Remembering Veteran actor/director/producer Motilal ji 1910-65

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Motilal Rajvansh (4th Dec 1910–17th June 1965) was film actor/director/producer  and the winner of Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for Devdas (1955) and Parakh (1960). He is credited with being among Hindi cinema’s first natural actors.

He also directed a film Chhoti Chhoti Baatein (1965) but died 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 Certificate of Merit for the Best Story Writer.

Motilal Rajvansh said of his screen career with characteristic humour:

“ Married a 100 times, died almost twice, never born but always brought down by a parachute. ”

After leaving college, Moti came to Bombay to join the Navy, but he fell ill and could not appear for the test. Fate had other choices charted out for him. One day, he went to see a film shoot at Sagar Studios, where director K. P. Ghosh was shooting. Motilal, even then, was quite the man about the town and he caught Ghosh’s eye. In 1934 (aged 24), he was offered the hero's role in Shaher Ka Jadoo (1934) by the Sagar Film Company. He later featured in several successful social dramas alongside Sabita Devi, including Dr. Madhurika (1935) and Kulvadhu (1937). 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). He also acted in S. S. Vasan's film "Paigham" (1959) (Gemini Studios), and Raj Kapoor's "Jagte Raho" (1956).

In 1965, he also acted in a Bhojpuri film Solaho Singar Kare Dulhaniya.

Perhaps the role for which he received the most critical appreciation was that of the gentleman crook in S. S. Vasan’s adaptation of R K Narayan’s book Mr Sampat (1952). 

He is most remembered for his role as ‘Chunni Babu’ in Bimal Roy’s Devdas (1955), for which he won his first Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. 

Actor, Naseeruddin Shah once described him as one of three all time best actors of Hindi cinema, others being Balraj Sahni and Yakub.

He had a very intimate relationship for several years with the actress Nadira. He was involved with actress Shobhna Samarth after she separated from her husband, he played the role of Samarth's real-life daughter Nutan's father in Hamari Beti, Shobhana's launch movie for Nutan. He also played her guardian in Anari, though this time the role had a villainous touch to it.

with Helen