Junior Mehmood, whose puckish screen presence and carefree dance moves propelled him to stardom as a child actor in Hindi films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, passed away in Mumbai last week. He was 67. “My father passed away at 2 am following his battle with stomach cancer. He was in a critical condition for the last 17 days and had lost 35-40 kg in a month,” his younger son Hasnain Sayyed said. The actor’s career spanned over 150 films in four decades but he is best remembered in ‘Brahmachari’ (1968), ‘Do Raaste’ (1969), ‘Aan Milo Sajna’ (1970), and ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ (1971).
Junior Mehmood (real name: Naeem Sayyed) emerged in the 1960s. The Bombay-born son of a railway engine driver was first noticed in Jeetendra’s ‘Suhaag Raat’ (1968). The film also starred top comic Mehmood, who took the child actor under his wings and gave him a catchy trade name, Junior Mehmood. The young performer stood out from the pack with his innate sense of rhythm and a sharp comic timing. The audience fell in love with him in Shammi Kapoor’s ‘Brahmachari’ where he mimicked and reprised his ustad’s famous lungi dance from the 1965 film, ‘Gumnaam’, ‘Hum kale hain to kya hua dilwale hain.’