Bhudo Advani (17 August 1905 – 25 July 1985)
was an Indian character actor and comedian. He started his acting career in theatre with the notion of spreading awareness on social issues. He came to
Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
on the advice of an Ajanta Cinetone representative and was offered a role in the film ''Afzal'', also called ''Hoor-E-Haram'' in 1933, directed by Mohan Bhavnani.
[BA, p. 217] He later joined
Sagar Movietone
Sagar Movietone also Sagar Films, Sagar Film Company and Sagar Productions was an Indian film production company involved in the making of films for Indian cinema. It was launched by Ardeshir Irani with Chimanlal Desai and Dr. Ambalal Patel in 1 ...
, becoming an important fixture in most films produced by them. He turned from character roles to comedy performing in ''
Dr. Madhurika'' (1935), directed by
Sarvottam Badami
Sarvottam Badami (1910–2005) was an Indian film director of Hindi, Telugu language, Telugu, and Tamil language, Tamil films. He started his career as a sound recordist for the first talkie in India, ''Alam Ara'' (1931). In 1948 he helped set ...
, ''
Deccan Queen'' (1936) and ''
Do Diwaane'' (1936), by C. Luhar.
Advani also became a vital part in director Mehboob Khan's films, acting in all the pictures directed by Mehboob while at Sagar Movietone. When Sagar shut down in 1939, Mehboob formed his own production company, National Studios, Bhudo Advani become a member there, but by the beginning of the 1940s, Advani was doing freelance work. In a career spanning forty-four years from 1933 to 1977, he acted in over ninety films.
Belonging to the Sindhi community, Advani, along with Moti Prakash and S. P. Menghani, helped toward the development and formation of the Sindhi theatre in 1961.
His later memorable roles were in some of
Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor (; born as Shrishti Nath Kapoor; 14 December 1924 2 June 1988; also known as Ranbir Raj Kapoor) was an Indian actor, film director and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influen ...
's films such as ''
Boot Polish'' (1954), in which he lip-synced to the song "Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badariya", sung by
Manna De in
Raga
A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...
Adhana,
also in ''
Shri 420'' (1955) and ''
Ab Dilli Dur Nahin'' (1957). His last film was ''
Shatranj Ke Khilari
''Shatranj Ke Khilari'', also subtitled and later internationally released with the translated title ''The Chess Players'', is a List of Bollywood films of 1977, 1977 Indian film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on Munshi Premchand ...
'' (1977), made by
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
.
Early life
Bhudo Advani was born Daulatram Advani, on 17 August 1905, in
Hyderabad, Sindh
Hyderabad, also known as Neroonkot, is the capital and largest city of the Hyderabad Division in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Sindh by population, second-largest city in Sindh, after Karachi, and the List of citie ...
(now in
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
),
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
. Following his matriculation exams, he spent his holidays staging plays based on social issues, which were of prime importance to him. During this time, he performed a play in which he had to portray an old man, "Buddha" or "Buddho" (a colloquial reference for an old man). Another reason for his name, Bhudo (old man), was due to his toothless smile; his edentia reportedly was caused by a hereditary disorder.
[BA, p. 218] The name stuck, and he was referred to as Bhudo Advani in film credits instead of Daulatram.
He was spotted by a representative of Ajanta Cinetone, who saw him in a play and asked Advani to come to Bombay and join films. Advani left Hyderabad and went to Bombay, where he was given a role in ''Afzal'' (1933).
Career
Following his debut in ''Afzal'' or ''Hoor-E-Haram'' (1933), directed by Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani (Mohan Bhavnani, M. D. Bhavnani), Advani worked in an administrative capacity in the production company while also acting in several movies produced by Ajanta Cinetone. Some of the films he acted in were ''Maya Jaal'' (1933), a fantasy directed by Shanti L. Dave for Ajanta Cinetone Ltd., co-starring
Bibbo, Master Nissar and
P. Jairaj; ''Dard-E-Dil'' (1934); ''Dukhtare-E-Hind'' (1934); ''The Mill'', also called ''Mazdoor'' (1934), directed by M. D. Bhavnani (Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani), and starring Bibbo, who played the mill owner's daughter in the film, with Motilal as the hero;
and ''Sair-E-Paristan'' (1934), directed by M. D. Bhavnani and co-starring Bibbo,
P. Jairaj and
Khalil.
He left Ajanta Cinetone following an offer from Chimanlal Desai and Dr. Patel to join
Sagar Movietone
Sagar Movietone also Sagar Films, Sagar Film Company and Sagar Productions was an Indian film production company involved in the making of films for Indian cinema. It was launched by Ardeshir Irani with Chimanlal Desai and Dr. Ambalal Patel in 1 ...
