Syedna Iftekhar Ahmed Sharif (26 February 1922 – 1 March 1995), often mononym as Iftekhar or Iftikhar, was an Indian actor who mainly worked in Hindi cinema. He is known for his film roles as a police officer.
Early life Iftekhar was born in Jalandhar on 26 February 1922 and was the eldest among four brothers and a sister. After completing his matriculation, Iftekhar did a diploma course in painting from Lucknow College Of Arts. Iftekhar had a passion for singing and was impressed with the famous singer K. L. Saigal, besides intending to become a singer like him.
Career At the age of 20, Iftekhar travelled to Kolkata for an audition conducted by the music composer Kamal Dasgupta, who was then serving for His Master's Voice. Dasgupta took an audition test of Iftekhar for HMV which, Iftekhar successfully passed. HMV thereby released a private album featuring 2 songs sung by Iftekhar following which, he returned to Kanpur. However, after a few days of returning to Kanpur, he got a telegram from M. P. Production, insisting he return to Kolkata. Dasgupta was so impressed by Iftekhar's personality that he recommended his name to M. P. Production as an actor. However, despite his return to Kolkata upon being called by M. P. Production, no film with him in it could launch soon.
Ultimately, amidst a long gap, Iftekhar finally made his debut as an actor with a leading role in the film Taqraar (1944), which was made under the banner of Art Films-Kolkata. He then appeared in Ghar and Rajlaxmi (both 1945). In Taqraar and Ghar, he was cast opposite Jamuna Barua while in the latter, he appeared alongside Kanan Devi. This was followed by Aisa Kyun and Tum Aur Mai (both 1947).
Many of Iftekhar's close relatives, including his parents and siblings, migrated to Pakistan during the partition. He would have preferred to stay in Calcutta, but rioting forced him to leave Calcutta. Along with his wife and daughters, he moved to Bombay and arrived in 1948, where they struggled to make ends meet. Being unable to find work immediately, Jamuna Barua volunteered to work as a certain Mr. Patanwala's secretary to fulfil the basic household needs while Iftekhar himself continued to do whatever insignificant roles he was being offered then. Iftekhar had been introduced to actor Ashok Kumar during his time in Calcutta and contacted him in Bombay, gaining a role in the Bombay Talkies movie Muqaddar (1950). Iftekhar acted in over 400 films in a career that spanned from the 1940s through to the early 1990s.
His brother, Imtiaz Ahmed, was a famous TV character actor of PTV (Pakistan Television), especially Afshan and Tanhaiyan. Like many of the older character actors who populated the Bollywood universe of the 1960s and 1970s, Iftekhar had been a lead actor in his youth during the "golden age" of Bollywood, in the 1940s and 1950s. His roles ranged from father, uncle, great-uncle, grandfather, police officer, police commissioner, courtroom judge and doctor. He also did negative roles in Bandini, Sawan Bhadon, Call Girl, Khel Khel Mein and Agent Vinod.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Iftekhar graduated to playing uncle, father, and what came to be his speciality: police inspector roles, doctor or senior advocate. Generally he played "sympathetic" characters but, on occasion, he played the heavy. One of his most memorable roles as a heavy was as Amitabh Bachchan's corrupt industrialist mentor in Yash Chopra's classic Deewaar (1975). Another of Iftekhar's classic roles was as the police inspector in Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer. It was a small part, but the scene where Iftekhar reprimands the near-hysteric Amitabh Bachchan for taking the law into his own hands is incredibly powerful. Another important role as a police officer was played by him in the 1978 hit film Don. Some of his major roles came in Rajesh Khanna films such as Joroo Ka Ghulam, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, The Train, Khamoshi, Safar, Raja Rani, Ittefaq, Rajput and Awam.
Besides Deewaar and Zanjeer, Iftekhar had character roles in many of the classics of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s Bollywood cinema: Bimal Roy's Bandini, Raj Kapoor's Sangam, Manoj Kumar's Shaheed, Teesri Manzil, Teesri Kasam, Johny Mera Naam, Haré Rama Haré Krishna, Don, The Gambler (1971 film), Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se (1978) and Sholay, to name but a few.
Apart from Hindi films, he appeared in two episodes of the American TV series Maya in 1967 as well the English language films Bombay Talkie (1970) and City of Joy (1992).
Personal life During his Kanpur days, he was engaged with a girl named Saeeda. However, upon reaching Kolkata, he fell for a Jewish woman named Hannah Joseph, who shared the same building he was living in. Ultimately, he severed ties with Saeeda and married Hannah towards the early 1940s. Post marriage, Hannah Joseph was renamed Rehana Ahmad. Together, they had 2 daughters Salma (born 1946) and Saeeda (1947 - 7 February 1995), probably named after his ex-fiancee.. Rehana herself died on 27 May 2013 when she was in her early 90s.
Being a painter as well, Iftekhar taught painting to Ashok Kumar for which, Kumar always addressed Iftekhar as hid Painting Guru. Iftekhar's calibre as a painter was shown through the background paintings he drew for the credit sequence of Kishore Kumar's film Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein (1964).
Salma had a love marriage to Vipin Chandra Jain in 1964, who in turn came from a very rich family of Dehradun and who arrived in Mumbai to become a Hindi film actor. Jain's grandfather Rai Bahadur Ugrasen Jain had been a renowned entrepreneur and was the chairman of Dehradun Municipal Corporation. Post marriage, Salma went to Dehradun too where she taught English in a college. They had a son and a daughter but she eventually returned back to Mumbai in 1979. For the next 20 years, she worked as the secretary and manager of producer N. C. Sippy at his office. During one of her journeys to Pakistan where her father's family resided, she came across Saeeda, the woman Iftekhar was earlier engaged to during his Kanpur days. Through their warm conversation, it was revealed Saeeda ultimately remained unmarried.
Saeeda was married to M. I. Sheikh stayed at Juhu, Mumbai. He was a manager of CIAT Tyres and they had 2 children. Later, Saeeda was diagnosed with cancer and after 5 years of being diagnosed, she succumbed to the disease on 1 March 1995.
Unable to bear the loss of his younger daughter, his diabetes suddenly shot up high. He was admitted to Suchak Hospital, Malad (East) but his condition worsened and he died on 1 March 1995, 24 days after Saeeda's demise.
Selected filmography Hindi