Refugee to romantic hero: Razzak’s road to fame

The king of heroes is dead -- this news made waves as 75-year-old Abdur Razzak breathed his last at a hospital in Dhaka.

Televisions aired live from Gulshan’s United Hospital, newspapers re-published past interviews and tributes poured in on social media on Monday. 

With more than 500 films as notches on his belt, he reigned supreme in Bangladesh’s entertainment industry for five decades.  

But the path to becoming Razzak aka Nayak Raj was long and hard.

Born in Kolkata on Jan 23 of 1942, Razzak lost his parents at a young age. The family lived in Naktola and young Razzak studied in Taliganj’s Khanpur High School.

There in seventh grade, he played a village boy, the central role in a school play for Saraswati Puja. He had then caught the eye of the famous Chabi Biswas.

Razzak had his mind set on being a film hero.  It was in college that he acted in his first film, Ratan Lal Bangali.

But the Kolkata film industry was not for him, dominated as it was by the likes of Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chattopadhyay. 

Razzak then spent some time studying film in Mumbai after travelling there in 1961, but returned to Kolkata to star in two films

Pangkatilak

and

Shilalipi

.

Fading next to Bangla film’s favourite heroes, and propelled by the horror of riots between Hindus and Muslims, Razzak came to Dhaka in 1964.

The film industry of erstwhile East Pakistan was growing, and Razzak thought it would provide a better opportunity. But still he struggled, then a married man, as money ran low and path to fame seemed fraught with challenges.

“I never forget my past. I came to this country as a refugee. I struggled. I starved. This was one of the reasons why I never craved for money. That never came and this is why I continue to live in peace,” he had told the BBC Bangla.

But Razzak acted without much effort, and his smile appeared infectious. And he became known for his acting in Pakistani television show Ghoroa.  

But he craved the big screen, and entered the East Pakistan film industry, first as an assistant for Mukh O Mukhosh Director Abdul Jabbar Khan.  He had been an assistant director for Ujala, directed by Kamal Ahmed.   

He then landed small roles in Tero Nambar Feku Ostagar Lane, Dakbabu and Akheri Station, an Urdu film.

Then came his big break. Director Zahir Raihan, who found both his face and speech attractive, casted him as Lokkhindar in 1966 Behula.

And from there, he never had to look back.

Total package

Razzak made his way to doing a dazzling array of films, creating his star persona opposite to heroines like Suchanda, Kabori, Babita, Shabana and Sujata.

He came to be known as the Nayak Raj or ‘King of heroes’, a title bestowed on him by Chitrali editor Ahmed Zaman Chowdhury in the 80s.

“Observe the sheer number of the movies Razzak played his many roles – leading man, father, lawyer, disillusioned young man – in,” wrote senior journalist Syed Badrul Ahsan in his tribute to the actor. 

“Not many, indeed no one else in Bangladesh has come close to him in a portrayal of the roles that were his.” 

And it was the post-independence scene in Bangladesh that allowed him to thrive, said Junaid Ahmed Halim, Chairman of the Department of Film and Television at Jagannath University. 

He played the angry young man in Rongbaz, a role widely hailed by his fans because of how it represented their social and political realities, he said.

He had improvised his persona to transform from a romance hero to a dark action film protagonist in Rongbaz.

For this researcher of film, Razzak was the lifeline of Dhaka-based films.

Bangla films, since their journey began in 1956, were met with stiff competition from Urdu films, which prompted directors like Zahir Raihan to make films in Urdu.

So Razzak’s emergence, with his elegant persona and speech, was an elixir for the Bangla movie industry.

He did not overact, nor was his style too grounded in realism, but something in between, which made it his very own.