Remembering Dadamoni

With Amol Palekar

At Nandan yesterday was the inaugural function to celebrate the Birth Centenary year of late actor, singer, painter and producer Ashok Kumar who was also fondly known as Dadamoni.

An evergreen personality of Indian cinema or Bollywood, Ashok Kumar attained iconic status in his career that spanned over six decades. 

He was closely associated with Bombay Talkies and was honoured by the Dada Saheb Phalke Award and Padma Bhushan by the government.

With Anuradha Patel

This year being the Birth Centenary year of the thespian, Nandan and Tapan Sinha Foundation organized a three-day function `Ashok Kumar: His Light Years’ in collaboration with Prabha Khaitan Foundation.

Renowned actor Amol Palekar, who co-starred with the legend in the movie Chhoti Si Baat, was the chief guest at the inaugural function on March 27^th 2012.

Director Basu Chatterjee (picture) was the Guest of Honour along with Moushumi Chatterjee, who featured with Dadamoni in the film Anuraag.

The family members who came down for the occasion from Mumbai included his daughter Bharati Jaffrey, granddaughter Anuradha Patel and niece Ratna Mukherjee, who was seen in a song sequence in Parineeta for which her father Arun Mukherjee had given the music.

With the family members of Ashok Kumar (Dadamoni)

I missed the function because of some prior engagements but I hosted the inaugural dinner to mark the celebrations at The Conclave. Renowned actor Amol Palekar, Director Basu Chatterjee, Ashok Kumar’s daughter Bharati Jaffrey, granddaughter Anuradha Patel and niece Ratna Mukherjee and many other celebrities from all walks of life attended the dinner.

With Alaque Padamsee

Today evening I will go the Lalbazar for a meeting with the Commissioner of Police, R K Panchnanda, Telegraph Metro Editor, Sumit Dasgupta, and others as there is a plan to start a new project for putting in place a Helpline for women in need or something on those lines. There is an initiative called Safe City while the new project would be taken up by The Bengal.

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