Johnny Walker : An Actor Who Did Clean Comedy with Unquestionable Integrity and without any Controversies.

Johnny Walker : An Actor Who Did Clean Comedy with Unquestionable Integrity  and without any Controversies.

As compared to Hollywood, It is true that Bollywood has never made a true comedy films; but nearly all films have some comic sequences, even in tragic film.  Mihir Bose in his book Bollywood said that Every Hindi film, of whatever type, had to have a comic role for an actor who did nothing but essential “bit” comic role. This may explain why nearly all great comedians of Bollywood had very foreign sounding names. For this, best example is Johnny Walker. Johnny Walker was one of the best-loved comedians in Bollywood who entertained the generations of Indian audiences for nearly three decades through his acting. He acted around three hundred films. Everyone loved his iconic image like mobile face, pencil-thin moustache and squeaky voice. He started his film career from film Baazi in 1951 and did his last film CHACHI 420 in 1997.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Johnny Walker was born on 11^th November 1926 in Indore in the Muslim family as Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi. His father was mill worker. When Badruddin Kazi was 14 years old his father lost his job. Therefore, he has to leave the school education and family shifted to Mumbai in search of their bread and butter.  In Mumbai , Badruddin Kazi did several jobs like selling ice candy , stationery items, vegetables and fruits but eventually he secured a post as a Bus Conductor in BEST (Bombay Electrical Supply and Transport).  He did his job for several years but his main dream was to work in films. Therefore, he started entertaining the passengers with hope that he would be spotted by someone in connection with film. And his wish came true.  A noted film actor and story writer Balraj Sahani was once travelling in a BEST bus when Badruddin Kazi was doing his antic performance. Balraj Sahani was amused with his performance. That time Balraj Sahani was writing script for the film Baazi for actor and director Guru Dutt. Sahani asked Kazi to meet and demonstrate his drunkard act to Guru Dutt.

Thus, Badruddin Kazi reached on the set of Baazi where Dev Anand and Gurudutt were discussing the about the roles of Baazi and Kazi performed there act of drunkard. Guru Dutt was fascinated with his performance and bagged him for the film Baazi. After seeing his great performance of drunkard, Gurudutt re-christened his name by calling him Johnny Walker after the famous whisky brand and with this name he played many iconic comedian roles and ruled millions of heart with his comic roles. His relationship with Gurudutt became so close that Gurudutt purposefully write characters and dialogues for Johnny Walker. In one of the interviews, Johnny Walker said, "He used to tell me - Here's your scene, your dialogue. If you can do better, go ahead. In every rehearsal I would come up with something new. Guru Dutt used to love that. He used to look at everyone on the sets and see if the light boys, the cameraman, the assistants were laughing at my dialogues. Guru Dutt then had an assistant to write down whatever I said in the rehearsals. That's how we worked”. When Gurudutt died, Johnny Walker was doing shooting in Chennai, returned immediately to attend his funeral by cancelling all his shooting commitments. With Gurudutt, he has done Baazi, Jaal, C I D, Pyasa, Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Mr. and Mrs.55, Arpar, Kaagaz Ke Phool, etc.

Johnny Walker has also worked with other directors like B R Chopra, Chetan Anand, Vijay Anand and Bimal Roy. He took retirement in 80s, but did his last film Chachi 420 in 90s. He played memorable roles in many films but his small role in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Anand cannot be forgettable. At the time of playing comedian role, he has shown that it was possible to do the comedy role without being coarse and never delivered vulgar dialogues. He said that he used to do clean comedy and was fully aware that the person who had come to the cinema had come with his wife and children. For them story is important.

Johnny walker met his wife Noorjahan on the set of Aar Par which was made in 1954. That time Noorjahan was just a rising actor. Her family was against this marriage, still they married. They has three daughters and three sons. All his children are staying in USA. One of his sons, Nasir Khan is working in TV serials. Due to the family responsibility, Johnny Walker has left his studies at the age of fourteen; therefore, he made sure that his children get proper higher education. He purchased the bungalow at Perry Cross Road, Bandra and named as Noor Villa. Now this Bus stop is being called a Johnny Walker bus stop. For him, his family was his world and his world was his family.

He won many awards for his performances but two important awards were best comedian in film Shikar made in 1968 and best supporting actor in Madhumati made in 1958. He often played the role of drunkard, but he was a teatotaler and never drank alcohol in his life time. He was fond of hats and never tired of collecting different kind of hats. He always used to go to Powai Lake for fishing with his wife. In 1983, after seeing changing trends and vulgar comedy, he decided to quit from films and do the business dealing with precious and semi-precious stones.

Music has played important role in Johnny Walker’s successful life as an actor. An Indian documentary filmmaker, scriptwriter and author, Sanjit Narwekar in his book,’ Eeena Meena Deeka” mentioned that in 50s no directors or producers used to picturize the song for comedian actor. Gurudutt decided to give a song to Johnny Walker in the film Aar Par in 1954 and it worked very well. For this purpose, he has given full credit to Mohammed Raffi because Rafi modulated his voice to match the voice of the actor. Take these songs like, Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan or Jaane Kahan Mera Jigar Gaya Ji or Mai Bambai Ka Babu, Naam Mera Anjana or Sar Jo tera Chakraye…Tel Malish or Gareeb Jaan Ke Hum Ko. When Rafi sings for Johnny Walker, you feel Johnny walker is singing the song for audiences. According to Narwekar, the song,” Jaane Kahan Mera Jigar Gaya Ji”, from Mr. and Mrs. 55, Johnny Walker rendered this song in such a way that became compliment to Gurudutt. Narwekar further says, ‘Johnny Walker does such a perfect mime job that the song seems incomplete without his presence”.

Johnny Walker was a simple man. He never flirted with actresses on the screen and maintained a respectable distance. He died on 29^th July 2003. His death will not allow us to forget him and he will be remembered through his films and beautiful songs. It is hundred percent sure that there will not be another Johnny Walker in Bollywood.

Mumbai

26/09/2020