Today's generation may be unaware of Motilal but he was a superstar of the late 30s and 40s. He along with K L Saigal was the two big stars of that era. Saigal was a better singer while he was a better actor. He started as a 24-year-old hero with 'Shaher Ka Jadoo' (1934). In the following years, he reeled off a clutch of box-office winners, though, few remember anything about this phase of his career. Be it a swashbuckling sword-fighter (Silver King) or a millionaire (300 Days And After) – the actor romped through roles with an easy cool'.
Amitabh Bachchan wrote in the foreword of 'The Hundred Luminaries of Hindi Cinema', “Not much has been written in praise of a great and a very natural actor. He (Motilal) was greatly ahead of his times.
You would be surprised to know that he was picked up as a hero from a crowd of spectators collected to see a shooting of a film in a studio. It happened in 1933 when in Bombay, he went to see the shooting of a film being directed by K P Ghosh. He caught Ghosh's eye, he asked him to join films as an actor. Playing a drunken rich boy, the 24-year-old quickly racked on more film roles, becoming a star.
In 1935, two of his films Silver King and Dr Madhurika were successful. Those days actors used to sing their songs, he also sang for his films. He worked with Mehboob Khan in Jagirdar (1937) and Hum Tum Aur Woh (1938) under the Sagar Movietone banner in Taqdeer (1943) for Mehboob Productions, and Kidar Sharma's Armaan (1942) and Kaliyan (1944).
One of his film Achhut was the third highest-grossing Indian film of 1940. It was appreciated by Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. Another film 'Holi' released same year, he played a villain-turned-hero. He was the first to put in place the flamboyant, happy-go-lucky, unpretentious and glamourized image of the Hindi film hero cast in the Hollywood mould of that era.
Ek Thi Larki (1949) was another hit film Motilal gave a superb comic performance. Similar comic performance became immortal in his 1952 film Mr Sampat. According to Motilal, he played the character "not as an extraordinary person, but precisely as an ordinary person" and that's what resonated through.
Another iconic performance was given by him as Chunni Babu in 1955 film Devdas. Motilal won the Best Supporting Actor for his seamless performance in Bimal Roy’s film Parakh (1960).
He also produced, acted, wrote and directed the film Chhoti Chhoti Baatein (1965), but died ( 17 June 1965) before its release. At the 13th National Film Awards, it won the award for Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film and he posthumously won the Certificate of Merit for the Best Story Writer
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