How romantic, they always whispered under the breath! Most of them refused to see him in any other light! This November, his death anniversary makes us recall his other roles that he did aside from his chocolate hero image!

It’s really unfortunate that the actual brilliance of Waheed Murad which exuded in the roles he did that were not romantic, but people wanted him to speak in his overly emotional expression as a lover boy, and sing his best romantic songs, which he picturised to perfection. According to the fans, Waheed could not be imagined as a taxi wallah (Jaal), a mentally disturbed person (Tarana), a hardcore villain (Sheeshay ka Ghar), a careless ameerzadah (Bandagi & Izzat), an illiterate rickshaw driver (Waqt), a smuggler in a double role (Daulat Aur Dunya), and a professor of psychology (Aahat) etc.

In Fareed Ahmed’s Bandagi, for instance, Waheed Murad played a careless lady killer, living a luxurious life, and not caring a damn if his speedy vehicle killed a committed doctor, Talish, the father of Shabnam, his next interest. As he finds out that the lady doctor he is infatuated by is the daughter of the physician he killed accidentally, life slowly changes for him. Almost a carbon copy of a famous Hollywood movie, it did not do as well as its making deserved. On top of that, Waheed performed at his prime, as did others like Shabnam and S. M. Saleem. In Tarana, similarly, playing a lover, who turns into a psycho, when he is confused by the double role of Rani, Waheed Murad deserved a Nigar Award. Mostly, he was wasted in colour films, and people lost faith in him once he started ageing. They didn’t realise that he was being terribly frustrated by the net of globalisation tightening around him!