Tribute-Master Yakub 1904-58

Yakub, Prithviraj Kapoor and Chandra Mohan were in the highest pay bracket of their times.

Master Yakub commenced his career as an extra but soon did roles as a hero and later as a villain. He became one of the most renowned screen villains, while achieving equal success in comedy and character roles. Yakub appeared in over 300 films.

Yakub Khan Mehboob Khan, known as Yakub, was born into a Pathan family in 1904 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Yakub ran away from home at an early age doing odd jobs like motor mechanics and waiting tables before joining the ship ‘S. S. Madura’ as a kitchen worker. He left the ship after travelling to various places like London, Brussels and Paris then returned to Calcutta where he worked as a tourist guide among other jobs. He finally came to Bombay now Mumbai, around 1924 and joined the Sharda Film Company. During his travels, Yakub watched the films of Hollywood actors and became greatly influenced by Eddie Polo, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Wallace Beery and later by Humphrey Bogart. Yakub's first film was Bhalji Pendharkar's silent Bajirao Mastani (1925) which also starred Master Vithal. It was produced by the Sharda Film Company. His first talkie was Meri Jaan (1931) with Sagar Movietone and directed by Prafulla Ghosh, where he played the title role of the Prince. This film has also been credited as Romantic Prince. The film had Master Vithal, Mehboob Khan and Zubeida co-starring in it. His enactment of the role of an angry resentful son in Mehboob Khan's Aurat (1940) made him popular to the extent that his acting in this film is considered as one of the finest performances in the Indian Cinema. The role was later performed by Sunil Dutt in Mehboob Khan's famous remake of his own film with the new title Mother India (1957). Yakub's popularity in those days can be gauged by the credit roll of films like the S K Ojha directed Hulchul (1951), which had a star cast of Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Sitara Devi and where his name was preceded by '…and your favourite Yakub'.

Yakub was an 'acknowledged master(s) of comedy' along with other actors like Johnny Walker, Gope and Agha  and his comic pairing with Gope and Agha was well-liked by the audiences and this had the film makers use their combination in several films. Prominent of which were Sagai (1951), Patanga (1949) and Beqasoor (1950) with Yakub and Gope . Yakub, Prithviraj Kapoor and Chandra Mohan were in the highest pay bracket of their times. The triumvirate of Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, and Raj Kapoor, who held reign in the Indian film industry from the late 1940s to the end of 1970s, has been compared to Chandra Mohan, Yakub and Shyam, who were at the top of the acting roster from 1930 to early 1950.
Yakub directed three films, Sagar Ka Sher, and Uski Tamanna in the 1930s, and Aiye in 1949. Sagar Ka Sher or Lion of Sagar, was the first film he directed as early as 1937 under the Sagar Movietone banner. Uski Tamanna also known as Her Last Desire was made in 1939 under Sagar and directed by Yakub. He directed his third and last movie Aiye in 1949 under the Indian Production banner. It had Sulochana Chatterjee, Masud, Jankidas, Sheela Naik, Ashraf Khan along with Yakub. The music in this film was composed by Nashad (Shaukat Dehlvi) and was Mubarak Begum's first film as a playback singer.
He died in 1958 after a career spanning thirty years in the film industry. He is best known for his comedic villainous roles.