Ratan Kumar

Ratan Kumar Biography

Ratan Kumar was a very popular child artist of Bollywood in the 1950s who played lead role in several box office hits of the time. He shot to fame with a series of memorable roles in Bollywood classics such as Boot Polish (1954), Do Bigha Zamin (1953) and Jagriti (1954), widely regarded as timeless classics of Bollywood all time. In fact he played lead role in Boot Polish and Jagriti, and played one among the kids of Balraj Sahni in Do Bhigha Zamin. He was the most sought child artist of Bollywood cinema in the 1950s. He played various roles in Hindi and Pakistani films, and continued with his acting in Pakistani movies. He passed away in 2016 December aged 75.

His real name is Syed Nazir Ali. He was born in the year 1941. He lived in India till 1956, and after that got migrated to Pakistan. He was first seen in a brief role at the age of 5 for Raakh. He started off his career as a child artist in the year 1952 with Bollywood classic hit, Baiju Bawra playing the childhood role of the lead actor Bharat Bhushan. It was only a brief role. The following year he played a memorable role in one of the best Bollywood films ever - Do Bigha Zamin as Balraj Sahni’s son. His touching role as Kanhaiya Maheto who strives hard to earn money for his family to save their land was enough to bring tears to viewers’ eyes.

He continued with similar kind of role, Bhola Bhandari in Boot Polish the following year. He represented the agonies of lower class people in both these movies. Same year he acted in two more movies – Angarey and Jagriti, and Jagriti – his final released film in Bollywood remains a milestone movie of his acting career. The patriotic song, Aao Bachon Tumhe Sunaoo belongs to this film. When he migrated to Pakistan, the movie was remade to Pakistani, and Ratan reprised his role.

In 1959, he marked his debut as an adult actor through Pakistani film Nagin. But later his films flopped one after the other. In an accident happened in Lahore in 1977, he lost his daughter, and left film industry after that. In 1979 he moved to US and got permanently settled there.  In the late 1960s, Ratan Kumar also got into the business of selling oriental carpets and succeeded in his business. He passed away at the age of 75, in a hospital in California in 2016.

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Updated: February 09, 2018