They don’t make villains like him anymore. The intensity of his gaze itself was so menacing that Pran Kishan Sikand did not have to add much to his movie persona to come through as the villain that everyone in the audience ended up hating.
It’s a delectable irony that in real life he was the ultimate professional, never once asserting himself to get something that was not already written into the screenplay for him. Even so, he brought into his characters a certain gravitas and depth that made him a constant in Hindi movies for decades on end. The consummate actor that he was, he fitted into his roles in not only the clothes and makeup sense but also wholly in character.
His sheer longevity in a career that extended up to 2007 and close to 400 films meant he was an automatic rather than inspired choice for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Late or not, the award recognised that it’s not only the poster boys of Bollywood who contributed to good cinema.
Pran had a full innings in a life that began just about seven years after the birth of Indian cinema and in a career that he almost gave up before his first hit in Mumbai — Ziddi in 1948 — defined his true calling in life. In modern cinema, villains come in high-tech avatars too.
But how many carve a niche for themselves save in a throwaway line or a gesture? He has left a body of work that will ensure a place for him in history.