Rajendra Nath

Rajendra nath ( birth name Rajendra nath Malhotra) was a famous comedian actor of films made in 1960s and 1970s .
Rajendra Nath was born on 8 June 1931 in Tikamgarh ( Madhya Pradesh) in a punjabi hindu family migrated from Peshawar. He studied at Darbar College, Rewa , M.P. His father wanted him to be doctor but he chose career in acting .
Rajendra’s elder brother Prem Nath had already become a famous actor in hindi films so Rajendra joined him at Bombay in 1949 . Rajendra and Premnath’s sister Krishna had married actor-director Raj Kapoor.
He acted in some drama plays at Prithvi theatre like Pathan, Aahuti , Diwar and Shakuntala and used to stay with elder brother- Premnath and simultaneously also finished his studies . However as he was careless and negligent about his acting career; his brother Premnath became annoyed and shunted him to a one Roomed rented accommodation where he shared room with karan johar’s father yash johar and lived a money- less life.
He soon realised his mistake and decided to be serious with his career.
Rajendra started getting smaller nondescript roles and struggled for ten long years before he got a comedian’s role in 1959’s hit film Dil Deke Dekho दिल देके देखो a film starring Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh and with his well liked performance in it , he got the recognition and attention of film makers and then onwards he kept getting sizeable roles and became a star famous for his tremendous comic timing.
After ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ he performed in films Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai जब प्यार किसी से होता है , Phir Wahi Dil Laaya Hoon फिर वही दिल लाया हूँ , Baharon Ke Sapne बहारों के सपने and Pyar Ka Mausam प्यार का मौसम in which his comedy was well appreciated and liked.
Films of the 60s and early 70s began to be considered incomplete without his comedy despite competition with then already established comedians like Mehmood and Johnny Walker.
He played the unforgettable role of bufoon called Popatlal in the 1961 film ‘Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai ‘ and since then the name popatlal became synonymous with Rajendra Nath. Later in life he used this very name in the famous TV series Hum Paanch.
He remained at the peak of his career till 1972 during which time he worked with every big director-producer.
Though a high rated comedian ; he acted as villain in film Humrahi हमराही in which Shashikala was opposite him. Apart from this, he did films like ‘Vachan’ वचन and ‘Teen Bahuraniyan’ तीन बहुरानीयां in which he was either the hero or in the second lead. At the same time, he was seen in supporting roles in films like ‘Dhadkan’ and ‘Jeevan Mrityu’.
His role in Manoj Kumar’s famous film Purab Aur Paschim पूर्व और पश्चिम was highly appreciated. He also worked in the first Nepali film named ‘Maitighar . He also starred in a number of Punjabi films such as Jatt Punjabi and Do Posti .In this way, Rajendra Nath worked in about 187 films.
Rajendra Nath was touching new heights in his career. His personal life was also going well. In 1969, he married Gulshan Kriplani and settled down and also became the father of two children. Some time after this, a car accident put a break on his career as he could not work . However later with the help of his brother Premnath he was back to movies and from 1975 to 1995 he worked in about 40 films , prominent among them were :-
1974 Patthar Aur Payal
1975 Julie
1980 The burning train, 1982 Prem Rog
The death of his elder brothers -Premnath and Narendra Nath devasted him mentally and he started living a solitary life and eventually died on 13 February 2008 at bombay from cardiac arrest.
Though he did not win any official award but won the hearts of millions of his fans and audience and will be remembered for a long time .

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Three stars