. Here he had the opportunity to work with directors such as
Sarvottam Badami
Sarvottam Badami (1910–2005) was an Indian film director of Hindi, Telugu language, Telugu, and Tamil language, Tamil films. He started his career as a sound recordist for the first talkie in India, ''Alam Ara'' (1931). In 1948 he helped set ...
,
Mehboob Khan
Mehboob Khan Ramzan Khan (9 September 1907
at filmreference.com. – 28 May 1964) was a pr ...
and K. P. Ghosh. He became popular doing comedy roles and worked in over twenty films produced by them. Some of his films with Mehboob Khan were: ''
Manmohan'' (1936), a film made to compete with Calcutta's
New Theatres Ltd
New Theatres is an Indian film studio. It was formed in Calcutta by producer B. N. Sircar (Birendranath Sircar, the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award of 1970 And Padma Bhushan in 1972). It was formed on February 10, 1931. The company motto wa ...
's ''Devdas'', starring
Surendra and Bibbo, and was a commercial success at the box-office; ''
Deccan Queen'', an action adventure film directed by Mehboob;
the first "stunt" film from
Sagar Movietone
Sagar Movietone also Sagar Films, Sagar Film Company and Sagar Productions was an Indian film production company involved in the making of films for Indian cinema. It was launched by Ardeshir Irani with Chimanlal Desai and Dr. Ambalal Patel in 1 ...
– ''
Jagirdar'' (1937), a "romantic melodrama", with Bibbo and Surendra co-starring with
Motilal;
and in 1938, ''Gramaphone Singer'', with Bibbo and Surendra, directed by V. C. Desai and R. Thakur, who were referred to as "juniors" in Sagar at the time of production of this film. The music was by Anil Biswas with dialogues by
Zia Sarhadi
Zia Sarhadi (; born Fazl-e-Qadir Sethi 1914 in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, North West Frontier Province – 27 January 1997 in Karachi, Sindh) was an Indian and Pakistani screenwriter and Film director, director of films in the Indian Film I ...
.
In Raj Kapoor's ''
Boot Polish'' (1954), Advani sings "Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badariya". The scene is referred to by author Rahaim, as an example of a "model of stillness", where the singer holds the tone with the audience watching awe-struck in frozen silence.
The song, composed in
Raga
A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...
Adhana had
Manna De providing play-back for Advani.
In 1958, Advani acted in the
Sindhi film ''
Rai Daich'', based on a folk story about the king of
Junagadh
Junagadh () is the city and headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Located at the foot of the Girnar hills, southwest of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (the state capital), it is the seventh largest city in the state. It i ...
, Rai Daich. It was produced by Atu Lalwani and D. P. Kriplani and directed by J. B. Lulla. With lyrics by Parsram Zia, the film became popular due to its music, which was composed by
Bulo C. Rani.
He acted in several films till 1977, in small roles. In 1977, he acted in his last feature film ''
Shatranj Ke Khiladi
Shatranj Ke Khilari () is a 1924 Hindi short-story written by Munshi Premchand. Premchand also made the Urdu version titled "Shatranj ki bazi".
Synopsis
The story depicts decadent royalty of Central North India. It is set around the life of th ...
'', based on a short story written by Munshi Premchand. The ensemble cast included
Sanjeev Kumar
Sanjeev Kumar (born Harihar Jethalal Jariwala; 9 July 1938 – 6 November 1985) was an Indian actor. Considered as one of the greatest actors of Indian Cinema, he is well remembered for his versatility and genuine portrayal of his characters. ...
,
Saeed Jaffrey
Saeed Jaffrey (8 January 1929 – 15 November 2015) was a British-Indian actor. His career covered film, radio, stage and television roles over six decades and more than 150 British, American, and Indian movies. During the 1980s and '90s, he was ...
,
Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. Her career in the Hindi cinema, Hindi film industry has spanned Shabana Azmi filmography, over 160 films, mostly within independent and neorealist paral ...
,
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer.
Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Acade ...
,
Tom Alter
Thomas Beach Alter (22 June 1950 – 29 September 2017) was an Indian actor. He was best known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian theatre. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Early life
Born in Mussoorie ...
,
Victor Bannerjee and
Farooq Sheikh
Farooq Sheikh (25 March 1948 − 28 December 2013) was an Indian actor, philanthropist and television presenter. He was best known for his work in Hindi films from 1973 to 1993 and for his work in television between 1988 and 2002. He returned to ...
. Produced by Suresh Jindal, it was directed by
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
for
Hindi cinema
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
.
Death
Bhudo Advani died on 25 July 1985, in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.
[BA, p. 217]
Filmography
Partial list:
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Advani, Bhudo
Indian male film actors
1905 births
Male actors in Hindi cinema
20th-century Indian male actors
People from Hyderabad, Sindh
1985 deaths
Male actors from Sindh
Male actors in Sindhi cinema
Indian Sindhi people
Male actors from Mumbai