Ratan Kumar
actor (1941-2016)

Ratan Kumar (19 March 1941 – 12 December 2016) was the screen name of the Indian born child artist who later migrated to Pakistan. He acted in Indian and Pakistani movies. He was born as Syed Nazir Ali Rizvi. He is best known for his work in films Boot Polish (1954), Do Bigha Zamin (1953) and Jagriti (1954).
Early life and career
Ratan Kumar was born as Syed Nazir Ali in 1941 in British India. He became the most-sought-after child-actor in India in the 1950s after his initial success in 1952.
After making the popular Indian movie Jagriti (1954), Ratan Kumar migrated to Pakistan in 1956, with his family, and remade the movie into Bedari (1957) (Urdu translation of Jagriti or awareness) and used the same old tune for a film song in Pakistan, aimed at igniting a similar emotion and patriotic zeal, among the listeners. Aao bachcho tumhe dikhayen jhaanki Hindustan ki... (come children let us show you glimpses of India), is a popular Hindi film song of the 1950s. Aao bachcho sair karayen tumko Pakistan ki...
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ratan Kumar” is actor (1941-2016). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ratan, Kumar and actor, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “actor (1941-2016)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28035443. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2016, 1954 and 1953.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ratan Kumar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.