Megastar Amitabh Bachchan on Sunday said the stage is desolated by the absence of artists of huge merit like Vikram Gokhale and Tabassum. Gokhale, known for several Marathi and Hindi films including the Bachchan-starrer “Agneepath” (1990), passed away on Saturday due to multi-organ failure at a Pune-based hospital where he was undergoing treatment. He was 77.
On the other hand, Tabassum, known for her work as a child artiste in several Hindi classics such as “Baiju Bawra” and “Mughal-e-Azam”, and also as host of the popular Doordarshan talk show “Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan”, died last week following cardiac arrest. She was 78.
Bachchan took to his blog to remember Gokhale and Tabassum. “The days are lined with sadness, friends and colleagues, artists of huge merit, leave us day by day and we listen, see and pray, Tabassum, Vikram Gokhle and some dear ones that are close and known. They came to us in our lives, they played their parts and left the stage empty forlorn and desolate by their absence(sic),” the veteran star wrote on his blog.
After “Agneepath”, Bachchan and Gokhale also co-starred in the 1992 film “Khuda Gawah”. In 2020, Bachchan played himself in the Marathi film “AB Ani CD” starring Gokhale. The duo played childhood friends in the Milind Lele directorial.
In a previous blog post, Bachchan had described Tabassum as an “effervescent” all-rounder. “they all leave us one by one and it is beyond comprehension you only recollect the times of their presence and life before the eyes and the mind and they ever remain an image of the time unchanged, unfettered and in the freedom of free and then they leave, and it cannot be fathomed.” he had written.
Meanwhile, Vikram Gokhale left all of us on November 26 (Saturday). The actor was hospitalised at Pune’s Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital for some time and now has succumbed to it after suffering from multiple organ failure.
He was the son of prominent Marathi theatre and cinema actor, Chandrakhant Gokhale. Other than starring in films, Gokhale was a brilliant director. He wore the director’s hat in 2010 with Marathi film “Aaghaat”. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor category for his Marathi film “Anumati” and was also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2011 for his Acting in Theatre.
