Remembering actress Chand Usmani 1933-89

Born: 3 January 1933 (age 87 years), Agra
Died: 26 November 1989 (aged 56); Mahim, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Chand Usmani worked for four decades from 1950's to late 80's in Bollywood and portrayed roles as second heroine,supporting actress  and later mother roles and character roles.
She was born in Agra, U.P.and came to limelight by participating in 'Kardar-Kolynos-Teresa Contest' in 1949.She felt surprised when she was selected  for the  contesting  and overjoyed when selected as the second in the finals.She acted as the female lead of 'Jeevan Jyoti' directed by Mahesh Kaul in 1953   opposite Shammi Kapoor.It was the debut film of Shammi Kapoor also.

Chand Usmani became an established actress later on, but she got only secondary roles which she performed always nicely.Gradually she accepted supporting roles,character roles,mother roles etc.She got Filmfare Best Supporting actress award for her portrayal of the character as 'Champa' in the 1970 film 'Pehchan'.

Chand Usmani acted in films of all prominent actors of that period.
In 1957 in the film 'Naya Daur' directed by B.R.Chopra, and in which Dilip Kumar-Vyjayantimal were the main pair, Chand Usmani acted as sister of the hero Dilip Kumar's character 'Shankar'.
In the historical film 'Samrat Pritviraj Chauvan' she acted in the role of Rajkumari.
'Prem Patra' was a well noted film directed by Bimal Roy in 1962.A medical College student Arun Kumar Mathur(Shashi Kapoor) has a misunderstanding over a love letter and the consequences were the theme of the film.Sadhna was the heroine and Chand Usmani acted in the supporting role as 'Sumitra'.

'Biswajeet,Saira Banu,Jayant,Sajjan,Nazima,Chand Usmani'  etc were the cast of 'April Fool'  directed by Subodh Mukherjee.This film pointed to the fact that sometimes even practical jokes done for just fun  can also lead to unexpected serious problems.

In the super hit film 'Khilona' in which Sanjeev Kumar acted in leading role in 1970, Chand Usmani acted as the character  Laxmi Singh.
 In the film 'Ujala Hi Ujala'(74),  she portrayed mother's role and acted as mother of Yogita Bali's character Anuradha.
She presented excellent acting skill  along with Shabana Azmi in the 1976 classic movie 'Kadambari'.