaping the image trap by mixing up titles by doing a Sanyasi (1975) between Be-iman (1972) and Dus Numbari (1976). Likewise, he gave Pran a new lease on cine life when he introduced the dreaded villain as a noble soul in Upkar.

Conscious of his limitations as an actor, he covered them quite well. Long before it became material for memes, his gesture of covering his face with his palm won him a strong female fan following. It is said that covering the face was a signal to the cameraperson to zoom in, and when his fingers moved from right to left or left to right, it was to direct the trolley movement.

His collaborators say that Kumar had a grasp of every department of filmmaking. For Kumar, songs were always integral to the story, for they conveyed what dialogues could not. Composers Kalyanji-Anandji always acknowledged Kumar’s contribution. Songs like Kasme Vaade Pyaar Wafa (Upkar), Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai, or Jeevan Chalne Ka Naam (Shor) drove the narrative, and this was possible because he was involved in the process. Having started his career as a ghostwriter, his creative advice was sought even when he worked outside his home production. It is said that he contributed to Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker, where he made a special appearance. His long-time assistant Chandra Barot, who went on to direct Amitabh Bachchan’s Don, credits Kumar for pushing him to include Khaike Paan Benaras Wala at a tense moment in the caper.

Be it Saira Banu in Purab Aur Pacchim, Zeenat Aman in Roti Kapada Aur Makan, or Hema Malini in Kranti there was a touch of titillation in the way Kumar’s camera captured the female figure in his films. His depiction of rape in Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Clerk was questioned. However, in films like Upkar and Shor, we find a more robust female protagonist. A strong mother, often played by Kamini Kaushal – she made a star pair with his icon Dilip Kumar in the 1940s — was a constant in his films.

By the 1980s, Kumar had lost touch with the times. After his magnum opus Kranti (1981), he delivered a series of duds like Kalyug Aur Ramayan, Santosh, and Clerk. His style was reduced to a gimmick, and his mannerisms became forced as critics panned his works as attempts to promote his brother and son. He appeared bitter when Farah Khan made fun of his mannerisms in Om Shanti Om.

Meanwhile, his ideological stance moved further right. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 and pitched for Mr Modi in 2014. He chose to remain away from the public eye, but Bharat missed his singular vision.