The quiet legend behind the laughter

He was more than just the comedian, a staple brought into the plot to invoke laughs. Govardhan Kumar Asrani was also the quiet character actor who was so much a part of the middle of the road movies that now epitomise a golden era in Hindi cinema.

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Asrani, 84, died on Diwali afternoon and was cremated quietly Monday evening, without any fanfare.

He will always be remembered as the jailor from Sholay whose loud, exaggerated persona evoked laughter and whose dialogue "Hum Angrezon ke zamane ke jailor hain" is quoted almost as if on loop 50 years later.

Asrani acted in more than 300 films over six decades. It was a lifetime of making movies, many roles forgettable and many that will stay on.