Remembering Hindi cinema's good old man A. K. Hangal

Avtar Kishan Hangal (1 February 1914 – 26 August 2012), popularly known as A. K. Hangal, was  freedom fighter from 1929–1947, stage actor from 1936–1965 and later became a character actor in Hindi language films from 1966–2005. He  acted in around 225 Hindi films in a career spanning from 1966 to 2005. In most of his roles, he was the good old man, the man who could do no harm, and everybody could rely on him for a sympathetic meal of niceness.
Born on February 1st in Sialkot of British India, he spent his growing up years in Peshawar. While his family was in government jobs, he refused to work with the establishment. Instead, he learnt tailoring. In a short span of time, not only did he master the art, his political activism made him form the trade union for all the tailors in Peshawar. Meanwhile, Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) also caught his fancy. When India became independent, and the partition led to exodus, he decided to stay in Pakistan. He was arrested and jailed for his communist ideologies. After spending two years in prison, he was asked to leave Pakistan and go to India. When he refused, he was given an ultimatum of 12 hours to leave Pakistan by the Muslim seniors of his party. With Rs.20 in his pocket, Hangal reached Bombay.
He got a job as a tailor, and his skill with fabric soon earned him a reputation so good that he would deal with premium customers like the Nawab of Pataudi and foreigners. With a salary as high as Rs. 500, he was doing very well for himself, but he wanted something more out of life. He hunted down the IPTA members, and started rebuilding the association. With the help of Kaifi Azmi and Balraj Sahani, he rented a place for stage rehearsals. His colleagues Sahani and Chetan Anand were fans of his stage work, and coaxed him to join films.
After shunning the idea for long, Hangal finally agreed to play Raj Kapoor’s brother in Basu Bhattacharya’s Teesri Kasam, but the role was edited out in the final cut. But post that unlucky beginning however, there was no looking back. His film career  made him one of the most sought after character artistes, and cinema-goers  got the grand old man of Hindi cinema, a father figure everyone wished to have.

He, as a character actor was part of 16 films with Rajesh Khanna as the lead hero like Aap Ki Kasam, Amar Deep, Naukri, Prem Bandhan, Thodisi Bewafaii, Phir Wohi Raat, Kudrat, Aaj Ka M.L.A. Ram Avtar, Bewafai until Sautela Bhai in 1996. His best performances in his later years was in Shararat (2002) his character roles in Tere Mere Sapne (1997) and Lagaan. In movies he played a very large number of character roles, mostly positive, with rare exceptions where his negative roles became famous like in Manzil and Prem Bandhan. Producer Debika Mitra had signed Madan Puri for Inder Sen's role but a friend advised that A K Hangal would be a better choice. The superlative performance went on to become one of the most cherished acts of Hangal.
In the early 2012, Hangal  gave his voice for the character of King Ugrasen in the animation film Krishna Aur Kans which was released on 3 August 2012. This was final work in his career before his death.
The government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Hindi Cinema in 2006.