Mehmood Ali - Life and Career

Life and Career

Mehmood was one of eight children born to actor and dancer Mumtaz Ali in Bombay. Mehmood had an elder sister and six younger siblings. His sister, Minoo Mumtaz, was also a successful dancer and character actress in Bollywood movies. He started acting reluctantly as a child in Bombay talkie films like Kismet. Some of his early jobs before he concentrated only on acting were driving, doing odd jobs, and selling poultry. He worked as driver of director P. L. Santoshi. Later, Santoshi's son Rajkumar Santoshi cast Mehmood in his venture Andaz Apna Apna. He was hired to teach table tennis to Meena Kumari in those days. He later married her sister Madhu. After getting married and becoming a father, he decided to act to earn a better living. He got a small break as a murder victim in the film C.I.D.. He started off by doing small unnoticed roles in films like Do Bigha Zameen and Pyaasa. He later went on to act in lead roles, but he was appreciated for his comedy, some of which was in the Hyderabad region Urdu accent.

His first break as both a director and an actor was Bhoot Bangla with actress Tanuja. The movie paved the way for Mehmood to succeed Johnny Walker as the most successful Bollywood comedian. He followed his successes with superhit comic roles in films like Padosan (As a Tamil Brahmin Music Teacher- one of his greatest roles), Love in Tokyo, Aankhen, Johar-Mehmood in Goa, Bombay to Goa and Pyaar Kiye Jaa. He also became a sterling director of Hindi films—Kunwara Baap being a prime example.

Mehmood was riding on his success from 1965 to 1975 when he was considered one of the more successful movie artists. In the early 60s, he formed a popular pair with actor Dhumal and actress Mumtaz. Amitabh Bachchan was a tenant for 11 months at the Mehmood Outhouse from 1967–1968 and again from 1972-1973 (4 Months). In 1972, Mehmood directed the movie Bombay to Goa in which Amitabh got his break as a lead actor for the first time while Mehmood played a key role of the bus conductor.

Towards the end of the 70s, Mehmood's popularity began to decline as other comedy actors like Jagdeep, Asrani, Paintal and Kader Khan shot to prominence. Between 1989 to 1999, he made a handful of movies but most of them were either shelved or made no impression. He acted as Johnny in Rajkumar Santoshi's Andaz Apna Apna; that was his last hit film as an actor.

On 23 July 2004, Mehmood died in his sleep in Pennsylvania, US, where he had gone for treatment of heart disease after suffering poor health for several years. His fans were able to pay homage to him at Mehboob Studio in Bandra, Mumbai, India.

One of his sons, Lucky Ali (Maqsood Ali) is a singer and composer who has also acted in films.