I classified him as a great character actor who gained insights into human nature from the time he worked as a BEST conductor. Johnny Walker must have understood the spirit of the city and was thus able to bring it out wonderfully in the song sequence in CID, Eh dil mushkil hai jeena yahan, zara hatke zara bachke, yeh hai Bambai meri jaan. It was so easy for him to play a tel maalishwala of the city in Pyasa, singing Tel maalish, champee...

When I met him, Johnny was living in contented retirement, his three sons and three daughters well-settled. Appearing in TV serials did not interest him. But in 1997, he was persuaded to make a comeback in Kamalahasan’s Chachi 420 and performed brilliantly as a boozing make-up man.

He lamented the near-disappearance of comedy and laughter from Hindi cinema because of the absence of genuine comedians. "Where are they?" he queried. "Genuinely talented comedians would have stood up to the multiple heroes in multi-starrers. Was I ever eclipsed by any top-ranking hero in my long career?" he asked. Another problem, he felt, was the scarcity of good scripts focusing on comedy and directors who could exploit the comic muse.

Johnny Walker worked under stalwart directors like Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla, B. R. Chopra, Vijay Anand and others. They used to be in total control of their shooting schedules. Actors, whether needed for the day’s shooting or not, had to be on their seats at 9 am. Only Dilip Kumar was allowed to arrive at 11 am, but he did not leave till the day’s work was over. "But today, the directors’ powers have been eroded," he pointed out. "They can’t exert authority over the dance director, the fight director and so on."

Making people smile and laugh needed special skills. As the son of an Indore mill worker, Johnny Walker came to Mumbai to support a family of 15 and worked for some time as a conductor with BEST, based at Dadar. But his ultimate aim was to play comic roles in films. He closely watched his passengers, trying to discover what made people laugh. Frequent visits to film sets and studios provided him with bit roles in about 20 films, before he was discovered by director Guru Dutt, who was impressed with his impersonation of a drunkard. Beginning with Baazi, the pair’s association continued for about a dozen films.

Recognising the special genius of Johnny Walker, Dutt and later other directors, featured him in solo song sequences which became famous. "Guru Dutt had a flair for comic sequences and I fitted in nicely with his line of thinking," recollected Johnny Walker. "I must not forget the dialogue writers who provided me with excellent punchlines or the music directors who created tunes for songs featuring me." Films like Mr Quartoon MA, Chhoo Mantar, etc, which featured him as the hero, had dozens of hummable numbers. Romantic scenes with actresses like Shyama were clean fun.

Unlike his contemporary Mehmood, Johnny Walker’s gestures were never crude—-no lifting of the dhoti, no lewd double-meaning dialogues, no pawing at the supporting actresses. Indian cinema was not then known for realistic, natural comedy. Yet, Johnny Walker was able to produce that something extra which made his roles seem natural. His role as a journalist in Naya Daur was initially not well-defined. But Johnny Walker shone in it. "I realised the significance of the film, the hero wanted to prove to the villagers that man was superior to machine. Under the guidance of director B. R. Chopra, I interpreted the role of the city journalist to lend it some kind of realism."

Three hundred films, adulation, a happy family. There was nothing more to achieve. As comic roles in the 1980s began to get more vulgar, Johnny Walker retired gracefully. He sold his Bandra bungalow, settled down in Oshiwara and grew fruit trees in his garden. In the 1980s, he thought of producing a film but was disappointed at the response from his friends in the industry. They demanded huge sums, would not give him dates. He quickly abandoned the idea. Health permitting, he performed in charity shows at home and abroad without charging money.

Bob Hope was a comedian both in real life and reel life and on stage. But Johnny Walker rarely opened up off-screen and remained a private person. During my meetings with him, we just discussed jamun trees and drank tea. It was hard to believe that this was the man who raised a million laughs on screen!