Dara Singh was my hero — and my father’s and grandfather’s before me. He was the man who could play tug of war with a plane and win. He wrestled elephants, tigers, gorillas and men much bigger than his six feet two frame and still won. It all felt real because of his imposing physique, for he was as broad as he was tall. The re-runs of his old action films were watched with much gusto by all the men in my family. And I suspect it’s true of most Indian households.
Much before WWF (World Wrestling Federation) hit our shores — there was Dara Singh. Much before the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone phenomena took root in India — there was Dara Singh. He was a one-man institution, who had reportedly remained undefeated in 500 bouts worldwide. His fights were attended in large numbers by the masses and he took to organising huge popular wrestling challenges both in India and abroad. If Dilip Kumar ruled the classes, Dara Singh ruled the masses. He was the star of the working class — the mill workers and the farmers — people who keenly followed wrestling and longed to see their hero bash up the bad guys and surmount improbable odds.
He was an ideal even for Dharmendra, who was able to take off his shirt on screen because Dara Singh paved the way. When Manmohan Desai made Mard, he could think of no one else but Dara Singh to play Amitabh Bachchan’s father, because Desai felt Singh was the epitome of mardangi (manliness). One sees him carving ‘mard’ on the chest of his infant son with a sharp knife and for once, you don’t want to call child support. It doesn’t look silly. It feels like something rugged men would do.
Born in 1928 to Balwant Kaur and Surat Singh Randhawa in Dharmoochak village in Amritsar, Punjab, Dara Singh took up wrestling thanks to his gargantuan physique. He forayed into the international arena and took on world class wrestlers like Lou Thesz and Stanislaus Zbyszko. He won the Professional Indian Wrestling Championship in 1953, and bagged the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship trophy in 1959 by defeating Canadian wrestler George Godianko. He was an active wrestler till 1983 and won titles like Rustam-E-Punjab (1966) and Rustam-E-Hind (1978). He was initiated into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996.
He was the only wrestler who made a successful transition from the akhara to films. Before making his debut as the leading man in King Kong (1962), he did cameos in films like Sangdil (1952), Pehli Jhalak (1955) and Jagga Daku (1959). Like Schwarzenegger, he was known more for his brawn than acting chops and made the masses sit up and take notice in films like Rustam-E-Baghdad (1963), Faulad (1963), Hercules (1964), Tarzan Dilli Mein (1965), Sikander-E-Azam (1965), Rustom-E-Hind (1965) and Boxer (1965), among others. During his heyday, he teamed up with Mumtaz in 16 films, including, Aandhi Aur Toofan (1964), Veer Bhimsen (1964), Raaka (1965), Jawan Mard (1966) and Daku Mangal Singh (1966).
After 1970, he forayed into direction and directed six films in Hindi and Punjabi including Nanak Dukhiya Sab Sansar (1970), Mera Desh Mera Dharam (1973), Bhakti Mein Shakti (1978) and Rustom (1982). He also built an all-purpose studio called Dara Studios in 1978 at Mohali, Punjab.
From playing a leading man, he took to doing character roles playing friend or brother of the hero. His only criterion was that he wouldn’t play a villain. One remembers him as a genial pehelwan who helps Rajesh Khanna beat up the baddies in Anand (1971). One of his most memorable appearances of late was in Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met (2007), where he played Kareena Kapoor’s all-knowing grandfather. He took to TV in his later years and became hugely popular playing Hanuman (a role he made famous in mythological films) in Ramanand Sagar’s mega serial Ramayan.
The 83-year old actor was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai on July 7, following a cardiac arrest. He was put on life support and his family took him home in the late hours of July 11, as there was little chance of recovery. He passed away around 7.30 in the morning at his residence.
Dara Singh has a son Parduman Singh Randhawa from his first marriage and five children — two sons and three daughters from his second. His son Vindoo, followed his footsteps in both the wrestling and the acting worlds but wasn’t as successful.
Millions of diehard fans worldwide, crazy about his brand of machismo, mourned his passing. He will be sorely missed, because God has stopped making gentle giants like him…
