Birth anniversary of Ashok Kumar celebrated

MUMBAI: The 100th birth anniversary of actor, singer, producer Ashok Kumar was celebrated recently in Kolkata under the title of ‘Ashok Kumar: His Light Years’ presented in collaboration with Nandan.

The celebration, that started with the screening of Howrah Bridge, also included films like Bimal Roy-directed Parineeta, Shakti Samanta’s Anurag, Chotisi Baat, Tapan Sinha’s Haatey Bazaarey and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Aashirwad.`

Renowned actor Amol Palekar, who co-starred with the legend in Chotisi Baat, said, “I have worked very closely with Ashok Kumar and it‘s a privilege to be here during his birth anniversary.”

Dadamoni, as he was lovingly known, was represented by his daughter Bharati Jaffrey and granddaughter Anooradha Patel.

Also spotted on the occasion were Basu Chatterjee, Roopa Ganguly, Arindam Sil, Kaushik Ganguly, Nilaanjjana, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Gargi Roychowdhury, and Alyque Padamsee. A band entertained all by playing instrumental hits of Ashok Kumar.

Ashok Kumar was born on 13 October 1911 and he expired on 10 December 2001.