Harikrishan Giri Goswami, known professionally as Manoj Kumar, was born on 24 July 1937 and died on 4 April 2025. He was an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, lyricist and editor in Hindi cinema, noted for his patriotism-themed films. In a career of more than four decades he worked in 55 films. He received the Padma Shri in 1992 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2015, a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards.
He was born in Abbottabad, in what is now Pakistan, into a Punjabi Hindu (Saraswat Brahmin) family. When he was 10, his family migrated from the ancestral village of Jandiala Sher Khan to Delhi because of Partition. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Hindu College before turning to acting, and chose the name Manoj Kumar after Dilip Kumar’s character in the 1949 film Shabnam.
He made his debut in Fashion (1957) and played small parts in Sahara (1958), Chand (1959) and Honeymoon (1960) before his first leading role in Kaanch Ki Gudiya (1961). Most of those early films went unnoticed. His breakthrough was Vijay Bhatt’s Hariyali Aur Rasta (1962) opposite Mala Sinha, followed by Shaadi, Dr. Vidya, Grahasti and Phoolon Ki Sej, all of which did well. Raj Khosla’s mystery Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) was a blockbuster, with songs by Madan Mohan such as “Lag Jaa Gale” sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
His rise to stardom began in 1965 with the patriotic drama Shaheed, based on the life of the revolutionary Bhagat Singh. It drew highly positive responses from critics and from the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and was a box-office success. He then appeared in Himalay Ki God Mein and Gumnaam, and in 1966 in Do Badan with Asha Parekh and Sawan Ki Ghata with Sharmila Tagore.
After the 1965 war with Pakistan, Shastri asked him to make a film on the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”. The result was his directorial debut, Upkar (1967), which opened to critical acclaim and became the third-highest-grossing Hindi film up to then, behind Mughal-e-Azam and Sangam. The song “Mere Desh Ki Dharti” is played often on Republic Day and Independence Day. Upkar won him the National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film and his first Filmfare Award for Best Director.
Neel Kamal (1968), with Raaj Kumar and Waheeda Rehman, was the third-highest-grossing film of that year, and Sajan (1969) ranked tenth. Purab Aur Paschim (1970) gained recognition in India and overseas and ran for more than 50 weeks in London, earning £285,000. He played a supporting role in Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker (1970), and for Be-Imaan (1972) he received his first and only Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
He directed and acted in Shor (1972) and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974), the latter a blockbuster whose album, composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal, became the fifth best-selling Hindi film album of the 1970s. Sanyasi (1975) ranked third at the box office that year, and in 1981 he directed and acted in the historical drama Kranti, with Dilip Kumar and Hema Malini. His later films failed, and he retired from acting after Maidan-E-Jung (1995). In 1999 he directed his son Kunal Goswami in Jai Hind, which failed at the box office.
Featured image: Manoj Kumar, actor and director (file photo, 2009). Photo by Graphikamaal, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
