shaziya: From teaching civil engineering to stage acting and cinema, Kader Khan led a dramatic life, both off and on screen.

Veteran actor Kader Khan who died today at 81 leaves behind countless cinematic memories. Especially memorable is his legendary pairing with Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda and Johnny Lever.

He was the silver-haired mob boss in Parvarish (1977), tossing out the punchy lines (which he had written himself, as its dialogue writer) with relish. He once again played a character with negative shades in Naseeb (1981), this time charred to death by protagonist Amitabh Bachchan in its burning climax. Both films were directed by Manmohan Desai, often called the showman with the famous stock-in-trade that went by the name of lost-and-found. A multi-starrer the likes of which Bollywood doesn’t make anymore, the cast of Parvarish and Naseeb read the who’s who of 1970s Hindi cinema. Besides Bachchan, there was Rishi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra, Shakti Kapoor, and Pran. Throughout the 1970s and even much later, Kader Khan teamed up with several of these stars to produce some of Hindi cinema’s finest entertainers.

Pran, Amjad Khan, and Amrish Puri are long gone. And now, Kader Khan. 81 and ailing, Khan passed away in Canada today but will be mourned and missed widely in India and Pakistan where he has a substantial following, thanks to over 700 popular Hindi films in which he acted and helped write. Bachchan, a lifelong friend (though the late Khan sparred with him in later years), called him a “brilliant stage artist” and a “writer of eminence in most of my very successful films” in a tweet. “If you were a late 80s-90s kid who watched Hindi films, chances are you encountered the magic of Kader Khan,” tweeted Smriti Irani. Though the Textiles Minister and former TV star never worked with him she said if she ever had, “I would say, ‘thank you for the laughter.” Obviously, the ‘laughter’ bit is an ode to Khan’s seamless transition to comic roles in the 1980s and ’90s, usually in a David Dhawan slapstick with Govinda, Anupam Kher, Johnny Lever, Raveena Tandon and Karisma Kapoor for the company.