Mehmood and Macky Ali's Personal Film Kunwara Baap

Mehmood and Macky Ali's Personal Film Kunwara Baap

Mehmood, began working in films as a child actor and later also worked as a driver for film director Mr PL Santoshi. His journey to stardom wasn’t easy, but was filled with stuggle, resilience and hard work. He was not only an actor or artist but also a mentor to many, and his mindful sense of script selection was wonderful. Many people do not know that Mehmood’s directorial venture film Kunwara Baap was deeply a personal project for him, because it was based on the life of his own son Macky Ali who was affected with polio, and it created awareness about the disease when no one else was talking about it.

The child actor (grown up version of little child affected by polio) in the movie Kunwara Baap is Macky Ali himself.

Kunwara Baap was a movie with a perfect blend of comedy and intense tragic story. A touching incident in Mehmood’s life occurred during the making of Kunwara Baap. While many in the industry were skeptical about a film that tackled a grim subject through comedy.

 Intense Ending of Kunwara Baap with Macky Ali

The film Kunwara Baap's ending was so intense and tragic that at the film’s premiere, an emotional wave full of sorrow swept the theater. The viewers of the film came out with teary-eyes, everyone was praising Mehmood for highlighting such a social issue so sensitively. You can just imagine the impact this movie made that it made the government to create awareness for polio vaccination in India. The best or bigger thing to highlight here is that for Mehmood, it wasn’t about commercial success of the film but using his art for a larger purpose i.e., making people aware about the life of children affected by polio, it was indeed a rare instance where cinema brought about a real change.

 Actors in Kunwara Baap

The acting by all the artists like Sanjeev Kumar as doctor, Vinod Mehra as the real father of the child, Bharathi V as the mother, Bhushan Tiwari as Kaloo Dada and others was just tremendous.

All the songs of the movie were a hit and are even praised today.

Songs in Kunwara Baap

My personal favorites are as mentioned below:

1. Jai Bholenath Jai Ho Prabhu - I love the way sing song has been picturised where the parents of the child and the child itself, both unaware of each other are present in the same temple worshiping Lord Shiva and praying for the same purpose. the voice of Kishore Da is just fabulous and full of emotion here. I am not able to find the name of the child in the movie, he just is so cute that your heart would surely cry for him being in such condition.

2. Aa Ri Aaja Nindiya Tu Le Chal Kahin - This song has been sung by Kishore Da at first for the child like a lullaby to make him sleep when he was little. Tragically the film has the same song at last but this time sung by Lata ji, picturised on Macky Ali who sings it to make his father sleep peacefully when he is on his death bed. The purpose of the song is same in both the situations i.e., to make the child and the father sleep but the only difference is that when the child sings it, it is for the last time for his father before he dies.

 How the movie impacted me ?

When I watched this movie for the first time, I cried at the last moment unaware that Mehmood would end the movie in a different way.

When everyone is crying in theatres seeing the tragic death of Mehmood who sacrificed his life for a child who initially did not belong to him. He suddenly wakes up and says : Ro mat baba, ro mat ! Hum mara nahi hai, hum film ke liye maraa tha, asli mein hum zinda hai ! After this he gave a message to public to show empathy towards the children suffering with polio and love them so that they can live their lives with lesser suffering. 

I am sure this is what Mehmood already knew and ended the movie this way. What a wonderful person he was !